Fitting a Milford cargo barrier

Ratbag

Ratbag

Administrator
Joined
Jan 1, 2012
Messages
7,474
Location
Bayside, Melbourne, Vic
Car Year
MY06, MY10
Car Model
Forester SG & SH
Transmission
5MT/DR & 4EAT Sports
Gidday All

Finally got around to finding out the cost of fitting my Milford cargo barrier in the SG (the SH has the fixing points, but no cargo barrier).

Milford want $160 for the body fittings!
Apparently, they only sell the kit with everything except the bare barrier. The barrier I already have has everything except the actual body attachment points ...

Then the real killer: The fitter quoted me $250 to fit it!!

Both costs need to have GST added, of course; so a total of about $450 to install a cargo barrier I already own! :( :eek:

Another cargo barrier maker quoted me $575 installed (incl. GST) for a brand new barrier!!

So, I need an expert to give me the drum on how to fit the cargo barrier I have into my 2006 SG. The barrier I have is the type that is fixable either behind the back seats or moved to behind the front seats.

Any and all help greatly appreciated.
 
Sounds like I have the same one as you Ratbag, where it can be fitted in one of 2 positions.

Unfortunately I can't help you with the fitting, as I had the dealer do it when I bought my Forry new.

Just make sure when they put the fitting connections in for the frontal position (top near the handle) they take extreme care.
There's not much support in there & it can (will) sag over time, due to the weight of the barrier. Just remember that it's only resting on the seats padding.

I know this may be a stupid question, but I take it that you don't have the rear curtain airbags ??

Regards
Mr Turbo
 
Gidday Mr T

mr turbo said:
Sounds like I have the same one as you Ratbag, where it can be fitted in one of 2 positions.

Unfortunately I can't help you with the fitting, as I had the dealer do it when I bought my Forry new.

Just make sure when they put the fitting connections in for the frontal position (top near the handle) they take extreme care.
There's not much support in there & it can (will) sag over time, due to the weight of the barrier. Just remember that it's only resting on the seats padding.
Click to expand...

Good advice. At these prices, I think that I will be fitting it myself!

I know this may be a stupid question, but I take it that you don't have the rear curtain airbags ??

Regards
Mr Turbo
Click to expand...

Nah. SWMBO's SH has the side curtain airbags (F+R). Mine only protects me and anyone else in the front of the car ... :raspberry: :poke:
 
Gidday Lefty

I am sure that I have registered at OzFoz, but cannot remember my password or login email addy. I have some 40+ email addresses for one reason and another. My filing "system" is just that ...

Looking for a registration email ATM. This takes a while, as I have well over 20,000 items in my email inbox ...

Any chance of a copy and paste into this thread in the meantime?
 
G'day again Lefty

(Re-)registered at OzFoz, and have had a quick look at that thread.

I had already sussed out that those baby capsule tie points in the roof are seriously strong, and a possible candidate. Hadn't thought of the tie-down points at the bottom/sides of the cargo area (DOH!!).

That is all well within my current ability to fabricate. I would probably just run one strap from each of the side roof tie points to the top of the barrier. Simpler, and should be stronger.

As the barrier itself is only good for 60 Kgs, I reckon a couple of bits of moderate hard or half-hard alloy bar should do the trick. Half-hard would be easier to bend to shape at the ends.

I then intend to replace the cargo blind with what I made for Roo1. That was a 7 ply shelf hinged at about the middle with a piano hinge. Reinforced along the front and rear edges with aluminium channel. Covered it with upholstery vinyl. Attach a couple of strings to the hatch, and the rear half lifts automatically when the hatch is opened :cool: :biggrin:.

I have had 2 x 20 Kg bags of pool salt on it without it bending more than nominally ...

Will try to upload some piccies of it tomorrow.
 
Yep i used the 2 side points becsaue i have a baby seat in the middle. I also did what Goobs did and removed the mesh from the bottom section so i could pack long things like fishing rods
 
Ratbag said:
I then intend to replace the cargo blind with what I made for Roo1. That was a 7 ply shelf hinged at about the middle with a piano hinge. Reinforced along the front and rear edges with aluminium channel. Covered it with upholstery vinyl. Attach a couple of strings to the hatch, and the rear half lifts automatically when the hatch is opened :cool: :biggrin:.

