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Furniture & Storage

Space is quite critical in a small van like the Suzuki Carry when it has been turned into a micro-campervan! Now that might just be an under-statement!

Table

There is a small table that attached to the kitchen unit. It has a fold down leg. It can either be stored in-place, or it can be detached and stored at the back of the van between the kitchen and the rear door.

The leg and attachments came from "Leisureshop Direct". I did consider the idea of having the table on one of the "Island" type centre poles. However, due to the lack of height in the van, I would have needed to cut a hole in the metal floor of the van. Until I decided on the exact location of the furniture, it wouldn't have been a good idea to start cutting holes if they need to be moved afterwards! In theory, the pole could have legs or a base built, but it all seemed a bit wobbly to say the least!

Under the sink and cooker

There are four compartments under the sink/hob unit. (See the kitchen section for more info).

1. The first cupboard if the locker for the gas cylinder. Access to is is from the front (side) in the doorway. There is a ventilation hole through the floor in this section.
2. The right-hand cupboard. This sits vertically above the gas cylinder cupboard and below the burner unit. There is a "roof" to this cupboard to prevent anything put in there from disturbing the very fine gas pipes. In here is stored tea, coffee, chocolate drinks, sugar, salt, cutlery, torch, fresh water, first aid kit. As this is the easiest cupboard to get to when sitting, a lot of the day to day stuff is stored in there. I found some small plastic (pink) baskets in a DIY store. These keep everything tidy and stops the content from spilling through-out the cupboard.
3. Middle cupboard. Pots, pans, dried food, water, washing-up bowl, liquid, cooking oil, mugs, wipes etc etc.
4. Left cupboard. Free space - quite a size. Enough for a sleeping bag, pillow etc. This cupboard has a vent hole out to the rear of the van. The van already had this vent hole, so I left a hole in the wall panel to keep some sort of air flow.

Under the bed/seat

There are three main sections for storage under the bed.

1. The food store. Because of the shape of the van floor, the back section is only just about tall enough to store tins and other food items if they are on their side. Obviously anything else that sort of size could go there.
2. The middle section has a storage space like the low rear section, and then a deeper section that stores the leisure power-pack and the electrics.
3. The first section - under the main seat is available for bags, boots, shoes etc etc. Access is via a front panel, or from the driver's side sliding door.

Behind the seats

To square off the carpet nicely (the van floor starts to rise up towards the front seats), I boxed this section in. Half of it becomes the front end of the bed, but the half nearest the passenger side hinges open for store...Large umbrella, stiff carpet brush, carrier bags for shopping, odds and ends.

With the passenger-seat moved forwards, the cool-box sits on this section quite neatly, which keeps it out of the way of the door way.

This size is a coincidence - there are several in the van! For example, did you know that the space between the top of the seat and the van wall is more or less 10cm. That happens to be the thickness of the foam cushions which overlap the seat if the seat is in the back-most position!

Magazine holders

Scattered on most walls of the van are the elasticated magazine type holders - useful for books, take-away menus, walking guides etc

Back of seat hold-all

The passenger seat has a back of seat pocket hold-all from Halfords - holds hand wash, tape measure, pens, tape etc

Cargo Net

I looked for quite some time for this and finally found a cargo net that exactly fits the inner size of the Carry roof space. Think it's advertised as 75cm before stretching. It has bungee rope type ends so can be put up or taken down easily. Handy for at night for putting clothes etc aside. Also had the advantage of being soft on the head if you get up suddenly in the night!

3D images

I'm currently playing with Google's SketchUp. It allows you to build 3D images relatively easily, although it takes time to learn the techniques. There are videos to show how to do things, which are very good. As I get the hang of it, I'll upload more images created with it. One great feature is that you can "fly around" the objects, and save them as an avi video. Here is a test one I created of the kitchen unit. Please note that it is not to scale!

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