Dirtbag 2015 XL LWB Wagon camper modification

[rmcinak]

Started today modifying my 2015 XL LWB Wagon to have some camping usefulness. Will try to share the agony and progress. 

My individual goals:

• Not interfere with the "wagon" part of Wagon, keeping full functionality of 2nd row of seats.
• Minimal reduction, if any, of cargo carrying room, particularly being able to roll in 1 or 2 bikes upright without removing any wheels.
• Lightweight modifications to not tax the Focus suspension.
• Easy-ish removal of anything added.
• Flexible bed for 1 or 2 people as needed (or not needed).
• Cheap
• Pass for not being too cheap.

Day 1:

After coming up with a rough idea in my head (not much for detailed planning), decided that first order of business was to make a flat floor. Went to the local home improvement store and bought 6 sheets of 1/2"x4'x2' plywood, "TrafficMaster" brand 48"x96" black vinyl garage mat, and a can of contact cement to get the ball started. Hoping that will be able to recycle other material lying around the house to minimize cost. Chose 1/2" plywood vs 5/8" or 3/4" to try to lineup with the back deck and lip around the cargo area, sacrificing some rigidness. Chose 4x2 to try to make it easy to work with when cutting out notches and holes and such. My first suggestion if somebody else attempts to replicate some form of this and is confident in their measuring and cutting skills, working with a half-sheet 4x4 for the floor would have been better.

First picture is the obligatory before. 3rd row seating removed.

Second picture is a couple of added supports. Some 3/8" plywood would have come in handy and been perfect, I only had 1/4", added some of those tile spacers to get the height where I wanted above the existing 3rd row bolts, and cardboard in the rear corners as there is no ridge there. I screwed the first piece of "flooring" into the supports that are themselves attached via the existing seat bolts, so this piece of flooring is secure yet easily removable by taking off the seat bolts.

Third picture is the second piece of plywood along with more supports for the front "cargo" area that will slide under the first piece of flooring. By this point I got smart and de-laminated one layer off some of the 1/2" plywood scraps to make something close to the desired 3/8" I was looking for. Note a lot of the ridges in the cargo area particularly in this area are not solid, just foam.

 

Edited September 14, 2016 by rmcinak
add pictures

[rmcinak]

First picture here shows the two floor sections. The larger section doesn't have the vinyl mat attached to the plywood yet as I mis-cut the mat, not leaving a nice lip to go up against the back deck. The vinyl mat in my opinion was a good purchase as it matches with the existing decor quite nicely.

The second picture is the next sections of plywood being laid out. There is a method to my madness. Makes a ramp for bicycles to roll up and avoids the whole mess of coming up with a fancy solution for the network of different heights and shapes around the 2nd row seat mounting area.

As far as I got on day one.

Edited September 14, 2016 by rmcinak

[G B L]

Very interesting looking forward to the progress

[rmcinak]

4 hours ago, G B L said:

Very interesting looking forward to the progress

Me too, the good/bad of making things up as one goes is not knowing what the end result will be. Already changing last night's visions to account for today's measurement reality.

[rmcinak]

Day 2, here's the concept of what I'm shooting for. The black vinyl mat really sucks the light out of the area for picture taking!

The bed is three two-foot long sections of plywood, two that comprise the ramp showed above and one on the 2nd row seat back. The milk crate in the first picture here is playing the role of a future gear/storage box. By pulling open the rear section over the storage box, it begins to raise up the middle section as they are connected by a hinge. A piano hinge is shown but I am reserving the right to swap that out at a later time if the hinge "bump" is still noticeable underneath whatever I use for a mattress. 

I wanted the front section of plywood to also be connected via hinge to the middle section also as my initial plan was to be able to fold them all back out of the way to use the 2nd row seat if needed, but as shown above the front section is wider than the rear section to cover the seat back, so it wouldn't fold back. I liked covering the entirety of the seat back so I didn't go with the option of simply trimming it to match. I'm going to attach it via some removable way like Velcro so if needed it can be removed entirely if the 2nd row seat is needed.

So the rear section will have the storage box thingy as a support, leaving me to think up some way to support the two front sections. I know I could just leave it low so the front section can use the seat back as its support but I would like this thing to be about a foot off the floor to have storage use underneath. I like the idea of housing a small battery and whatever other necessary "glamping" gear in a portable storage box that would be one bed support, and that would need to be at least a foot high I reckon. Anyway, I have a creative idea rattling in my head to support the middle section but supporting the front section ingeniously is kind of stumping me right now.

The back two sections are planned to be able to be lifted up for 2nd row seat use and basically be the seat back for that.

[G B L]

I like the process waiting for more.

[rmcinak]

Day 3:

Preface this, and prior and future parts, by saying that other than the initial purchase of the 6 quarter-sheets of plywood and the vinyl mat and an allowance for minor hardware pieces and miscellaneous items, I am trying to use scrap wood I have on hand from past projects. So my solutions to problems and the measurements of a few things are being made based on the sizes of the scrap pieces available and may not be the most ideal or efficient way.

