Busy week this week for me. My last project to maximize storage in my Great West Van Legend was to put shelves in the back closet located behind the bathroom and cantilevered over the sleeping area. It was just an open cabinet with a coat hanger receiver at the top (left in that you can see at the top). We never used it for hanging clothes and was just kind of a disorganized catchall for us. So I decided to add three shelves. The difficulty I quickly found was the back wall was curved inward from bottom to top, the side walls were not parallel to each other, the front wall was slanted and not parallel to the back wall and there were cutouts for a radio receiver and plumbing inside the cabinet covered with Ultraleather upholstering. Nothing was normal and of course you can't plumb when the B is not parked level. So I had to do a lot of measuring and building of cardboard templates to get the shelf dimensions. Then I had to figure out tolerances to be able to slip the shelves in as the curved inward back wall made it impossible to drop a shelf in from the top and any installed brackets would make it impossible to lift up from below. I finally came up with a wood spacer system to build from the bottom up and insert after getting the shelves at each level positioned inside the cabinet. So I built and installed from the bottom up. The first shelf was a given. It rested on the radio receiver cutout. The next two shelves were space 5" clear so canned goods or a soft drink or beer can could be stored with little spare wastage as I have illustrated with some props. I used 1/2" melamine covered shelf boards that I bought at Menards. I was able to cut the shelves from one 24" x 60" board. Because nothing was square, I used a saber saw with a board clamped down to act as a guide to get a straight cut. Looks simple enough but it took two days.
I noticed the last Great West Van Legend I saw at the RV shows had gone back to putting shelves in this cabinet but they only had two shelves, not three. So now our two hanging closets no longer can be used that way. I think we can live with that since we never carry clothes that really need hanging. I took the hanger receiver that was in the front armoire and installed it under the back overhead cabinet. It is just there for temporary hanging of clothes and things. It may never get used, but is better than throwing it away.
I think I am done with maximizing storage for now.
I noticed the last Great West Van Legend I saw at the RV shows had gone back to putting shelves in this cabinet but they only had two shelves, not three. So now our two hanging closets no longer can be used that way. I think we can live with that since we never carry clothes that really need hanging. I took the hanger receiver that was in the front armoire and installed it under the back overhead cabinet. It is just there for temporary hanging of clothes and things. It may never get used, but is better than throwing it away.
I think I am done with maximizing storage for now.
