Floor Bins

I have been asked for more detail about my floor bins and I've decided to make it publicly available. These are just what works for me and each builder will have to decide whether they want to add them and also whether the size and location is appropriate for their installation. I make absolutely no claims about the suitability for another craft! There are several issues that should be noted:

• My floorboard is wider than stock, perhaps about 1" on each side, and fits over the tubes on either side. There is only about 1-1/2" to 2" of width on the actual floor board left at a couple of places which means that these bins would probably be too wide for a stock floor board.
  
  
• I have not included a lateral dimension for their location as this is determined by the diagonal tube that runs under the floor. Basically, I located mine so that the angle stock and bins would just clear this tube.
  
  
• The easiest way to check the size and clearance is by placing the floor upside down on the workbench with both the front and center belly ribs attached with clecos. Before doing this, the floor should be put in place on the frame and a felt pen used to draw the location of the diagonal tube onto the bottom of the floor. One also needs to be aware of clearance requirements for SCAT tubing if they're routing heated cabin air to the front rib area.
  
  
• I chose to cut out the lids from the floor material using a saber saw with a fine bi-metal blade which allowed me to re-use the cutout and not require additional stock. I tried to keep the cuts as straight as possible so they did not require a lot of clean up afterwards which would have further widened the slot. The rear corners are radiused enough to let the blade make the corner smoothly while the front corners can be sharper since there is extra material that is removed to allow for the hinge width.
  
  
• Most of the lid supporting angle stock is 1" x 1" x 1/8" and the vertical part was trimmed to about 5/8" to save weight. Flush rivets were spaced relatively closely since these may be required to bear the weight of someone repeatedly stepping on them. Still, there's no need to jump on them and test their integrity. I used ~3/4" x ~1/2" x 1/16" angle under the hinges for added flex resistency.
  
  
• I chose to mount the bins to the outside of the angle stock. This gives an extra 1/4" in width and length, but it does have a couple of downsides. The bins cannot be removed after the floor has been installed and in my case, I couldn't attach the bins to the floor rails before installation. Thus I've attached the bins to the angle stock with plenty of nutplates and screws that are accessed from inside the bins. Since the bins couldn't be pre-installed, I just laid them on the belly pan, installed the floor and then lifted the pans into position before attaching them to the rails.
  
  
• The center side panel of both bins are removeable for access to the area under the floor, but because of the bins being mounted outside the rails this causes a unique installation arrangement. The top of these panels is on the outside of the rails, but the edges and bottom of the panel are inside the folds on the bin's sides and bottom. There is just enough of a gap at the top for the panel to be pushed in about an inch and then swung down and into position. The top of this panel has nutplates for the screws going through the rail and the screws on the sides and bottom first go through the panel and then into nutplates on the folded lips.
  
  
  
  I had hoped that the stagger between the sides for the removeable panels would give easy access to the whole area under the floorboard. However, the pilot's side is almost useless due to the position of my SCAT tube for cabin heat. From just the right side it's a difficult (but workable) reach to the rearmost area where the antenna is mounted. It would have been nice if the angled part of the inner side was also removeable but that is a somewhat difficult design with the way I mounted the bin on the outside of the rails ... something for the next implementer to think about as I'm not about to change mine.
  
  
• I used .025" 2024-T3 aluminum for the bins and this appears to be strong enough. However, if one plans on storing small but heavy items then the bottom of the floor might have a bit too much flex and require something like a thin sheet of plywood or masonite to distribute the load.
  
  
• These drawings are not to scale and are for illustration only ... unfortunately I don't have a drafting CAD program on the machine I'm using to write this on. It already takes me way too long to write this stuff up for no reward and I can't be bothered to draw these accurately since mine are already finished.
  
  
• There is also some dimensional variance since my pieces have already been bent and were ready for riveting when I took the measurements. One can assume +/- 1/16" or so.
  
  
• The orientation of the pieces is from looking down at the bins with the various side pieces flopped outwards.
  
  
• I had a thin coating of truck bed liner sprayed on the inside of the bins as this will give a very durable surface with a slight roughness to the texture. This worked well, but it's important to convince the applicator to just apply a thin layer since they normally apply a much thicker layer than required for this application and it's a relatively heavy material.
  
  
• I looked at quite a few different fasteners and latches that might work on these. Eventually I ended up using Southco 62-70-11 latches that I purchased from Austin Hardware.

LID CUTOUTs and POSITION

The distance from the bin lid on the pilot's side to the seat front (2-3/4 above) should probably be increased a bit. While this dimension will clear the cyclic pivot, it can interfere with the stick extension below the pivot unless the cyclic stick is pushed forward.

CROSS-SECTION

PILOT's SIDE

PASSENGER SIDE

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Last updated: February 08, 2009