LJ Trunk Enclosure

And my final piece of the installation . . . Making it a little more difficult to get into for the partially motivated. The highly motivated will be able to break into anything so this is just to keep the amateurs at bay. I drilled holes and took a pair of 3/8 x 1 1/4" button head bolts and passed them through. I attached a set of hook and eye turnbuckles to those and looped them through the tie downs on the floor of my Jeep. With both nuts on, and a locking washer, someone with the an allen wrench will find it challenging to back out the bolts. I'm debating if I should fill the hole with JB Weld and hit them with black paint.

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I just found this forum and so far am very impressed. I have a 2006 LJ and have been looking for some sort of trunk enclosure. I am not wanting to spend the ~ $500 for the Tuffy (for either the Security Deck enclosure or the Security Drawer). I also want to avoid the ~ 90 lbs that the Security Drawer weighs. Your solution seems to be what I have been looking for. Thank you for posting the drawing.

I have a couple of questions. How much weight does the top support? Did you have it made by a local shop or a friend? I am trying to get an idea of how much it will cost (altho anything is likely to be cheaper than the Tuffy). I am not sure I understand your comments in post 16 about what you would change. What are your overall impressions now that you have been using it for awhile.

TIA for any information you can give me.

Mark
 
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@AeroncaChamp - Sorry for the delay in response but I've been on the road for a couple of weeks at conferences and it didn't leave a lot of time for me to tackle anything personal.

I had a friend who owns a tool and die shop refer me to a couple of his suppliers for quotes. The first shop quoted me $350 for aluminum. The second shop quoted me $200 for 1/8" diamond plate steel. The $200 did include a friends and family discount so I expect the cost for someone off the street would have been about $300. I went the cheaper of the two routes because I was still in the experimentation phase.

The 1/8" steel trunk weighs ~50lbs but that's an educated guess because I haven't actually put it on a scale. Even with that weight, I've been able to easily take it in and out a couple of times when I've had to move large items. Personally I'm still a little nervous to sit on it myself (175lbs) but my 100lb daughter sits on hers all the time. If you were nervous about the amount it could support you could easily attach some C-Channel across it and it would give you all of the support you needed. All in all, I'm very pleased with the way it turned out and would recommend it for someone looking for a secured enclosure. If you give me a day I can re-do my drawing to take into the account the changes I mentioned in post #16.
 
Just because we can never leave things alone, I updated my plans once again. While I'm still very pleased with how the "trunk" turned out, I've never been quite happy with the way it sits on the tailgate striker brace on the driver side along the back wall. To remedy this, I've changed the size of the cutout along the back edge facing the tailgate to take the brace into account as well as the catch on the tailgate itself. Everything else is spot on for what I was planning. Here are my updated plans.

If you want it to cover the striker brace, then update the 4 1/2" measurement to 8" and change the 8 1/2" measurement to 5" maintaining the overall width of 54".
 

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Try this!

I fab'ed up my own version at work recently out of cardboard and all the guys I work with couldn't understand why I wouldn't just buy a box like this. Because it's not what I want. That's why. Lol

Russel I still have plans to build my own soon, albeit slightly modified from your design. Life has been busy the last couple of months and I hope to have some nice developments at home soon.

Hint : it starts with "detached" and ends with "garage" [emoji16]
 
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Try this!

Because anyone can find a box that fits in the back area to lock and secure stuff. I'm more interested in seeing what I can build on my own and make it look as if it belonged there all the time.

Russel I still have plans to build my own soon, albeit slightly modified from your design. Life has been busy the last couple of months and I hope to have some nice developments at home soon.

I'm still interested to see what you come up with. A hinged option sounds like it would hit the sweet spot but was more engineering than I have time for at this time. Hopefully my measurements will help you out with what you're designing.
 
