As you can see it holds my spare, shovel, LPG gas bottle for the cooker, and a jerry can.
There is enough clearance to use the towball if needed.

The spare wheel and water can are held onto a steel frame by chain and turnbuckles. Time will tell if this is a strong enough solution.

There is a drop down jockey wheel to help support the swingout when its left open for some time. It has a foot that means it can't drop down unless the swingout is open, in case the adjuster bolt vibrates out.

There are 2 locks, one which clamps, and the other a slam latch as a fail-safe. The clamp is lockable as you can see.



I made a chain guide so the chain can't move down the sides of the tyre and so it doesn't grip the tyre at the front to make it easier to tighten from the back.

The Shovel holder goes through the spare and attaches at the back, you need to open (unlock) the swingaway to get the shovel off.

I'm really hoping the hinge is strong enough, it seems to be, but time will tell. The spotlight is wired through a relay to the reversing lights. Great for manouvering into a campsite at night.

Here you can just see the tap for the jerry can, and the checkerplate of the step.

A view from underneath, the swingaway and steps are attached via 2 short lengths of 50x5mm SHS and then via 10mm thick steel straps up under the body. Its the same method used to attach the towbar, so I reckon it should be more than tough enough.

A view from underneath, the swingaway is a 40x5mm SHS beam, only because I had it lying around. I would have preferred something bigger, but this should be well and truly strong enough for the job.
The brackets, and frames are mostly made from 1.8mm thick angle that my good neighbor donated.

Underneath it is bolted through the chassis on HT bolts via 10mm thick steel strap. Up top there are another 2 HT bolts through the step. The front of the two hangers in the picture is bolted on. I was originally welded till I discovered I couldn't actually get the thing on the van like that ;-)

When swung out you can release the straps that hold the table up and they act as braces to allow you to have the table at any angle you want, in case the van's parked on an angle I suppose :-) You can see the purpose made hole in the table that allows you to wash your hands whether the table's up or down. Just inside the back of the van is a bottle of soap and a towel on elastic.

You can fold up the back of the bed to allow access to the front 4 crates in the back of the van. Thats where the kitchen stuff and foods will be stored, so you won't have to take anything out of the van at all to get to cooking. (except maybe a seat to sit on while you cook)

The back of the shovel carrier.

The light simply gets shoved between the chain and the tyre. There's a couple of 12v plugs at the back of the van there wired through the auxillary battery.
Both the gas bottle and the water tank are locked on, to protect them from theiving gits.

The jockey wheel allows you to leave the swingaway open for long periods without putting undue stress on the hinge.

You can see the drawer slide. I've made it accommodate the plastic crates we use to store everything. Allows us flexibility in which order we store things, as well as making it easy to pack and unpack the van, or remove crates if we need to. Its on bearings (inline skate bearings to be precise :-) )
We can store a total of 8 of those crates + bags and things under the bed. 2 are full of recovery gear and spares. We have 4 for kitchen and food, and one is for odds and ends.