GQ/Mav Sleeper

Kochy,

we had done exactly what you are describing! we travelled in a 93 GQ patrol for 7 weeks. Our design was:
* set of two drawers from the back seat to the back of the car which you can use when not travelling too - ours are homemade of of ply and covered in marine carpet
* we took the back seat out and put the fridge on the passenger side secured to the floor through the seat holes, on the other side we put a set of plastic drawers that opened out the drivers door similarly secured to the floor through the seat bolt holes. these drawers held the pantry and cutlery etc. We also had a water tank in this space and the gas cooking stuff. the benefit of this design is all the heavy stuff is low down. we cushions this things on abase made from those blue camp mats which can be easily cut to size to fill up this 'dips' in the car floor.
* we then had a cargo barrier that we made but you could adapt the bought ones which attachs to the top of the drawer system. This cargo barrier converts to a drop down to form a flat bed base in line with the top of the drawer system. ie. its hinged where it attaches to the drawer system. When it was up, it is secured in place with those bolt latches to each side. To drop it down to form the bed base you undo the latches and then it had two legs which dropped down (held in place with velcro when it is was upright) so it supported itself on the legs. i hope that makes sense.
* in the back of the car above the drawers we stored our bed rolls (your swag) and table and our clothes bads - ie the things you have to get out anyway when you are stopped for the night. the clothes bags we used to move to the front seats at night and from memory i think we used to put the front seats forward to give extra leg room.
* we put our heads at the back door end so most of the body weight is on teh drawer system and only your legs are on the converted cargo barrier bit.
* we had a roof top bad for light stuff like chairs, tarps etc.

the only catch with this design was you couldn't set your beds up until you had cooked your meal and packed up as once you put the cargo barrier down to form the bed base you couldn't get to anything! also a little hard to get in and out of.

one improvement we have done in our later trips is a 'camp kitchen' (Drifta kitchens does one that fits in the back of the 4by). This means all the cooking stuff is together and we store that in the back of the car and lift it out each night.

hopefully that gives you a few ideas.

Draff

forgot to mention - the drawers at the back had a metal frame and made from ply. the cargo barrier is box steel and obviously had to meet the safety requirements. The drawers that come out the side are from one of those discount stores. We made everything ourselves for very little cost.

Hey young fella.......don't forget that you'll need to beef up the suspension if you plan to get up to any monkey business in the back of the Mav!!!! Also, don't forget that a "sun-roof" can double as a "moon-roof" when, on a warm night, you start to feel a bit amorous and the hormones start to kick in.........any widlife in the tree above will get a horrible view!!!! hehehe

To overcome the storage issues, why not get a trailer? I could hire you one for 12 months @ a very reasonable rate of $50- per week!!!! Too easy!!!!! ;-)))

Don't throw anything at me; remember to respect your elders!!!

Hows it going ,

I am too computer illiterate to post a photo , so if you look at my rig pics you will see the back of my Patrol,

Took the back seats out, flat ply sheet from back doors to back of front seats , bolted on a small sheet of ply at 90 degrees behind the seats to hold the sheet up over the rear foot well .

Have fridge set up behind passenger seat out back door .

This was designed around the black and gold Supercheap boxes . Packs in 4 boxes behind the driver and 2 behind the passenger , cram in everything else . Angle brakets provided tie down points for the boxes .

If going around OZ maybe you are too concerned with sleeping inside , we only really got bad weather between Perth and Melbourne , was great sleeping outside for the rest.

Even with everything cut to the bare minimum to be self sufficient you will be pushed for space , also if camping long term you will want to be unloading the least amount every night ( we started building full camps with tarps etc , by the end of the trip we were lucky to get the swag and chairs out . ) If you are not going too hard you can take less stuff , our trip was very open ended so we were well prepared not to rely on anyone else.

If this set up doesnt suit you , you could raise the floor sheet of ply and make it fit the storage containers that you buy underneath.

Hope you guys have a great time , I know I would do it again in an instant.

Glenn.