My Jimny flat deck build - South Africa overlanding idea

This is to document the flat deck area I have build into my gen4. Had basically the same concept in my gen3.

The idea is to remove the seats completely and add a flat deck WITHOUT loosing any space especially under deck and also where jack is being stored.

In South Africa we have the aftermarket deck by Frontrunner that is being sold but the design is flawed in so many aspects and you loose a ton of space and cannot even access the bowl area where jack was stored. (And yes I have bought the Frontrunner one initially but was so frustrated that I decided to build my own again on same principle as my gen3 deck)

So my design is to use the area under deck by lifting the deck a little higher where top deck area is just above the passsenger armrests.

PLEASE NOTE

This was built with rudementary hand tools.
I am not a woodworker / machinist only having a few tools and a very old oil welding machine.

I know that this can be build in a much neater way with lots of areas where it can be improved upon. I would love to have access to proper tools and machines.

For me it works for my own requirements and understand that this might not work for most other people, but at least I want to put some ideas out there to the overlander group.


MAIN OBJECTIVES

1. create space below deck where items can be stored away from any prying eye's while still giving clean and neat space for day to day usage without any indication of storage area while still keeping deck as low as possible.

2. Accessibility important in overlanding scenario where you can access accesories without unpacking everything.

3. Ease of use. All access doors and top deck floors to be opened/removed without any tools.

4. Rattle free as much as possible for my OCD.

5. Storage below deck is for stuff not used daily e.g.
- Full set of tools and spanners
- Jack & wheel spanners
- Recovery equipment
- Air compressor etc
- Wood saw, axe
- battery starter cables
- fuel siphoning pipes
etc...

6. Create a larger flat area for packing when overlanding. Thus deck cover the passenger armrests and width is thus increased substantially

7. Seats must be able to fully recline to form a bed incase you want to sleep inside for whatever reason and seat reclined must be same height as flat deck area

LAYOUT

The deck will have 4 access "doors" to access all areas below deck.
The complete deck "doors" can be fastenend by hand. No tools require to access spaces.
So ease of access is very importand.

The doors are attached to a frame that is fastened to body by using the existing fastening points for the seats that has been removed. This frame is the main construction for 3 holding areas.

The storage areas must be ruberised on all insides to limit any rattles.

So the main area consist of 2 large rectangle and a smaller rectangle at the back ( area where jack used to be.

The idea is to have all small stuff inside one big bag each for the two front areas and if the deck is closed, you can just pull out the bag and push one back into storage area. This is just ease of use via front door so you dont have to lift the deck to access it.

You move seats forward clip down front door and you have access to the 2 compartments. Front door work simmilar as the back door to access back door

Below a rough idea what will be underneath the deck as well as a pic of complete deck.

In follow on posts I will post step by step instructions.

Please note that this is ongoing project. This is basically to get floor in.

Initial one was leveĺ with back door


The second build the foundation frame was lifted to clear arm rest, so top now go over passeng arm rests.







Detail steps to follow.

The BOX

So i build the square box given me access to 3 areas, A an B is large regtangle and C is small one at the back

There will be 4 "doors"
1 from front and 1 rear
1 large top door covering area A and B
1 small top door covering area C

So when fully loaded "overlanding configuration" you pretty much will only use the front door and the back door.
The back door seems small but i can put everything in and take it out via the back door.




The box is fastened to the body by using existant fasterner spots for the seats that were removed

As you can see from box dimentions the storage areas are really deep enough to add big stuff inside.





All L pieces were sourced from local hardware shop and is meant for roofing purposes.

Similar the wood was sourced from local hardware shop but is Meranti hard wood type that is extremely dense and hard, but not to heavy.

The wood frame was removed and painted



Here you can get idea of front and back door entrances



Here you can see back door opening.

This pretty much access the deep area where jack were stored. I opted to use this hole for small recovery items, soft shackles etc, and moved the jack to one of the front regtangular areas.



Here you can see back entry door fitted with its fasteners knobs.




Here is more top down photo of back deep cavity area that will be used.

The top board was cut from laminated marine ply wood




It was then varnished with marine grade varnish to ensure it is properly protected against wet stuff.



Sides all got protective rubber around edges


Here you can see 2 mm soft rubber edging not to scratch plastic sides when moved in and out.

Next up was adding 5mm soft rubber to all 3 areas sides and bottom to ensure to large degree a rattle free area


The rubber were moulded around all the Jimny curves and lies flat at the bottom.

Was glued to wooden box sides.