First two pictures show my solution to supporting the front section of the bed. Using a scrap 3/4" x 24" x 20" piece of plywood and basing measurements on what that would yield along with other pieces I have, I cut out two pieces at odd shapes and notched out an inch near the bottom to hook into the existing 2nd row seat supports that are exposed when the seat is stowed. I still need to come up with a way to provide horizontal stability but this will handle vertical support. These should (I only roughly eyeballed) fit underneath the "ramp" to not take up any room when not in use. A different solution will have to be made for the driver's side bed as 3 of the 4 seat supports are on the passenger side, perhaps some kind of modification and tying in to one of my passenger side supports. In the upper right of the first picture it is visible that the supports are more oddly shaped than necessary, they are so only because of the limited size of the scrap piece I am using. There is no reason they couldn't be a simple 'L' shape.

Third picture shows my horrible job at cutting the mat to expose the rear seat attaching bolts/hole and my equally bad job at cutting plugs to fill those holes. I thought of trying to use a router with a laminate cutter to trim the mat but I fear it would tear out and rip sections not desired so I just used a simple utility knife. I am quite sure there were better ways to do that.

 

[windguy]

thanks for sharing your build. so far looks good.

 

[DonShockley]

8 hours ago, rmcinak said:

...... I still need to come up with a way to provide horizontal stability but this will handle vertical support. ....

If you add a piece of wider solid lumber like a 2x4 to the flatter plywood and then cut the slot into both, the width of the pin would add a lot of side to side support. You could make it longer front-to-back and deep enough so it rests on the bottom of the bracket in addition to the pin. Basically, think about trying to get as much contact as possible between a solid wood base and the bracket, with the pin just being used to hold it down. And oversizing it slightly so it wedges into the bracket would help also. Of course that might make installation and removal more difficult.

FYI: Although I eventually bought a set of hole punches, before that I used to use pieces of copper pipe or fittings as impromptu punches for holes in soft material where exact sizing wasn't critical. You can sand/file down the edges to get more of a cutting action for firmer materials.

[rmcinak]

11 hours ago, DonShockley said:

If you add a piece of wider solid lumber like a 2x4 to the flatter plywood and then cut the slot into both, the width of the pin would add a lot of side to side support...

That's the basic direction I'm thinking, and I really appreciate this and any ideas people throw at me as I basically don't know what I'm doing most of the time. I like the concept developing in my skull to make this a "stealth" camper where everything that isn't out in view for "wagon" use is small enough to hide underneath my ramp things, so I'm trying to aim for minimalism. Maybe a sheet of plywood notched into these supports like you mention, and then a simple diagonal hole drilled through both to put in a wooden dowel to lock everything together. Also need to solve the overhang of the bed piece in relation to the width of the supports to prevent one from tipping the whole thing over if weight is put at the edges, so whatever I do needs to tackle two issues at once. 

[rmcinak]

Been deliberating endlessly on how to tackle further bed supports with minimal material which has slowed me down.

First two pictures here show the "crossframe" for the front section. Odd shaped piece is again due to trying to use scraps on hand. I think with some tinkering with the bed piece to make it all lock together it will be somewhat sturdy.

Last picture is the initial stages of my current plan to support the back two pieces of the bed. The middle piece of wood will be attached in some unknown way to the interior panel and the two small pieces will swing out to provide support for one half of the back end of the middle section (the other end is supported by the contraption in the first two pictures here) and for one half of the rear section. I thought about building a big portable box to provide support and could be used for storage and may do that later, but for the time being trying to minimize space consumed.

Note that I have what will be the "primary" bed on the passenger side which when in use might be a little less convenient than if it was on the driver's side to access the rest of the back or to step in/out from the back as it may require opening both rear doors (I have double swing out doors, not the liftgate). I am doing that for my desire to have bicycles standing up for any camping expeditions and I thought it was better to not have the bicycles creating any more blind spots on the right side for the driver. Otherwise if building a single bed it would probably make more sense to have it on the driver's side if have swing out rear doors. 

[rmcinak]

Here is the close-to-finished "Phase 1"....

First pic shows things in "cargo mode". Everything needed to convert to "camper mode" is in the van, either showing in this picture or hidden underneath the ramp section. On the right is a folded up section that is used for bed supports, it is held in place by a couple things of Velcro. Those are my only loss of cargo room and that only ends up being about 8 square inches of space.

Second pic shows what I used to hide my hatchet job on the holes to access the 3rd row seat bolts if ever needed. Just some furniture grippers found at home improvement store, stuck onto the homemade hole plugs I had made. Thought that was a MacGyver-esque play, looks like it could be stock and also gives a couple of gripping points for things on an otherwise slippery surface. They can just be pulled up if a truly flat surface is ever needed.

Third picture shows various pieces hidden underneath the ramp section.

Forth and fifth picture show the passenger side bed in place. The obvious week points are the two portable legs on the left side of the 4th pic. Will try to think up something better.

Still need to do some touch-up painting, figure a way to keep the pieces in place when in "cargo mode" (have some magnets that will be my first attempt), and make the bed more secure to eliminate the risk of things jostling out of place. Maybe some kind of button contraptions. I also need to rig up a bicycle holder to keep a bicycle stood up from going all over the place.

"Phase 2" will be a box for an RV AGM battery/inverter/solar charger) to be put where the single right 2nd row seat would go but to not interfere with the double 2nd row seats. This will also be planned to help with bed support. "Phase 3" will be a "kitchen" box for a 2 1/2 g water jug, maybe some kind of pump/sink, and a place for a small camp stove. This would be at the back of the bed section and would definitely be also used for bed support. 

I originally planned to make the driver's side bed do the same things as whatever the passenger side bed does, in this case be up higher, but I think I will make it stay low, to be in a "buddy" arrangement if you will instead of in a "couple's" arrangement.