“Tongue Deck” for Wood Blocks and Other Cargo

The good news is that our new trailer has lots of ground clearance. The bad news is that I need a lot of wood blocks to support the stabilizer jacks -- without blocks, the jack pads barely reach the ground when fully extended! But where to carry all of those blocks? We used to carry some blocks in heavy-duty plastic baskets that went inside the trailer when we traveled -- but it was a hassle to put the baskets into the trailer and then take them out again, every time we stopped. Plus, the blocks can be wet or dirty, depending on conditions at the campsite.

So my older son came up with a clever idea -- he noticed that I had some sheets of heavy wire deck in my garage. He cut them to fit the underside of the tongue of the trailer and then anchored them into the underside of the trailer, using self-tapping sheet metal screws and some pipe strap.

Here is the underside of the deck -- you can click on the picture to enlarge it, and click back to get back:



And here is a view from the top -- my propane tanks are at the bottom of this picture, my battery boxes are on the sides, and the front wall of the trailer is at the top of the shot:



Better yet, in addition to my wood blocks, the deck can also store rolled-up tarps, collapsible camp chairs, or whatever, all well-secured with several trusty bungee cords.