Even the underside of the deck got the 5mm rubber to ensure thing cannot rattle to underside of deck.
Side areas that go over the passenger seat sides got green felt material for protection



This show how storage areas looked like after getting the rubber treatment.
Top down photo
(Again principle is to use one or two bags that can easily slide in and out.)
All top of wood areas got green felt material.



Here you can see a mockup of bags in their compartments
I use the one side just for tools and jack
The other one camping stuff and recovery gear (towing ropes, kinetic rope etc)
The back one all small recovery gear type stuf like
- shackles (hard and soft),
- tyre pressure gauge
-etc..
Using small canvas bags that can be stacked. Again concept is to store items in bags instead of loosely.



Couple more of deck underside showing the protected rubber strip and felt material so not to scratch anything


Center beam splitting left and right showing rubber on sides. As you can see fairly thick rubber.

Top 1 piece deck was split so it can form 2 seperate top areas for ease of opening.

The deck floor also got applied a grayish vehicle mat to go with rest of vehicle matts.

Here you can see top door open but back door close.

Top and back door opened.



The back door fastener that just screw into the box.


NOTE
To close and secure the small top back door you have to open the back door to fasten top deck with latches pulling top back small area fown onto frame

Example of pull down latch. One each side of back door.


Here is back top deck and back door closed and secured.


Here the top is in back top in place and secured but back access door open.



The back door just pull out once the two fastening knops has been taken out.




Here is veiw straight from the back of deck and back door with its fastener bolts/knobs.



The top deck area overhang the backdoor slightly by about 2 cm so the knobs do not protrude and deck area flush with back door when back door is closed. Hopefully this might illustrate the overhang.



Here is photo straight from the back where back door is open. The height is a good closed fist size so you can easily put your hand in to access stuff stored there. You wont believe how much stuff actually can be put here inside.


Back top and back access door opened to display various items being loaded in the back jack area. You really can stack a lot in that space

Front access door ( behind the seats)

The front door work on same concept as the back door.

It is fastened with two bolts and door can be completely removed.
The front door cavity have a metal from for strength as well as for load support of top deck made from 20mm square tubing

This is door closed. You will notice 2 loops to pull out door when bolts have been removed.




These are same fastener bolts (6mm) as at the back door.

This is the access front door area where door has been opened.

MOVEMENT OF BAGS

Currently I have tested this scenario extensively on and offroad and due to weight of bags with tools and recovery gear there is no noticeable movement of bags when going over humps.

For the bags to move up and down you will need to hit a substantial bump at an alarming speed.




Again concept is to put items into bags and you merely pull out one bag that contain all your items. This helps that you do t have to dig inside to find individual items. Also easy to slide a bag back into position under the deck.


This show the frame of front door that support the top deck floor.



Canvass bag shown being pulled out

Front seats reclining flush with deck.

This is not really a requirement for me per se but nice to know front seats can recline all the way to form a bed.

Similar hight to front seat reclined a way down.



Seats fit into deck area.

Top deck floor.

This is top deck floor that can be completely removed or lifted if ever required.
Again empasis is to fasten loosen without tools.



The top floor is fastened at 6 places to the comparment body.

The front and back door need to be opened to access fastening bolt for the top deck.
2 at the back through the body of the rack.
1 each side of back structure.



The front has 4 bolts. Again modified to be fastened with hand. A bit crude but limited tools did the job.




2 on each side compartment. 4 total front

This is pic of centre 2 on each side. It screw into dop deck through the 20mm sqaure tubing, holding it down.


The floor have these fastener points into the top sheet wherin the bolts screw into. Dont know what you call them

Random pics of finished deck.

This just to show the deck. This install is not finished and a few more items are being planned ti be added.
From backdoor to frobt seats




Front front seats to back door


Sides

DID I ACCOMPLISHED MY GOAL ?

Well to large extend I think I have especially carrying all my tools and recovery equipement in such a way that people do not notice. In crime ridden South Africa I think it is rather important tokeep these away from prying eyes. I can continue to drive with everything I need on daily basis.

The proof is in the pudding where I have visited various nature reserves / offroading 4x4 trail areas, where vechiles are being searched and to date not one ever asked if their is anything under the deck. ( this does not say too much about inspectors, does it)

Yes I know the wakeup security gaurd might see the knobs and might put 2 and 2 together, but the floor deck is low enough to confuse the portion inso much as that is the Jimny back floor.

Both front and backdoor matched into other carpet areas without any obvious signs of a door.

I am however very happy indeed with it so far.