I have had 2 x 20 Kg bags of pool salt on it without it bending more than nominally ...

Will try to upload some piccies of it tomorrow.
Click to expand...

So much for good intentions. A nice migraine can ruin your whole day ...

iTool said:
Ouch. I got lucky - previous owner must have had one fitted so rear mounting points were already in. I then scored a barrier off ebay for $50 :bananatoast:
Click to expand...

Well done :).
SWMBO's SH came with the Milford mounting points, but with no cargo barrier. I have the barrier, but no mounting points ... :(

lefty said:
Yep i used the 2 side points becsaue i have a baby seat in the middle. I also did what Goobs did and removed the mesh from the bottom section so i could pack long things like fishing rods
Click to expand...

Thanks for that info, mate. I have the roof bars and trailer for all that, so will leave the barrier as is. What might be interesting to consider is to design the attachments to the barrier such that it can be swivelled out of the way if necessary.
 
I ended up finding my cargo barrier mounting kit from a car at the wreckers. Saved me a ridiculous amount of money.
 
An update ... :lol:.

I have discovered the baby capsule tie down points at the back of the rear seat squab. I have removed the two bolts holding the seat squab in place, and the seat squab. Disassembled the arms and legs on the barrier.

Mounting the barrier to these points appears almost ridiculously easy - i.e. it will only be hard for me ... :poke: :raz:.

The good part is that the barrier should be able to be moved to behind the front seats, if needed, using the (previously) attached long legs at the bottom, and some newly fabricated ones for the top.

As NL correctly realised, the barrier I have is actually for an SF. It fits fine in the SG. There is no more vacant space around the edges than there is with the SH barrier that I have fitted to SWMBO's SH.

Hopefully (weather permitting ... ), I will make a start on the bottom brackets over the next couple of days.

Once they are in place, measuring and bending the top brackets will be reasonably straight forward. Once these are made and fitted, I will make the extension 'legs' for the top.

When I have the cargo barrier located firmly and properly, I can then start making the bracket for attaching the front of the shelf to the cargo barrier. After this, I will make a cardboard template for the shelf itself, prior to attacking the piece of 9 mm marine ply I have in the garage for the purpose.

Some progress, rather than none ...
 
I fitted a cargo barrier to a 06 xt using the middle anchor point and a couple of brackets at the bottom. It works fine.
I will try get a better picture showing the mount to the anchor point.



 
Gidday Teflon

That's a neat solution. I like the way that you have prised the collars off the top and re-used them at the bottom.

I am planning to use them at the top, but your idea has changed how I will do that ... :ebiggrin:.

I really don't think that it is necessary for the barrier to be welded into the car, as it were ... Let's face it, I don't plan on carrying a couple of cubic feet of lead in the back of my car ... :rotfl:.

I also note that you have removed the bottom bolt brackets. I am planning to use mine to attach the barrier (through the carpet gusset) to the child safety restraint points near the rear seat back mounting points. The latter are so strong, that I don't think the barrier could force them out of the way, no matter what. When travelling, I always unlock the back of the rear seats and fold them upright. I then lock the seatbelts over the seat backs to stop them moving forward.

As I mentioned before, with how I am planning to do mine, it will still be moveable to behind the front seats. While I don't think I will do this very often, it could be useful to have the facility to do it. In this position, it might need the extra stability provided by having two mounting arms at the top of the barrier.

Thanks for your contribution. I look forward to seeing some photos of the upper rear attachment to the safety seat mounting point, and also one or two of the connection to the tie-down points behind the rear seats.
 
^ A further question.

How did you attach the upper bracket to the rear safety seat anchor?

I have just spent a fruitless 1.5 hours trying to get the flaming cover out of the head liner in mine ... :mad: :yell:.

With attaching the bottom to the cargo area tie-down points, how did you get at the bolts holding them in? Seems to me that one has to either butcher the styrofoam packing around them, or remove the long cover and the packing foam just behind the bottom of the rear seat back to get at the bolts. Neither seems to want to remove easily!!
 
I've added some pictures showing the mounts.
For the mount to the anchor point I used a bolt in child restraint fitting and welded a short bit of rod through it then drilled a hole to fit an R-clip.
I used a bit of rubber hose around the rod to push against and prevent rattles.





