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Old 08-09-2018, 01:59 PM   #1
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Default Mod : Adding Extra shelves

2011 Shadow Cruiser 18.5 : Tall clothes hanging closet : We stripped the walls down to the studs and took advantage of the extra wasted wall space to the right where the thick black pipe goes up. We took out as much of the old wood, ( 2x4 pieces where clothes rod used to be ) to make the trailer lighter and re arrange the electrical cords to now run underneath the top shelf.

Previous owners did add 2 very heavy unpractical shelves in there. We thought we can easily double the existing space, and instead of the 2 shelves that was there, we can get 4 shelves in there.

Pic 1 and 2 are the Before pics of a month ago when we bought the trailer and rest of the pics are "looking behind the scenes" for wasted space.
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Inside cupboards.png   Orig shelves.png   Tall closet 1.jpg   Tall closet 2.jpg  
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Old 08-09-2018, 02:05 PM   #2
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When I redid the shelving at the back of my trailer, I used a gap of nine inches from one shelf to the next, and the shelves "float." In other words, as you shove more clothing in, the shelf above can be displaced momentarily. This interval and this system really works for us -- we can get two weeks' worth of clothing on the shelves.

To see how we did it, hit this link and scroll down a little. Hope this is helpful!


https://lookmomimcamping.blogspot.co...-new-lmic.html
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Old 08-09-2018, 02:46 PM   #3
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Great idea Profdant, thank you for sharing, that’s very valuable practical info. I have learned so much since joining this group and spent hours reading through threads, getting ideas for the mods we need to do. By starting this tread, its my way of giving back, hopefully it will help someone else who is handy and wants to make their trailer a bit more practical.

We struggled for a while to come up with a good idea what to do with the inside of this old hanging clothes closet. For now, it will house our pots and pans on the 2 bottom shelves, then shelf 3 will be narrow for odds and ends and top shelf with hold our veggies and fruit in a basket.

Underneath our sink, that closet , we want to remove it completely and custom build a new zink/stove cabinet, in the future as well. As its currently very akward down there for pots and pans.

We plan to eventually custom build a clothing closet with 2 doors on the front, in the bedroom area above where our feet sleeps. That will be behind the fridge over the window, so from the front of the trailer over the window and almost flush with the fridge wall. We have already took out the bunk bed that was in there.

Pic 1 is showing some wasted space that we plan on utilising when we build the 4 new shelves. Rest of the pics show how we cleaned up the electrical a bit and also added 3 light switches in the left wall, while the wall was exposed. Also added spray foam as the black pipe was a bit loose and possibly rattled.
Attached Thumbnails
Tall closet 3.jpg   Tall closet 4.jpg   Tall closet 5.jpg   Inverter8.jpg   Light Switches.jpg  

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Old 08-09-2018, 03:18 PM   #4
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Pic 1 : We finished the newly found wasted wall space area to the right of the closet. We have decided it will be easiest to build a frame for each shelf to rest on.

Our supplies we bought from Windsor Plywood, its sheets of ½ ” thick double sided prefinished Birch Plywood, it does have a finished sort of shiny film on both sides. We also bought from them, strips of wallpaper covered wood, to finish off the front of the shelves, it is a close match to the walls of our trailer and blend in good.

For the shelves, we bought 1/4 " prefinished Birch Plywood, this one only has on 1 side the shiny prefinished film on. Bottom shelf we made out of the 1/2 " prefinished Birch plywood as pots/pans are a bit heavy.

For the frames of our shelves, we cut from the ½ “ thick sheet, strips ¾ “ wide that will be used to make the frames of our shelves. We also cut a 1 ½” strip for the front of the shelf ( that will serve as a barrier strip to keep things from falling out of the cupboard ) and then on top of that, we add the finishing strip that is covered in the wall paper.

We will buy some touch up filler to cover the little holes made by the air gun, so it looks pretty when done.

Pic 2 : We build 4 of these shelf frames.
Pic 3 : A front side view of the barrier strip with the wallpaper wood strip on top of that.
Pic 4: Shows the shelf frame in position now inside the closet.
Attached Thumbnails
tall closet 6.jpg   Tall cupboard Shelf Frame Complete.jpg   Tall closet front.jpg   Tall closet frame 2.jpg  
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Old 08-09-2018, 03:30 PM   #5
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Few more pictures of how the shelf frame fits into the closet.
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Tall closet Shelf frame 2.jpg   Tall closet Shelf frame front with finished wallpaper strip.jpg   Tall closet shelf frame front view.jpg   Tall closet shelf frame looking from above.jpg   Tall closet shelf frame front and above view.jpg  

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Old 08-09-2018, 04:08 PM   #6
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More detailed pics of how we built the shelf frames.

