Rear Accessory Shelves

As I was planning my electrical system I realized that I needed some additional space behind the rear bulkhead for my E-bus, battery bus, and additional contactor. I remember seeing a PDF from TCW regarding the dimensions for a rear shelf, and having worked through a couple of designs, the tray layout from TCW was pretty much what I wanted.

I started the process by cutting the shelfs out of .063 6160 and bending the two edges down for stability. I ended up bending my down rather than up (well I guess I ended up doing exactly what TCW did, but I installed my flipped upside down)




Not that I would recommend you go out and buy a harbor freight brake (because I hate Harbor Freight), I will say that for $40 dollars being able to form a no-fuss perfect 90 degree bend in 15 inches of .063 is pretty cool.




The one thing that TCW did that I really did not want to do was they built their shelf by cutting their j-channel and unrolling it. Rather than severing the j-channel, I but a slight brake on a piece of .063 to account for the wall angle and bring a mounting plate onto the same plane as the shelf. This was a bit annoying to drill, but with a mirror and a right angle drill this was more than doable. Before deciding to go down this path, I debated how to rivet this for quite some time, Then I realized I still have that alligator crimper that I  bought off of ebay. The alligator crimper makes short work of this angle/orientation.



I still need to build a wedge and install some nut plates because the j-channel is not in the same plane as the battery box. That will be pretty straight forward though. (also, good use for those truck mats that I took out of my truck day 1!)