Followed the plans included here and fabbed up a trunk this weekend. Version 1 for me is plywood, till I can find someone to fab a metal version. Also made mine so it'll break down to two pieces for storage in my tiny garage. Followed the plans here and ended up taking an inch of either side so I could get it in and out of my LJ without taking the top down. Also, I moved back my seat brackets to gain about 4 inches of legroom for my boy, so have to modify those dimensions as well.
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Followed the plans included here and fabbed up a trunk this weekend. Version 1 for me is plywood, till I can find someone to fab a metal version. Also made mine so it'll break down to two pieces for storage in my tiny garage. Followed the plans here and ended up taking an inch of either side so I could get it in and out of my LJ without taking the top down. Also, I moved back my seat brackets to gain about 4 inches of legroom for my boy, so have to modify those dimensions as well.

Nice!!! I'm glad that you were able to use them as a starting point for your build. What part of Atlanta are you in? I'll ask some of my buddies if there's a good tool & die shop that's convenient for you. If you know of any good 4x4 shops that do their own fabrication it should be a snap for them to source and cut a piece of metal to your specs.
 
Nice!!! I'm glad that you were able to use them as a starting point for your build. What part of Atlanta are you in? I'll ask some of my buddies if there's a good tool & die shop that's convenient for you. If you know of any good 4x4 shops that do their own fabrication it should be a snap for them to source and cut a piece of metal to your specs.

Northwest up in Kennesaw. Yea, I was thinking I might have a shop do something similar in metal where I can unbolt it and have two pieces. Glad to have something back there to keep some gear out of sight.


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Followed the plans included here and fabbed up a trunk this weekend. Version 1 for me is plywood, till I can find someone to fab a metal version. Also made mine so it'll break down to two pieces for storage in my tiny garage. Followed the plans here and ended up taking an inch of either side so I could get it in and out of my LJ without taking the top down. Also, I moved back my seat brackets to gain about 4 inches of legroom for my boy, so have to modify those dimensions as well. View attachment 18566View attachment 18567



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What is the purpose of the cut out section near the latch and your Steeler's sticker? Is that so you can grab it with your hand with the trunk closed and lift it? Do you have a hinge behind the rear seat so you can raise it up? Looks nice, especially with the carpet finish...
 
The cut out section near the latch is necessary to wrap around the plastic housing surrounding the latch on the tailgate.

My design won't work with a hinge without modification. The sides wrap around the roll bars and that prevents the top from being able to lifted up if it was hinged across the back. I did consider a hinge but that would mean I would have had to design a way to level the deck and have it catch & lock. I just wanted something that was as secure as possible.

The sticker is "THWG" which stands for "To Hell with Georgia!" I'm a Georgia Tech alumni :-D
 
Also want to pass a long a big thank you for this thread! I have a local fab shop in KC that has quoted me $150 to make it out of 1/8 diamond plate and $215 for 3/16. The only issue they have is they don't have a press heavy enough to bend the metal so they would have to cut and weld. With my seats in the weld would have minimal visibility and these guys do really nice work so I know they will make it look good. I am also looking into having them weld some D-Rings on the inside to secure it, and possibly 4 on the corners of the top to strap a cooler or other gear down. I am going to do a quick cardboard mock-up to check fit and see if I want to make any other tweaks, but my initial review with a tape measure looks great. Also considering a cut-out for a subwoofer, but just getting crazy there. Hope to have it done in a couple of weeks and will add some pics.
 
Can't wait to see the pics. Still would love to have mine redone in metal for a more secure solution.
 
I cut a template out of cardboard using the pdf dimensions and fit it. I'm definitely going to make this enclosure. Probably a wooden version like shown above.

I may try to raise it 2 inches with blocks on the sides so I can get my 14-1/2 inch tall tow junk 20mm ammo military box under there.

I need to pick a plywood thickness to maximize rigidity and minimize weight.

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I moved past the cardboard stage. After some measuring and calculating I came up with this version out of 1/2 plywood. I'll finish making the sides, the scrap on the side raises it 2.5 inches. That puts it at 15 inches under. Its 40.75" to put it between the roll bars. It clears the latch in back.

I plan on paint and carpet on the outside. A rubber piece between the trunk and board and a hook to secure it to the floor. Of it needs more rigidity, I'll add a 1x2 or 2x2 strip to the top at the back and front. I may do that anyway and run eyebolts through for tie downs.

I'll add plans with dimensions when I'm done.

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