Pic 1 : Frame - 3/4 " strips we cut from a big sheet. Top of the pic the top finish wall paper strip we bought
Pic 2: Underside of the wall paper strip
Pic 3 : Building the frame
Pic 4: Shows frame front is higher, which will act as a barrier to stop things
from falling outta the cupboard, once on the road.
Pic 5 : Doubling up on the front of the frame so that we can add the wall paper
strip, they are the same width. Perfect solution for it to look finished.
Last pic : Adding the wall paper finishing strip on the top.
Attached Thumbnails
Tall closet Frame material.jpg   Tall closet frame material wallpaper strip underside.jpg   Tall closet frame building.jpg   Tall closet fram building front.jpg   Tall closet fram building double up.jpg  

Tall closet frame building double up1.jpg   tall closet frame building air nailer.jpg   tall closet frame building without strip.jpg   Tall closet framing adding finishing strip.jpg  
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Old 08-09-2018, 04:28 PM   #7
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Great!! Very intricate framing, to accommodate the irregular opening.

My only question has to to do with the end-grain joinery. At a couple of the corners, the brads go through the face of the frame and into the side or end grain of the plywood. I have found (to my sorrow) that when I do that, the brads or screws will pull out.

My solution has been to use a small internal block of wood at the corner, so that the brad is going into solid wood. Imagine a capital letter L. Now imagine a little square inside the angle of the L. As you go through each of the legs of the L, the brads hit solid wood, not end grain.

I am not sure that you need corner reinforcements, but it couldn't hurt, right??
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Old 08-09-2018, 06:49 PM   #8
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Thank you for looking into this for us Profdant, I appreciate your eye for attention to detail and any critical thinking from the group, to point out any possible design flaws /weaknesses in our plan.

We just now took a good 2nd look at the strength of our shelf structure and have concluded that the many long air nails we put into the shelf structure and then into the corner frames of the closet and into the sidewalls of the closet, where there is current good support behind the walls, should hold up our shelves very well. The shelf frame also fit very snug into the space, which will help also.

We have come across a design flaw. With the shelf fitted onto the frame, their is no support on the front of the shelf. We added a support strip.

If we see in the future that this design is not strong enough, I will forsure report back here. We are leaving tomorrow morning for a camping road trip.

Pic 1 : Trim being air nailed to bottom shelf
Pic 2 : We discovered a design flaw - no support from the bottom on the front shelf part
Pic 3: Adding a strip of wood as a support on the shelf front part
Pic 4: Big moment the shelves are going in for a final fit. I did put on all shelves what I think we will store there and it took us some time to come up with the final measurements. Plan the work and work the plan !
Pic 5 : Inside a shelf. The barrier is 1/2 " so that pots dont fall out. Its perfect.
Attached Thumbnails
Tall closet trim finish.jpg   Tall closet shelf underneath 1.jpg   Tall closet shelf underneath w support.jpg   Tall closet Shelves going in Final Fit.jpg   Tall closet Shelves in.jpg  

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Old 08-13-2018, 01:05 PM   #9
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Well nevermind my previous post. I see you incorporated that wet wall into the shelving. Good job!

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Old 08-13-2018, 01:43 PM   #10
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An update on our new shelves after doing 900 kms on the road in the last few days, with a hubbie that is a bit of a passionate, aggressive driver, going a little fast around corners etc, some of my goodies have fallen outta the shelves, when I open the door.

In hindsight, I wished we made the vertical front barrier face of the closets taller. We have them currently at 1/2 " . We should have upped that barrier pieces of wood to 3/4 " to prevent things from falling out.

We will add a thin piece of wood temporarily, in there at 3/4 " high and take another trip and see if that is high enough to keep all things securely on the shelves. We make it up as we go, it seems. LOL
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Old 08-13-2018, 01:45 PM   #11
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You can also put screw eyes on each side and stretch a tiny bungee cord across. I have done that and it works quite well.

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Old 08-13-2018, 01:50 PM   #12
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Thank you Liz, that is a good tip. I will keep that in mind.
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Old 08-13-2018, 05:27 PM   #13
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Or . . . instead of adding a bigger barrier -- just shove more stuff onto each shelf, so that it can't move around! We really do exactly that. It works!
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