Prado Cargo Space

I certainly have Kwk56pt - I have several setup modes for my 4800 Patrol - and have spent some 14 days in last year in that mode which included a double bed arrangement , home built to sit 150mm off the deck (150mm allows for a large flat area of storage space high enough to hold cans of food etc).


We do not travel with roof racks , bull bars , twin wheel carriers or LPG bottles or anything that adds unecessary weight to the Vehicle.

It takes a little while to work out a range of lightweight camping gear that works for you but in the end , even on many of the remote trips , with up to 300lt of fuel we have always managed to keep the car under its GVM and check this on weightbridges.

For 4 years I travelled that way with a 90series Prado. I used a platform roofrack for the second spare tyre and depending in what we were doing, a tent and poles.

My setup for remote trips was a storage system in the back with fridge 2 drawers with food and cooking stuff, 3 jerry cans water, chairs and table. And fold down table on the tailgate.

Middle section without seats had a steel mesh cage with 2 more jerries of water and up to 4 extra jerries diesel; plus a clothes bag each, plus spare parts and swags.

I was always pretty keen to have the heavy stuff forward of the rear axle, and not too much on the roof.

Hi there. Yes, I have a 90 series Prado, and the second row seat has been removed completely, as well as the rear row. Briefly, there's not a lot of room in the back when you take into account the fridge, water, tools, compressor, recovery gear, food, camping gear including bedding. In my case, my second and third batteries are also in the back. I wouldn't be happy going into remote areas without at least a second spare, and sometimes also a spare tyre plus tyre changing tools. The big one is fuel and water and spare wheels/tyres: if you have your liquids low down inside, then there's a fair chance you'll want to lose the second spare and a few other things onto a roof rack. I get scared at leaving tools behind.
But small tent; mean and stingey with the camping gear; minimum water; and reliance on factory fuel tanks; then you might just squeeze it in - that's my guess. (Shame about the second spare!)
Hope this helps, and I know I tend to overdo 'contingency planning!.

Chris (SA)

I have an 06 Prado. Two years ago went up the CSR - took out all seats, installed a small drawer with fridge unit in the rear and put on a roof carrier. Up top went a second spare wheel, etc.

where the back seats were went 4 gerry cans for fuel and a 65litre bladder of water across the floor behind the front seats.

Tent stored above drawers. Adequate space for our needs.

Good luck.

Hi
Every person that travels will have different needs and gear that they take. Is it going to be a one trip only or something that will be used year in and year out.
I fall into the second category and our Prado is used primary what it was made for.This is our set up, works a treat for us, but may be no good for someone else.

Third seats removed permanently and Black Widow Rear Draw System fitted, including fridge slide. In the draws, one side has most of our food, while the second draw has recovery gear, cooking gear, plates, cutlery etc. One top of draws, is fridge water and other gear that sits all at an arms length if needed. Over the draws is a Black Widow Top shelf barrier holds wash up gear, tarp for the ground under our swag, towels pillows and any other light gear.

Second seat removed and in goes Black Widow Twin Forward Floor
Bottom floors houses chairs, table, small garden rake for clearing site before swag goes down,shovel, spare shoes and lots of other gear.
Top floors has second spare complete wheel strapped to cargo barrier, cloths bags, more water, double swag and more gear.

We have sports bars on roof that hold Black Widow Awning, MaxTrax and OzTent for times of wet weather.

The above set up has been refined over many remote bush trips.
The only exception for this years trip will include an extra 40 litres of diesel, as our biggest stint of 1400 kilometres between Warburton and Laverton there will be no fuel stops.

Like I said, this works fine for me, but may be not for others

Cheers

Stephen

I have a 90 series Prado, have tried to avoid a roof rack although I have one I use occasionally. I've made cargo drawers, fridge slide and storage bins in the rear but found for an extended trip (remote area or several weeks trip), I've needed to pack extra gear - as mentioned by other posts here. Removing the second row of seats provides a lot of additional room but I didn't use the space efficiently because I hadn't fitted a second cargo barrier behind the front seats nor fabricated any shelving for this area. I simply anchored items to the floor with strapping.

I try to maximise load space efficiency by good packing & planning but also by reviewing and modifying my cargo bins & storage area. E.g. I removed the plastic side panels in the rear because everything chaffed against them and replaced them with carpet covered plywood panels. This also increased the storage area by several litres.

By careful and clever design with shelving & storage, I should be able to fit a large amount of gear in the second seat area. As Phil and others have mentioned, storage in this area also assists overall weight distribution.

One other aspect you may wish to consider is that Prado 90 series (not sure about later models) has quite a low roof rack weight limit (90 kgs?). Although my roof rack has full length runners, I'm conscious that I'm limited in the weight I can store up there compared to other vehicles (Cruisers, Patrols etc). Hope this helps a bit.

Peter

I have only the front two seats in my Cruiser.
Have two cargo barriers in it. One right behind the front seats with a floor back to the drawers One in the rear position to stop the small stuff from falling forward onto the Waeco and washing machine.

One small point to stay legal, if you remove the second row of seats it should be recomplianced as by doing this you alter the category of the vehicle..
Also advise your insurance company.

It only cost $60 to get it done.

I know lots of you have done it and not bothered but I prefer to stay legal so dont flame methank you.

Hi kwk56pt.
We have a 120 series prado with the set up you describe.
I have a small engel behind the seats (easy to grab a drink without stopping) then the cargo barrier and the back section contains 80l water tank, the main fridge and drawer system plus whatever else we can manage to stuff in.
The roof rack carries the 6th wheel, Oz tent. gas cylinders, maxtraks, and spare fuel jerries if needed.
The need for a roof rack is determined really on how isolated you will be and for how long and hence how much fuel and water and gear etc is needed. When we go for long trips with others to the Simpson our vehicle is chokkers roof rack and all...but then again so are all the other vehicles irrespective of make and model that we go with.

(BTW, roof rack is the best spot for your UHF aerial as it gets a clear front and back signal)

Way back in 1995 I travelled the Canning stock Route in a Diesel LR Discovery with no roof rack.

As having only two people aboard, I removed the rear seats and built a false floor. I kept the cargo barrier in it standard place and straped a full second spare to it standing upright.
Sill tanks gave a fuel capacity of 180 litres underneath and I carried two jerrys inside. I had 60 litres of water inside as well as food for 5 weeks.

In a playdo you have more space to use so if you build a cargo system around your gear it should easily fit.

Little things like wire tie spare springs and shocks to the chassis rail save space inside.

Regards

John D - LR Defender 110 2.4

We run 12 Prado's and use the outback interior drawer system in the rear and their storage system which replaces the rear seats. This gives you two storage areas separated by cargo barriers. We can fit all our gear including Black Wolf tent inside the car so we don't have to climb on the roof every day to load and unload tents etc..

That still means carrying fuel and LPG bottles and a spare tyre and rim in the roof basket but it all works perfectly

Regards

RobA

Send me your email address, and I'll send you photographs of my setup.

Regards

Kim

I've previously done some decent trips (4-5 weeks) in a Jackaroo with all the rear/middle seats either folded up or removed and a cargo barrier just behind the front seats. The roof top tent was the only thing that went on the roof (although a small tent and couple of sleeping bags would have easily fitted in the car if we'd want to keep the roof empty).

The Jackaroo only has 85L fuel tank so we carried 4 jerries to give us comfortable touring range upto 1000km (for the Tanami) if you've got a Prado, I understand you'll have that capacity under the car which will save a heap of space inside the car.

Our load was just above the bottom of the windows so there was still some spare space!