--- title: "Custom RV Storage Build Outs | Rancho Santa Margarita" description: "Slide out cargo trays, basement bay shelving, E-track tie downs and van upfit storage built and mounted to structure at $210 per hour in our Yorba Linda shop." focus_keyword: "custom rv storage build outs rancho santa margarita" canonical: https://ocrv.me/services/custom-fabrication/custom-storage-solutions/ kind: subService updated: 2026-07-29 source: OCRV Center --- # Custom Storage Build Outs for Coaches, Vans and Work Vehicles > Storage that is **mounted to floor skin instead of structure** tears out on the first hard stop. Bay trays, shelving and tie down systems run **$750 to $7,500+** at $210 per hour. ## How is custom RV and van storage designed and installed? Custom storage build outs put drawers, slide out trays, shelving and tie down track into bays and cargo areas, anchored through backing plates into real structure. Rancho Santa Margarita owners and fleets use our Yorba Linda shop for work that has to survive a panic stop, not just look organized. - Every anchor lands on structure with a backing plate behind it - Load goes forward of the rear axle whenever the layout allows - Slide out trays are chosen by rated capacity, not by width - LP is never stored in a sealed unvented compartment ### Key facts | Item | Value | | --- | --- | | Price range | $750 to $7,500+ (5 to 35 labor hours at $210 per hour) | | Labor rate | $210 per hour (Body and paint department) | | Typical turnaround | 3 to 12 shop days (Multi bay coach builds run to the long end) | | Written estimate | $150 (Credited in full against an authorized repair) | | Systems used | Adrian Steel, Ranger Design, Weather Guard, E-track and L-track, rated ball bearing slides | | Fleet work | Multi unit builds staged so identical layouts repeat exactly across a fleet | Storage that fails does not fail gradually. It holds perfectly for a year and then a panic stop on the 91 turns a drawer of tools into a projectile that goes through a bulkhead. That is the scenario every storage build should be designed against, and it is the reason the interesting part of this work is what happens behind the panel rather than the drawer faces the owner sees. The other half of the job is where the weight goes. A coach or a work van has a payload figure and an axle rating, and a build out that puts three hundred pounds of gear in the rearmost bay has spent that budget in the worst possible place. We lay out storage against the axle line first and against the owner's convenience second, then find the compromise that keeps both honest. ## Designing to the panic stop, not to the photograph A storage build has two audiences. One is the owner looking at neat drawer faces and thinking about how organized the vehicle finally is. The other is physics, on a day when traffic stops faster than expected on the 91 and everything in the vehicle keeps traveling at the speed it was. The second audience is the one that decides whether the build was well made. That standard drives every hardware decision. Latches that hold under load rather than latches that click nicely. Slides rated well above working weight rather than at it. Anchors that pass through structure rather than into it. None of that shows in a photograph, which is exactly why it is the part that gets skipped by installers competing on price. ## What proper anchoring actually looks like In a cargo van, the floor is a shaped steel skin with structural members running underneath it. A screw into the skin between members has almost no pull out resistance under dynamic load, and it will hold beautifully during the test where somebody tugs on the shelf with their hands. Under a real deceleration it tears out and takes a section of floor with it. The correct approaches are a backing plate spreading load across the underside, a rivnut set into a member that can take the load, or a bolt through a structural crossmember. Each penetration gets sealed and treated, because a drilled steel floor with a bare edge is a corrosion origin that works from underneath where nobody inspects. In a coach basement bay, the equivalent conversation is about the bay framing and the floor structure rather than the bay liner. - Backing plates under floor anchors, always, in sheet metal - Rivnuts into structural members where the underside is unreachable - Every penetration sealed and cavity treated at installation - Rated track rather than hooks wherever cargo changes trip to trip ## Weight distribution as a design input Every vehicle has a payload figure and individual axle ratings, and a storage build is a permanent claim against both. What separates a good layout from a merely convenient one is where that claim lands. Heavy items forward of the rear axle load the vehicle roughly the way the chassis engineers intended. The same items in the rearmost bay reduce load on the steering axle and make the vehicle less settled at speed. This is one of the few areas where we will push back on an owner's preferred layout. The rearmost bay is at a comfortable height and easy to reach, which is exactly why it fills up with generators, tools and water. Moving that load forward two bays costs nothing at build time and is essentially impossible to change afterward, so we have the argument up front. > **note:** If you are near your payload limit already, tell us at design. Aluminum framed construction costs more than plywood and can save enough weight to matter on a build that is already close to the line. ## Aluminum