trying to create more storage

[riceman]

Very excited about our Raptor and I (DW) am still getting things situated and stored. The bathroom, although a nice size, is lacking shelf space for towels. I have a closet/shelf organizer with 3 shelves (made of cloth) that I would like to attach to the bedroom wall just outside the bathroom- BUT- DH is afraid to try and hang it. Our walls have aluminum studs... Question is how do you hang anything? What type of "screw" do you use and is the wall thick enough to hold something like this. We also have 2 sets of ladders, one for loft and one for bed in garage....Where do you store these? We tried putting the one for the loft - in the loft - but they have a pretty metal thingy (suppose its to keep anyone from rolling off) that doesn't allow you to get the ladder up there. We would like to hang them on the walls in the garage but again we are afraid to put any thing in the walls. What do you guys do? There is no storage space in the garage....would love to be able to put things on the walls, just don't know what to use.

We are hoping to get on the road for a quick weekend getaway in a few weeks...would love to have this taken care of by then.

Any info you can share is greatly appreciated!!
Thanks!
Corrie

[happytrails]

It would be nice to know what others are doing because I have done some wiring mods in mine and I know that the walls are just 1/4 or 1/8 inch luan board. That's not much if you're trying to hold something of any kind of weight that will also be bouncing down the road. I have seen parts of the metal studs but I have no idea how wide they are at their bases to be able to get screws through for good support.

Toggle bolts would work well, but I would be worried about the coming through the luan with the bouncing. Hopefully someone can shed some light on this. I have noticed that all of my existing shelves go from floor to ceiling and the cabinets are either mounted to the floor or to the ceiling and not much except light-weight fixtures are mounted directly to the wall.

[f6bits]

My toilet alcove is exactly 24” wide so I installed a two-foot shelf for our towels. Since it goes end-to-end, I used small L-brackets at the front corners and on the back. There’s no outward pull this way so I didn’t need to tap the studs.

[hankpage]

Outside walls are metal studs inside are wood. Find the studs with a stud finder or spraying the outside with cold water (the outline of the metal studs will be visible) Measure to a known location like a window or door and transpose the measurement inside. Self drilling screws of the proper length will secure shelves or brackets. Be careful not to go through to the other side. Once all the screws are in back them out one at a time and put a small dab of Liquid Nails on each and put them back in. This keeps them from vibrating out on the road. Hope this helps, Hank

[riceman]

Originally Posted by hankpage

Outside walls are metal studs inside are wood. Find the studs with a stud finder or spraying the outside with cold water (the outline of the metal studs will be visible) Measure to a known location like a window or door and transpose the measurement inside. Self drilling screws of the proper length will secure shelves or brackets. Be careful not to go through to the other side. Once all the screws are in back them out one at a time and put a small dab of Liquid Nails on each and put them back in. This keeps them from vibrating out on the road. Hope this helps, Hank

Hi Hank-
The place where I want to hang it is actually an outside wall with the metal studs. Do you think it will still work and what size screw should I use? The organization shelf I want to use is all cloth. I know if I put to screws at top and two on bottom it will work- just don't know what size or kind. http://www.bedbathandbeyond.com/prod...038184&RN=303&

Thanks!

[Kellykakes]

I would like to add one of these types of shelving systems to the kitchen cabinets in our Raptor when it arrives. Has anyone installed one of these yet? How did you do it without going through the wall and making sure it can accommodate the weight of the contents on the shelves? Thanks!

[hankpage]

Originally Posted by Kellykakes

I would like to add one of these types of shelving systems to the kitchen cabinets in our Raptor when it arrives. Has anyone installed one of these yet? How did you do it without going through the wall and making sure it can accommodate the weight of the contents on the shelves? Thanks!

Using standard shelf hardware wire shelving is easy to install just us short screws. If you do a forum search for "shelves" or a similar subject you should find many examples . This photo shows one of my shelves. I install my shelves upsidedown to keep things from sliding off and opening doors.

[michol02]

Not sure if you would want to do this, but I removed my second bathroom door going to the bedroom, and built a shelf in its place. It has plenty of room for towels, bottles, girly stuff, and a laundry basket at the bottom.

[riceman]

I ended up hanging the shelves (made from cloth) in the closet and put my towels there. We couldn't get any specs on the walls and were afraid to put holes in the walls not knowing where wires were.
Hope you have better luck!

[billmill3461]

I have used an adjustable shower curtain rod to go from wall to wall and hung a cloth storage shelf from it. Might work for you?

[Kellykakes]

Originally Posted by hankpage

Using standard shelf hardware wire shelving is easy to install just us short screws. If you do a forum search for "shelves" or a similar subject you should find many examples . This photo shows one of my shelves. I install my shelves upsidedown to keep things from sliding off and opening doors.

Thanks Hank. I did do a search and didn't quite find what I was looking for. The link below gives the "flavor" of what I was asking in my original post. I want to put in adjustable shelves similar to this in my kitchen cabinets.

http://www.containerstore.com/shop/e...009443&N=73671

[JRTJH]

I don't know if you'll be able to get what you linked in your post to work. Those shelves just lay on top of the shelf supports. Going down the road, they'll bounce off and probably dump your contents. If you're looking at that type of shelf system, you'll need to find one that secures the shelves to the supports.

[Kellykakes]

The Elfa brand shelves from the Container Store do secure into the support bracket. Now, how secure the brackets are from jumping out of the rails is another concern, but might be easy to address. I have this system at home in my scrapbook room and love, love, love it. I just didn't want to invest in another system if the RV walls were unable to support the weight of the shelf contents (the shelves themselves are lightweight).

I saw on the web someone has done this in their RV, I just haven't been able to track down that person to get a response on how it is working out.

[Kellykakes]

http://blog.woodalls.com/2010/05/kit...y-life-easier/

[Bob Landry]

Originally Posted by hankpage

Using standard shelf hardware wire shelving is easy to install just us short screws. If you do a forum search for "shelves" or a similar subject you should find many examples . This photo shows one of my shelves. I install my shelves upsidedown to keep things from sliding off and opening doors.

I used this same wire shelf system in my first trailer. If you use plenty of the plastic mounts, the weight of the shelf and it's contents are well distributed and the shelf will hold about anything including dishes and/or canned goods. All of the stress on the screw is going to be downward as opposed to the leverage created by something hanging on the wall and bouncing down the road.
I went a step farther and ripped small strips of wood and attached them in the corners with small wood screws and glue so the shelves would have additional support

Just a tip, when you get ready to install them, go to Harbor Freight and spend $8 on a pair of 1/4" bolt cutters to cut the shelving with. It's much faster than a hacksaw and your arm will thank you.

[SteveC7010]

If you are worried about keeping the Closetmaid or similar wire shelving in place, pick up a bag of these in the electrical aisle of any hardware store or home improvement center. The small 1/4" ones are fine. Just a couple of them strategically placed with a small screw will keep the shelf from ever coming up out of the mounts.

[SteveC7010]

You could also use something like this to expand space in cupboards and closets:

[SteveC7010]

We also found some racks like this and placed them in some of the cupboards to increase space. I used the wire clamps above to hold them to the walls of the cupboard. Then we used plastic baskets to put stuff in. The baskets were just the right size for the cupboards and racking so nothing slid around, and no surprises when opening a cupboard after a day's travel.

[Kellykakes]

Thanks Bob and Steve.