Where in Tarnashun are the Beans in the RV Pantry Cabinet ?!

Have you got an RV pantry like ours? 9 inches wide, 4 feet tall and 2 feet deep?

If I put something in the back of that sucker and then wait an hour; with my memory I can't have no idea of what I've got in the rv pantry! And way back in there, you can't see nuthin' ! It's a real hunt to find what you want.

I got tired of it for sure.

I figured there must be some sort of "off the shelf" system for RV interior storage that would slide right in to give us better access, but I've failed to find it, for sure and for certain.

Being the stubborn sort of fella that I am, I decided if the engineers won't or can't build a proper RV pantry, this old bronc rider sure could!

Heck even a Bull rider could figure this thing out!

Ya'll got to understand, a Bull rider ain't nuthin' but a Bronc Rider with his brains kicked out! ... But don't go tellin' that to a Bull rider! I was a Bareback Bronc rider ...quit just before I lost enough grey matter to ride into the Bull rider category!

That, and I figured with my last name (Gore) it was sort of a message from God... can't you hear it? Booming out of the clouds; "Brian, don't climb on a Bull!"

Back to that pantry! I'm going to do another RV remodel!

*** somewhere in here, is a can of beans, I know I put 'em in here ***

First thing I did was to pull out what shelves were there. Had to make room for the drawers I had planned. Second I added a pretty thick shim on one side to bring the wall of the RV pantry flush to the face frame for mounting the drawer slides.

At that point it was simply mounting the slides and putting the drawers in!

**** The Amerock Slides I used ****

'Cept it weren't quite that simple! You see the RV pantry cabinet is only 9" wide.........Little as I am, I'm wider than that! So getting in there to put the screws in the slides was a bit of an exercise in contortions!

But being stubborn occasionally pays off and I got 'er done!

Did I forget to mention that I built the drawers in preparation?

I built five RV pantry drawers...........so far I've only put four in. We got to thinking we may want to keep the bottom of the cabinet clear for bigger boxes and bags of stuff, so we'll wait a bit and see about that last drawer.

So now where we had had 4 shelves with miserable access, we now have 4 drawers, on full extension slides, and the bottom of the RV pantry. We gained a 'shelf" as well as full access to the back of the pantry. My old bones don't contort that well any more!

****All the RV Pantry Drawers installed****

It really is a pretty simple thing to improve your RV interior storage. With just a bit of scheming you can find all sorts of ways to utilize all the hidden nooks and crannies in your rig.

While I was doing this RV upgrade it hit me that putting a simple bar across the top of our RV cabinets in the kitchen area would make that space usable for misc boxes and such. A sizable addition to our pantry storage capacity!

***See the lighter colored rail across the top of the cabinets?***

Now we have an out of the way place for all sorts of lighter goods! And all it took was a piece of oak maybe 6' long. (it holds stuff from sliding off when we're bouncing down the two lane!)

Another place we found space while planning out this RV add-on is right above the new pantry drawers. You can see the space in the before and after pictures. The rigs manufacturer walled off a hefty chunk of real estate! 11" X 14" X 24" is my idea of a lot of wasted space.

All I had to do was remove the face panel and install a floor in the compartment. A pretty big compartment for almost no work or materials...................a shelf removed from the original pantry compartment formed the floor of a whole new compartment.

This compartment had originally been planned to house the electronics for a satellite internet system because of its location right next to the refrigerator vent shaft giving easy access to the roof. But... with our going the way of air card instead...

... we just added greater capacity to our panty area.

So there you have it. I can find the beans now with just a little tug on one of the drawers in our remodeled cabinet. I don't have to go spelunking for groceries any more!