The door to nowhere: questions

[Deb_and_Ed_M]

I have lower doors inside the camper that allow access to the area in front of, and behind the wheelwells. What do you folks store there?? Anything?? Is it possible for stuff to blow out of those spaces? I'm pretty sure anything stored there would get wet and dirty from going down the highway...

[JoeChiOhki]

Extra soda, oil change stuff for the big trips, washing brush, fire poker, lumber and jack stands for off truck use.....

[portscanner]

Additional beer, Bottles of water, small children, dirty laundry in bags, beer, mother-in-law, additional batteries, did I mention extra beer?....the list is endless

[JimK-NY]

Actually that area stays remarkably dry and clean. Since my wife and I and two cats traveled fulltime, I needed every area for storage. I used this area for a couple of bags of tools, ropes, extra boots, dirty laundry, and even paper goods. We use a lot of paper towels when traveling so we buy C-fold paper towels from Costco by the case. We actually fit an entire case in the wheel well area. We wrapped the packs in garbage bags to keep them clean. A case lasted us almost a year.

I had problems twice. The first time we actually had birds fly into that area and start to build nests. I throw a few moth balls into that area and that ended that issue. I have also tried to seal off that area. The gap between the truck and the camper is about 4" and I filled the gap with rigid styrofoam. Unfortunately it eventually blew out and I lost the foam. I am going to give that another try before I set out on this year's travels.

[Deb_and_Ed_M]

towpro wrote:
I had one of those fold-able ground mats in there, but it blew out going down the highway..

I was thinking about that, too - my mat has a carry bag with a string on it that I could shut in the door, anchoring it down....

[woodhog]

We keep 4 or 5 of those insulated bags in there, stuffed full of things you "might" need, jacks, roof repair items, food that will store outside, tools etc..
We use the insulated bags as they are dirt proof, waterproof and provide
packing to keep objects from chaffing against the camper tub.

If you just throw heavy metal objects in there you might see your camper tub material chaffed through after a long trip.

It is a super valuable space for storage. Sort of takes the place of a basement in the larger campers.

[towpro]

I had one of those fold-able ground mats in there, but it blew out going down the highway..

[pjay9]

You could use a waterproof bag like rafters use. I will use that space for my cable wheel chains in a float bag...

Just a side note that relates to the waterproof bags that rafters use! May be interesting to someone. I have what we mariners sometimes call a ditch bag, which happens to be a waterproof backpack with my PLB and VHF plus copies of my MMC and Passport and some dollars, water, energy bars and a commercial inflatable flotation suspender device, tough grip gloves, flashlight. It goes with me whenever I am on a boat/ship! I take the PLB in the TC as well!

[Reality_Check]

Use to carry the cat there...


Good lord, another bad joke.

[d3500ram]

I have access to that space from both the outside as well as the doors. But when I had a normal camper/ TC setup one thing that was very handy to have doors was plugging in the umbilical if that step was neglected during loading. If the camper was mounted and jacks up and if I forgot to hit the 7-pin all I had to do was open the door to have access for that missed step.

It is not an issue now as I can reach in front of the camper to hook it up if I forget... sometime I will purposely not plug in until all is mounted and then hook up the electricals.

[free_radical]

I put some jerry cans with fuel in there,making sure to block them with something as not to tip over and spill,very safe place for that...

[hedgehopper]

Water-supply hoses, extension cords, wheel shims, snow shovel. Our Phoenix had access doors on the outside rear of the camper.

[Deb_and_Ed_M]

WOW!! Thanks, everyone! Clearly, stuff won't blow out (within reason). I'll bet a spare carton of soft drinks would fit there!! Or dirty laundry... oh yeah, now I'm inspired 🙂

[jmckelvy]

My AF990 doesn't have those doors. I miss having them for use. My Northstar 8.5 Arrow has them. I carried leveling boards, electric chain saw, small propane bottle, the wife's rocks, etc in the wheel wells.

[bcbouy]

i store a shovel,axe, fire poking stick and my metal weenie roasting sticks there.