SUV Lumber Carrier

I imagine that I am like many of you in the need to haul stuff in your vehicle. I do a fair amount of my own work around my home which covers everything from landscaping, to home repair, and occasional remodeling. I have two vehicles, a sedan and an SUV.  When the situation arises that I need to haul some lumber home from the local DIY store the SUV is my best choice, but not ideal.

I had frequently rented the "truck" that most of these places offer, but that had its own drawback.  Many times the load I needed to haul was not that large, but simply one that our SUV could not handle without damaging the inside.  At one point I decided to sit down and figure out how I might build some type of carrier into my SUV to allow me to haul some of these loads without dependence on rental trucks and the like.  I had attempted to shove enough loads of wood and other items in my SUV by this time that I felt I know what design elements I needed to address.

Below I explain my solution and provide pictures. 

The primary requirement for the carrier was that it should not place any heavy weight on the existing seats or other vulnerable interior part of my vehicle.  The interior of my SUV (like most I am sure) is long enough to allow for 8 ft long pieces to be contained within it.  My 2002 Mitsubishi Montero can take up to 9 ft long boards inside.

The design I came up with was comprise of two pieces.  First there is a larger part in the rear of the SUV which supported most of the weight.  Second is a smaller piece that fits behind the front driver/passenger seats and in front of the second row bench seat.  The two parts are shown here.  The 2x4 next to them is used to connect the two parts together.

The rear main part supports whatever load in two places for more stability.  This can probably be improved if I find the time.  You know the saying, "It is amazing how many temporary solutions end up being the final solution".

The front piece fits behind the front seat and cantilevers towards the passenger side of the vehicle.  The small pieces of wood that act as feet are necessary in my vehicle to allow the unit to be higher than the hump down the middle of the vehicle for the drive-train.  You can also notice that I placed two eye-bolts on the top board to allow easy tied-down of the load during transit.

Because of the cantilever design, there will be a lot of stress wanting to pull the far end of the support apart.  To counter this I placed straps over and under this end to strenghten it further.  The straps are simple flat metal straps used for deck building that I pounded into the shape I needed.

Here are the two pieces inside the Montero with the 2x4 connecting them.  The 2x4 is to steady the cantilever piece up front.  Bolts are used to connect all the pieces.  To fit the pieces the back seat is folded forward which then lies flat and the passenger seat sis reclined nearly to a prone position. 

Another picture inside the Montero with a load of 2x4's.  This picture has 20 2x4s.  I have loaded up to 60 at a time. 

 This is a picture looking in from the driver side passenger door.

And from the other side on the passenger side you can see the end of the cantilever section.  

As you can see from this lower shot on the passenger side, the load of 2x4s does not rest any weight on the seats.  It is completely suspended above them.

This last picture shows the the load extended into the front passenger area.  As mentioned before, I can haul lumber up to 9 feet in length, but have to be extra careful as the load nearly touches the dash of my SUV.

This rig has proved to by very valuable to me as I have saved a significant amount on truck rentals from the area DIY stores and it has seen duty hauling all sorts of odd loads.  If I have a really large load I still rent the self service trucks, but now that is a rarity.  At times it takes me more that one load, but if I rent the truck I still have to drive home, unload and return to the store a second time anyway to return the truck.  And I am trying to do this quickly as to not be charged more and to allow the next person waiting for the truck to get it sooner.  With my home-made hauler I don't have to rush.

One downside is that there is no room for a passenger, so I have to go alone or anyone going with me has to drive separately. 

Thanks for reading and I hope you enjoyed the pictures.