DIY Locking hinged cargo cover
05-05-2012, 08:53 AM
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DIY Locking hinged cargo cover
I've been lurking here for many moons, and admiring all of your amazing projects. The first one I thought I'd tackle and share is my take on the cargo covers. I wanted a neat and clean look, so following many of the threads on these gave me direction there (outdoor carpet, fitting around rollbars, etc). I have a soft top, so I just used the hardtop deck rails for mounting - soft top goes right over it no problem - and I absolutely wanted the deck lid hinged.
The hinge requirement created a bit problem for me, since I also wanted it 'lockable' for obvious reasons. After many hours of thought, testing, and wandering the aisles at lowes, I came upon a solution, so I bought my parts and got started.
I cut the deck in 4 parts out of 5/8ths plywood. *There's a main panel, which goes against the rear seats, the soon-to-be-hinged panel, and 2 'filler' pieces for the corners. *It's a little hard to tell in this pic, but I attached two pieces of 3/4" square aluminum tubing to the main deck to support the hinged and corner panels. *You can make out the line of self tapping screws I used to anchor it, and the hinged panel is resting on the tubing in the pic.
I drilled holes through the main and corner panels that line up with the existing hard-top mounting holes, and test-fitted everything several times before gluing the carpet on. The carpet was cut from an $18 roll of outdoor carpeting from lowes - I was very happy with the color and look of it!
Here you can see how the deck is attached - I used eye-bolts with large washers and nuts on both the top and bottom side. As you can see, the eye bolts make great tie-down points.
Ahh, I haven't finished gluing the carpet around the rear lip of the deck yet, since I'm debating adding a little lip that will go under the rear-window crossbar and butt up against the door. There's only a small gap there now, but *I know* it's there, so it bugs...
You can see that with the hinged panel back there is a lot more access to the back for getting groceries and junk in and out. *Oh yeah, it *just* clears my 37L ARB fridge if I take the 'secret compartment' cover out. *You can also see the aluminum tubing here that supports the decklid when it's closed.
Now for the locking trick. You see the eye bolt sticking up from the hinged panel in the pic above? I put a threaded collar in the panel and screwed the eyebolt in to that, with a nut on it to 'lock' it in place.
Eye bolt, meet gate pin.
This is a pin from a $5 gate latch set - I threw out the latch because I only wanted the pin. I used a persuader (32oz hammer) to get the right angle on it, and attached it to the tailgate with self tapping screws. Ahh, important note - do this part before drilling out the hole for the eye bolt to go in, or you'll have a heck of a time lining things up.
When the gate is closed, the pin anchors the hinged panel down with the eye-bolt, and voila! locking deck lid.
Here you can see the piano hinge I used. I installed it before carpeting, and overlapped the 2 panels of carpet over it when gluing them on (glued right up to the hinge, but not on the part with the pin). Once the glue dried, I ran the carpet knife down each side of the hinge to take off the excess and it came out looking pretty good.
As for strength, that's a pair of 60lb firewalls sitting on it in the first pic, so I imagine it'll hold up to most things I'd care to put up there.
The hinge requirement created a bit problem for me, since I also wanted it 'lockable' for obvious reasons. After many hours of thought, testing, and wandering the aisles at lowes, I came upon a solution, so I bought my parts and got started.
I cut the deck in 4 parts out of 5/8ths plywood. *There's a main panel, which goes against the rear seats, the soon-to-be-hinged panel, and 2 'filler' pieces for the corners. *It's a little hard to tell in this pic, but I attached two pieces of 3/4" square aluminum tubing to the main deck to support the hinged and corner panels. *You can make out the line of self tapping screws I used to anchor it, and the hinged panel is resting on the tubing in the pic.
I drilled holes through the main and corner panels that line up with the existing hard-top mounting holes, and test-fitted everything several times before gluing the carpet on. The carpet was cut from an $18 roll of outdoor carpeting from lowes - I was very happy with the color and look of it!
Here you can see how the deck is attached - I used eye-bolts with large washers and nuts on both the top and bottom side. As you can see, the eye bolts make great tie-down points.
Ahh, I haven't finished gluing the carpet around the rear lip of the deck yet, since I'm debating adding a little lip that will go under the rear-window crossbar and butt up against the door. There's only a small gap there now, but *I know* it's there, so it bugs...
