I have been looking at adding additional storage to the rear of my trailer and mount it to the bumper. The problems I faced with this idea was either too expensive - upward of $600, too big, or too heavy. I wanted to accomplish this under $150. I found a bumper mount from Mount-N-Lock.com for about $70 and bought a Rubbermaid Action Packer 35 Gallon locking storage chest for about $68. All of the hardware items I found at Walmart or Home Depot for less than $15. This past weekend I mounted the support arms, and secured the chest to the support arms using 3/4 carriage bolts, washers, and plastic female screw knobs. I wanted the options of removing the chest at anytime so the plastic screw knobs worked perfect for this project. Lastly, I added some round red self-adhesive reflectors for the back and yellow oval reflectors for the side of the chest. It looks great! I stow my plastic leveling blocks, pads and ramps, shore power cable, surge protector, 50 to 30amp adapter, self coiling garden hose, and the swing arm for the BBQ. I kept the pin bolt for the swing arm for the BBQ and left the mount that was factory bolted to the bumper. When I want to use the BBQ, I pull out the swing arm from the storage chest, insert it into the bumper mount, and insert the pin. I will upload pictures of the entire project soon.
****** Another thing to note! ******** If you do this for your own RV
****** DO NOT OVERLOAD ******* I only have about 85lbs total stored in this added storage. Mostly all of the bulky plastic leveling stuff that took up space in my cargo storage at the front of the trailer. I'm not counting the weight of the BBQ swing arm because that was already factory mounted on the bumper. I would not recommend putting a lot of weight on the rear bumper so be mindful and smart! Otherwise you may void your warranty!
Looks good!! I was considering doing the same to my 2015 ST220RB but I don't trust the welds for the bumper as they are only about 1 inch tack welds. I still may go ahead and do it but I will weld up the bumper better than from the factory. Even though it is only 85 lbs you say, you have now created a fulcrum on the bumper. After use, check your welds and report back if possible. Thanks and happy camping!!
Looks good. I am trying to see inside how we can move weight to the rear of the camper. So far, this seems to be the leading solution for us as well, just not 100% on weight on bumper and moving so many things that I like being up front.
I took my first camping trip to Monterey, CA since I added the bumper storage. I inspected all the welds underneath and so far so good. I did notice that the welds on my trailer were much more than 1 inch tack welds but not the entire width of the bumper mounting brackets. That being said, I would agree with Igmire01. I am going to beef up the welds for my trailer bumper mounts. A friend of mine has a relative who is mobile and can come to my trailer and do the welds for about $90. I think the $90 is worth booting my confidence level alone! As far as the storage - it worked out great and I was still able to use my bumper mounted BBQ!
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