Rear Setup - Raised Floor?

BoulderFoz

BoulderFoz

Forum Member
Joined
Feb 20, 2021
Messages
20
Location
Western Australia
Car Year
2018
Car Model
Forester 2.5iL
Transmission
CVT
Recently I purchased a 40L Engel fridge to go in the boot of my Forester. It fits neatly, even with the back seats up. To power it, I have bought a power station and solar blanket from ITechWorld.

I'm able to strap the fridge in to the anchor points in the boot and it stays very steady. I'm currently not using a fridge slide.

Now I'm thinking I should probably strap more of my cargo down, particularly my plastic drawers, battery, gas bottle and stove.

I can fit the plastic stacker drawers (2 side by side and 2 or 3 high) next to the fridge, but they're pretty unstable.

Which brings me to the point of this post...

I'd rather not drill into the boot floor to create anchor points for the draws and other bits and pieces, so I'm thinking of building a raised floor.

Has anyone done this in there Subaru? Any tips on things you would have done differently in hind sight?
 
Did you have a look at @Veganpotter 's build? might be some useful ideas there, but he removed the floor to put his base in.
 
I did years ago in my old SF. but my battery, water tank and 12v electrics lived under the floor in and around the spare wheel well. I used the anchor points in the sides of the boot wall and a 1/2" ply base with through bolts for the rest of the floor.
 
Ben Up North said:
Did you have a look at @Veganpotter 's build? might be some useful ideas there, but he removed the floor to put his base in.
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He's done some tidy craftmanship with his woodwork! Probably way better than I could do.

I'll likely try and fit something less permanent however, that I could remove fairly easily after the camping trips.
 
idw said:
I did years ago in my old SF. but my battery, water tank and 12v electrics lived under the floor in and around the spare wheel well. I used the anchor points in the sides of the boot wall and a 1/2" ply base with through bolts for the rest of the floor.
Click to expand...
I might have a poke around the wheel well today to see what I could fit down there.
 
Did some mucking around in the boot this morning, the problem with installing a raised floor in the boot (even 70mm - 100mm) is that I would be required to use a fridge slide.

Not that I don't love spending money at camping stores, but the fridge slide would take up too much extra floor space, decreasing the amount of plastic drawers I could use.

So I think I will bite the bullet and just attach some fixing points in the boot floor and some other make shift solutions to secure the cargo.

I would gain some space under the raised floor where I could slide my camp table, but it doesn't really justify the loss in space elsewhere.

Now I just gotta find something else to build...
 
I tend to use my MY03 as a two person vehicle which makes it easy to carry the fridge, a Waeco 40 litre (or thereabouts) on the rear passenger seat along with the second battery on the rear passenger floor. Also moves the weight a bit forward. I appreciate that you may not be in a postion to carry only two people but it does free up a lot of useful space.
 
BoulderFoz said:
I might have a poke around the wheel well today to see what I could fit down there.
Click to expand...
Just make sure it nothing you're likely to need to get to. Main reason I removed my spare was I was in not way inclined to pull everything out of the boot if i needed to put the spare on.

And You can always make a fridge slide, couple heavy duty slides and some steel, pretty simple weld job.
 
idw said:
Just make sure it nothing you're likely to need to get to. Main reason I removed my spare was I was in not way inclined to pull everything out of the boot if i needed to put the spare on.

And You can always make a fridge slide, couple heavy duty slides and some steel, pretty simple weld job.
Click to expand...
This is why I've been hesitatant with building anything to permanent, or putting a full length floor from boot - back seats, as my spare would in accessible.

I was just having at rear mounted spare wheel carriers from Wilco and Rigd.

This would alleviate the necessity to make the spare well easily accessible, and perhaps I would put a floor through to the rear passenger seats...
 
ateday said:
I tend to use my MY03 as a two person vehicle which makes it easy to carry the fridge, a Waeco 40 litre (or thereabouts) on the rear passenger seat along with the second battery on the rear passenger floor. Also moves the weight a bit forward. I appreciate that you may not be in a postion to carry only two people but it does free up a lot of useful space.
Click to expand...
Usually just the wife and I in the car...so we could build out the back seats more.
 
@BoulderFoz My bed is definitely more complex to fabricate than it needed to be. I wanted it as light as possible, with easily accessed storage. So it took some possibly complex engineering concepts if you're not used to building things. You could totally simplify it with an extra 25lbs of wood or so though. It's also really easy to install d-rings with rivnuts into the unibody. A rivnut kit is extremely cheap for what you're getting. Just in case you want extra anchor points.
 
When i had my SG i had a storage unit in the boot. It was built out of Connect-It aluminium from Bunnings and Ply. It was completely removable and light. It didn't have a base, but on the floor i originally had an esky, tools and recovery gear. Then on the level above were two plastic trays where I kept my food and stove/ cutlery etc, then on the top level was my table, chair tent and mattress.

Later on I got a 40L fridge which i put in the back seat area. Took out the seat back, put in some more ply for a base. Strapped the fridge down and was easily accessible from the passenger door, or even the drivers seat when desperate. Behind the drivers seat I had a 60L box with more food for longer extended trips.

I hope this helps. My setup (from somewhat of a distance) to give you an idea.
Forester Boot open.jpeg
 
I wish there was a readily available, fiberglass cap for our cars. Similar to vans. You can even get them for some minivans. It would be great to have an extra 6" of headroom. If you buttressed two of the cross beams, you may not lose much of any rigidity.
 
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