You can see that with the hinged panel back there is a lot more access to the back for getting groceries and junk in and out. *Oh yeah, it *just* clears my 37L ARB fridge if I take the 'secret compartment' cover out. *You can also see the aluminum tubing here that supports the decklid when it's closed.
Now for the locking trick. You see the eye bolt sticking up from the hinged panel in the pic above? I put a threaded collar in the panel and screwed the eyebolt in to that, with a nut on it to 'lock' it in place.
Eye bolt, meet gate pin.
This is a pin from a $5 gate latch set - I threw out the latch because I only wanted the pin. I used a persuader (32oz hammer) to get the right angle on it, and attached it to the tailgate with self tapping screws. Ahh, important note - do this part before drilling out the hole for the eye bolt to go in, or you'll have a heck of a time lining things up.
When the gate is closed, the pin anchors the hinged panel down with the eye-bolt, and voila! locking deck lid.
Here you can see the piano hinge I used. I installed it before carpeting, and overlapped the 2 panels of carpet over it when gluing them on (glued right up to the hinge, but not on the part with the pin). Once the glue dried, I ran the carpet knife down each side of the hinge to take off the excess and it came out looking pretty good.
As for strength, that's a pair of 60lb firewalls sitting on it in the first pic, so I imagine it'll hold up to most things I'd care to put up there.
05-08-2012, 06:52 PM
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This is a great start, was just thinking about this myself after seeing a few in person. I wondered if you had any thoughts about some things and why you may have decided to go the route above instead.
1. A larger opening area, placing the hinge further back closer to the seats
2. A latch on the underside that can be slide locked, kind of like what you get in bathroom stalls
I can see that with the way you've set yours up with about a half size opening lid, you are able to fold it back flat basically which is nice and not something you could achieve with a larger opening. The latch part I never would have thought of the way you're doing it, which is probably more solid. I don't know that I like having the peg sticking off the gate when it's open or when I don't have the shelf on which is one reason I was thinking the sliding latch is nice and easy to operate as well and requires no permanent changes to the tailgate.
Was there anything else you thought about doing but then thought it wouldn't work or might be a bad idea?
1. A larger opening area, placing the hinge further back closer to the seats
2. A latch on the underside that can be slide locked, kind of like what you get in bathroom stalls
I can see that with the way you've set yours up with about a half size opening lid, you are able to fold it back flat basically which is nice and not something you could achieve with a larger opening. The latch part I never would have thought of the way you're doing it, which is probably more solid. I don't know that I like having the peg sticking off the gate when it's open or when I don't have the shelf on which is one reason I was thinking the sliding latch is nice and easy to operate as well and requires no permanent changes to the tailgate.
Was there anything else you thought about doing but then thought it wouldn't work or might be a bad idea?
05-10-2012, 07:52 AM
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1. A larger opening area, placing the hinge further back closer to the seats
2. A latch on the underside that can be slide locked, kind of like what you get in bathroom stalls
I can see that with the way you've set yours up with about a half size opening lid, you are able to fold it back flat basically which is nice and not something you could achieve with a larger opening. The latch part I never would have thought of the way you're doing it, which is probably more solid. I don't know that I like having the peg sticking off the gate when it's open or when I don't have the shelf on which is one reason I was thinking the sliding latch is nice and easy to operate as well and requires no permanent changes to the tailgate.
Was there anything else you thought about doing but then thought it wouldn't work or might be a bad idea?
2. That was my original plan, but not a pin latch, as I wanted it quick and easy. Pin latches a) rattle, and b) require some work to align/rotate/etc, whereas this doesn't. I actually had a paddle style screen door latch in my shopping cart when I came up with this brainstorm. The screen door latch would just require reaching under the lid and pushing the paddle up. OTOH, it was more expensive, would require some wierd mounting (to clear the support bar), and would be prone to accidental triggering if I really loaded the back up.
If you're thinking of doing a lid that's hinged all the way back at the seats, you'd have to modify this design quite a bit. The fixed platform provieds all of the lateral support for the deck by being anchored to both sides of the jeep. Take that away and you'll probably need to build some supports underneath, which I wanted to avoid to save the space.
05-10-2012, 09:47 AM
#7
Great Job
This seems like a worthy mod for the wish list.
QUESTIONS
1) How did you know how to cut the wood panels. Did you make a cardboard template or something? Also what did you use to cut the wood for the nice smooth curves.
