Quote:
Originally Posted by david a judd
Has anyone installed a pull out tray for an ice chest in one of the belly boxes of a Seneca 36FK? If so, what brand or manufacturer did you use and where did you buy it? I'm getting too old and feeble to heft a fully loaded ice chest into the belly box and I cannot get the lid open far enough to load in place. Any suggestions would be appreciated.
|
Ahhh that is one project I worked on for months and months.
Backstory... I have an awesome connection with CargoGlide and knew that I could get a custom made slide made for our cooler. CargoGlide is known as one of the best in the industry, and they are local for us and are AWESOME to work with.
My original intent was to move our Engle TEK-II 12v Fridge into the Seneca and mount it on the slide-out. It currently rides in the back of the Toyota-FJC and keeps everything ice cold on every trip we take.
After lots of measuring, engineering the project came upon the daunting challenge to support the weight of a full cooler (or Fridge) on an extended slide system that extends 120% beyond the structural mounting points - attached to only a Plastic structure. I would have needed to fabricate an exo-skelital structure on the outside of the tub to bolt the CargoGlide to that would need to attached to the steel structure that the cargo bays are affixed to.
After all that design work - some other items to note came apparent:
With the slide mechanism to work, it must clear the bottom of the baggage compartment door (Lost the first 2") The clearance for the slide assembly rails takes up another 2-4 inches (depending on capacity / configuration) and when the entire unit is installed, the cooler would now be sitting almost 5" higher that it would if it was just sitting in the cargo bay. So now the (fridge)cooler I wanted to use, would be inches from the Top of the cargo bay door opening. In my mind... not an effective use of the storage.
So what did we do... hunted high/low for a premium cooler that had the perfect dimensions to fit in the Seneca FK entertainment bay below the TV/entertainment center. It had to be 65-qt or larger and meet the Bear-proof standards because of where we camp frequently.
We put the Engle-65 in the "Bar Bay" and it handles 90 frosty cold beverages with a small amount of ice for days and days in the 95F weather. We use the Sececa's Ice maker to dump one tray of ice in every other day and it works well for us (unless we fill the cooler w/ Warm beverages)
If you come up with a solution to the structural support challenges - I'd like to see what you do, but right now - we compromised and are very satisfied so far.
Linear Mode