framing, Baltic birch and commercial shelving Three construction approaches cover almost everything we build. Aluminum framed panels give the best strength to weight and the cleanest look, at the highest cost and with the least field repairability. Baltic birch and marine grade plywood build strong, quiet, easily modified cabinetry that any competent shop in the country can repair, at a real weight penalty. Commercial steel and composite shelving from Adrian Steel, Ranger Design or Weather Guard is fast to fit, proven in service and ideal when a fleet needs twelve identical vans. Which one we recommend depends on whether the vehicle is a personal build or a working asset. An overland coach that is fighting for every pound gets aluminum. A plumbing van that will be reconfigured twice before it is sold gets commercial shelving. A one off mobile workshop where the owner has strong opinions about layout gets plywood, because it is the material that accepts changes gracefully. ## What a storage build costs Storage work bills at $210 per hour from the body and paint department and runs $750 to $7,500 and up. A single slide out cargo tray with rated slides and proper structural anchoring sits at the bottom. A complete basement build across four bays on a diesel coach, with trays, lighting, tie down track and finished panels, passes the top of the range. Body supplies bill at $5 per body hour, parts and hardware carry standard markup, and sales tax applies to parts and materials with labor untaxed. Jobs over $2,000 take a 50 percent deposit at authorization. The $150 written estimate documents the layout and hardware before work starts and is credited in full against an authorized repair. ## Fleet builds and why repeatability matters When a fleet standardizes a vehicle layout, the value is not in any single build. It is in a technician being able to open any van in the yard and find the same part in the same place, and in a replacement vehicle being outfitted to match without anybody re deciding anything. We document the first build in enough detail that unit twelve is genuinely identical to unit one rather than approximately similar. We also stage fleet work rather than taking a whole fleet off the road at once. Vehicles rotate through in groups sized to what the operation can spare, which is a scheduling conversation as much as a fabrication one, and it is usually the part that determines whether a fleet upgrade actually happens. ## Vehicles we build storage into Cargo vans and Sprinters make up the bulk of the work, split between commercial upfits and camper builds. Diesel pusher basement bays are the largest single projects, since a full pass through bay can take a slide out tray long enough to need its own support strategy. Toy haulers get tie down track and tool storage in the garage. Utility trucks and mobile workshops get the layouts that have to survive daily use by somebody who is not being gentle. ## Cost $750 to $7,500+, based on 5 to 35 labor hours at $210 per hour. Written repair estimate is $150, credited in full against an authorized repair. All work is performed in shop. ## Questions and answers ### Can shelving just be screwed into a van floor? Not safely. The floor is shaped sheet metal with structure underneath, and a screw between members has almost no resistance to a dynamic load. Anchors need a backing plate on the underside, a rivnut into a member, or a bolt through a crossmember. Every penetration then gets sealed so it does not start corroding from below. ### Where should the heaviest gear live in a storage build? Forward of the rear axle whenever the layout allows. Weight in the rearmost bay unloads the steering axle and makes the vehicle less settled at speed. The back bay is the easiest to reach, which is exactly why it fills up with the heaviest things. Moving that load forward at design time costs nothing. ### How do you choose the slides for a cargo tray? By rated working load with real margin, not by the width of the tray. A slide that handles a load statically can still flex and bind once the vehicle is moving and the load is bouncing. We specify well above the actual working weight and then verify travel at full load before the vehicle goes back to the owner. ### Can I build a compartment to carry propane cylinders? Only as a proper LP locker, which means sealed from the interior and vented at the bottom to the outside, since propane vapor is heavier than air and collects low. Adapting a general storage bay by adding a door is not equivalent and is genuinely dangerous. If you need LP carriage, say so at design and it gets built correctly. ### Is aluminum framing worth the extra cost over plywood? It is when weight matters. Aluminum framed panels save meaningful mass on a build that is already close to its payload limit, and they look cleaner. Plywood is quieter, cheaper, easier to modify later and repairable by any shop in the country. The right answer depends on whether the vehicle is a personal build or a working tool. ### Can you build the same layout across an entire fleet? Yes, and that is usually the point. We document the first vehicle in enough detail that every subsequent unit is identical rather than similar, so a technician can open any van and find the same item in the same place. Vehicles are staged through in groups so the operation is never short more units than it can spare. --- Source: [OCRV Center](https://ocrv.me/services/custom-fabrication/custom-storage-solutions/). Last verified 2026-07-29.