2) self tapping screws for the gate latch - I have never used these, but I take it that you make a very small pilot hole and then these screw in and don't require a nut. Is it solid mounted right there or is there any wiggle in the metal if you push/pull on it.
3) Is there another write-up that you used on this site for inspiration that is worth checking out.
QUESTIONS
1) How did you know how to cut the wood panels. Did you make a cardboard template or something? Also what did you use to cut the wood for the nice smooth curves.
2) self tapping screws for the gate latch - I have never used these, but I take it that you make a very small pilot hole and then these screw in and don't require a nut. Is it solid mounted right there or is there any wiggle in the metal if you push/pull on it.
3) Is there another write-up that you used on this site for inspiration that is worth checking out.
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05-11-2012, 10:25 AM
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1. After it was finished I realized that I totally could have gone for a deeper opening. I kinda did it freehand, and this is what came out. I would only go a few extra inches though, as if you go past the rollbar/seatbelt retractor you will have to have extra 'loose' pieces of wood to fully surround the rollbar.
2. That was my original plan, but not a pin latch, as I wanted it quick and easy. Pin latches a) rattle, and b) require some work to align/rotate/etc, whereas this doesn't. I actually had a paddle style screen door latch in my shopping cart when I came up with this brainstorm. The screen door latch would just require reaching under the lid and pushing the paddle up. OTOH, it was more expensive, would require some wierd mounting (to clear the support bar), and would be prone to accidental triggering if I really loaded the back up.
If you're thinking of doing a lid that's hinged all the way back at the seats, you'd have to modify this design quite a bit. The fixed platform provieds all of the lateral support for the deck by being anchored to both sides of the jeep. Take that away and you'll probably need to build some supports underneath, which I wanted to avoid to save the space.
2. That was my original plan, but not a pin latch, as I wanted it quick and easy. Pin latches a) rattle, and b) require some work to align/rotate/etc, whereas this doesn't. I actually had a paddle style screen door latch in my shopping cart when I came up with this brainstorm. The screen door latch would just require reaching under the lid and pushing the paddle up. OTOH, it was more expensive, would require some wierd mounting (to clear the support bar), and would be prone to accidental triggering if I really loaded the back up.
If you're thinking of doing a lid that's hinged all the way back at the seats, you'd have to modify this design quite a bit. The fixed platform provieds all of the lateral support for the deck by being anchored to both sides of the jeep. Take that away and you'll probably need to build some supports underneath, which I wanted to avoid to save the space.
right now it just falls through haha I screwed up the cut around the roll bar so there is a gap but nothing I'm worried about yet, will probably either take another stab at it or find a solution that seals nicer against the roll bar anyway. I have a 2012 so it's one odd shapped plastic covering instead of a plastic covering and the raw bar. I used a router to shave and trim the little corner pieces to fit around this but they aren't the smoothest lines, not too worried as I do want to cover with carpeting.Speaking of which, where did you get your carpet and what adhesive did you use? I suspect it's stuff I can get at Home Depot/Lowes but not sure what might be best to hold it smoothly.
I'll try to remember to take some pics once done to add to the thread, thanks so much for the ideas!
05-14-2012, 04:33 AM
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Nice work! I like the look of this. I've been wanting to get a tuffy security deck but don't have the money for it right now. This looks like a good alternative. I may have to make myself one.
The only problem I see is that folding the seat will give someone access to the 'locking' comparment. I'm sure another piece of plywood and some creative mounting could fix that though.
The only problem I see is that folding the seat will give someone access to the 'locking' comparment. I'm sure another piece of plywood and some creative mounting could fix that though.
05-31-2012, 06:38 AM
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Originally Posted by greggnj
Nice work! I like the look of this. I've been wanting to get a tuffy security deck but don't have the money for it right now. This looks like a good alternative. I may have to make myself one.
The only problem I see is that folding the seat will give someone access to the 'locking' comparment. I'm sure another piece of plywood and some creative mounting could fix that though.
The only problem I see is that folding the seat will give someone access to the 'locking' comparment. I'm sure another piece of plywood and some creative mounting could fix that though.
If I didn't have those in I'd have put another sheet of plywood in to fix that, but the child seats make it impossible to tilt the seat without removing them, and you can't remove them without opening the hatch to get at the rear anchors. Made for a nice time saver on my part.