For the lower mount I bent up one of the brackets from the cargo barrier and bolted it to the tie down point at the bottom. I think trimmed the foam and carpet a little to get the bolt in. I did this a few years back.

Hope this pic helps.

 
Thanks heaps for that, Teflon ... :biggrin:.

I will look at this again, maybe tomorrow.
 
Ratbag,

The way I did mine was to bend the end of the strap to match the angle of the child restraint (I think there was also two bends to clear the headlining) and then put a high tensile bolt through the child restraint through the strap use a couple of waters and a nyloc. You can get a spanner in there to hold the bolt - it may need to be a ring spanner with the step in the end.

I used 2 child restrains so then in the event of an accident the barrier didn't twist.

IIRC it was a bit of a job with small fingers but would not have taken more than an hour or so. At the bottom I drilled a hole into the wheel well and put a threaded backing plate in - CRW I didn't use the tie down points I would have looked at it - probably too much trimming or fabrication required.

I tried to take a photo but without pulling out the strap you cant see what I have been up to
 
This is not exactly on topic but may still be useful to some.
I have a 2001 Forester. I managed to pick up a second hand cargo barrier, manufactured by Milford. The label indicated this was a Subaru dealer item rather than a Milford aftermarket one.
The fun started trying to get a fitting kit. Subaru dealers would sell me a fitting kit but only on condition I bought a new cargo barrier from them.
I contacted Milford by phone –they told me that barriers produced for dealers were not necessarily the same as aftermarket barriers, they are designed and produced independently out of the same factory. This sounded implausible to me. Milford said they would sell me an aftermarket fitting kit but they had no idea whether this would actually fit. The fitting kits cost a significant amount so I did not want to be stuck with something unusable.
I was unable to find anyone else with a comparable barrier to compare so eventually had to make a “leap of faith” and purchased a fitting kit. The local distributor would only get the kit to order so there was no means of checking whether it would fit beforehand.
The fitting kit duly arrived and was clearly the right kit. I contemplated fitting the kit myself given the cost to purchase it. The fitting involves a number of different holesaw sizes. One of these sizes seemed to be unobtainable locally so eventually I got the distributor to fit the rear mounts only (to save some costs). I removed the long lower arms from the barrier. These are only used when mounting in the forward position behind the front seat.
Total cost was many times the initial purchase price of the barrier but keeping my fridge and tool box from joining me still presents as a good idea.
 
Tedium's approach (getting the Milford agent to fit the rear pillar plates) is certainly one way. Most if not all the 2/H barriers you pick up will be sans fittings/fixtures, especially as the rear pillar mounts are going to stay in the original vehicle. And Milford don't sell bits, only the complete install kit.

If anyone needs the official installation instructions (which will put most people off doing it that way) ping me a PM.

For alternative approaches, here are links to some illustrations of how others over on OzFoz have installed their cargo barriers without drilling into the pillars:

https://ozfoz.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=38&t=47627&p=967798&hilit=+cargo+barrier+#p967798

https://ozfoz.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=24&t=20661&st=0&sk=t&sd=a&hilit=cargo+barrier&start=20

https://ozfoz.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=24&t=20661&hilit=+cargo+barrier+

https://ozfoz.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=24&t=15886&p=519434&hilit=+cargo+barrier+#p519434

https://ozfoz.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=12&t=2870&st=0&sk=t&sd=a&start=50
 
Gidday Tedium and Zippo

Thanks for your respective thoughts.

Your post has made me realise that I didn't have my OzFoz login details to hand, Zippo. Among others.

I still haven't fitted the barrier, but plan to use the child safety seat restraint bolts under the rear seat squab, and the top ones near the rear hatch.

Like Tedium, I have no desire for any stuff to bounce around the cabin in an accident of any description.

My fridge will be held down on the back seat by its tie down points and the tie down points behind the rear seat squab.
 
Ratbag said:
My fridge will be held down on the back seat by its tie down points and the tie down points behind the rear seat squab.
Click to expand...
Not sure how many bodies you'll have all up, but if it is two (or less) then ditch the back seat. Anything bouncy is NOT the place to try and tie a fridge down. That's why, at two up, I did just that and the fridge stayed put very nicely. Didn't take any pics of it in place unfortunately, but on OzFoz there are a couple of pics of what I anchored the fridge atop.
 
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