Storage Solutions
We've never been especially good at packing light, so when we downsized to our current 24-foot 5th wheel we spent some time improving the storage capability of the new coach in addition to simply leaving more stuff at home.
1. TV Cabinet Void: Next to the stairway to the bathroom hallway is the TV cabinet. The coach came with a cabinet door & two shelves inside, but there was a wood panel covering a void under the cabinet. I knocked out the wood panel, cleaned up the remaining staples and such, and lined the floor with carpet. It makes a great place for dirty shoes, etc.
2. Hallway Void: There is a very similar void under the wardrobe drawers in the hallway. This void has two panels: the obvious one in the first photo below and a second screen/panel inside the step storage. We've only removed the outside panel so there is still a barrier between the under-step storage and the under-wardrobe storage.
3. Galley Under-Counter Void: One of the trickier spaces to recover was under the galley counter.
The finished project looks like this. We have a deep shelf on the left where we keep the dog leashes, an electrical outlet in the center - on its own circuit - and a shallow shelf on the right where we keep several LED flashlights.
4. Dinette Overhead Cabinet: Another void was the space at the top of the cabinet over the dinette. This is a typical situation in a 5th wheel with the sloped ceiling where the builder simply covers the space with a panel. In this case, Northwood covers the space with its ubiquitous tweed-covered panel.
After removing the panel, we installed a shelf at the top of the cabinet. As you can see this is where we keep the stuffed animal souvenirs of our travels.
A close-up of the critters that ride along on the top of the cabinet. 3M double-stick tape on the top and bottom edges of the cabinet keep the little guys where they belong.
We couldn't just let that cabinet go at that, so we added a second shelf to the cabinet. The forward 3 sections are straightforward while the last section is designed to hold reference books upright. Rather than waste the space at the top, we created a small space under the books that's a great catch all for little stuff.
5. Shore Power Cord Storage: Our biggest project so far was moving the electrical shore power cord storage from the middle of the galley storage under the sink to a dedicated shelf over the hot water heater. Not only did we gain a wide-open storage space under the sink, we also enlarged the cord storage dramatically making it so much easier to store the shore power cord. A full write up on this project can be found here.
The original shore power cord storage is this 1-foot square box - too small to make a decent storage box and too big a waste of space in the galley.
Below is the new box we built over the hot water heater. Very roomy and out of the way. We have since changed the generator wiring and installed a 30A receptacle inside this compartment for the generator connection.
6. Forward Void: Up front there is another void next to the LP bottle storage and forward of the OEM battery compartment.
We've ordered another LP compartment door that we'll modify to fit the new compartment we're going to fabricate in this void. We're not sure on what will fit in there, but we're hoping to fit a high quality 2500W inverter and two additional AGM batteries.
