My van has a thin-ish ply lining. I want to attach some d-ring lashing points to the ply wall and floor, without screwing in to any of the metal work.

I’m not going to be lashing down anything big and weighty, just have a few more options for bungy-ing the bikes to and attaching these to

also while I’m asking about hardware…. does anyone know where I can source some of these (or something similar)?

Those D-rings are often for sale on eBay. I’ve seen them for Vivaro/Trafic. They ain’t cheap.

As for the screws, any wood screw will do it, just check the length. The more you can fit the less stress will be on each. If you know where the internal pillars are behind the ply then you should be able to drill/screw into that for a stronger fitting too.

Is it not easier just to drill a couple of holes in the ply?

Will work fine with hooks on bungy cord or that net … less so with rope (or below)

Couple of holes in the ply and then loop some rope through them to create an anchor point.

There’ll be a void behind the plywood so you don’t need to worry about the screws being so short as to no go through. You’re not going to get a wood screw thats useful at less than 12mm long really, and if the ply is thin you want the screw threads gripping the ply all the way through, rather than having a screw thats mostly the pointy bit.

As an easily available screw the ‘Gold Screws’ sold in B&Q and Screwfix have a nice deep thread to prevent them pulling out, don’t bother with the ‘Gold Screw Plus’ or ‘Turbo Gold’ as the latter in particular has less bite.

Personally though I’d be using the self drilling screws in Screwfix that are used for fixing flooring to steel – then screw through the ply where theres steel behind to get a proper fix

Thanks Scot – just found some vivaro ones on sale on eBay. Not a bad price until I add in P&P.

Ro5ey – I’m planning to carpet line the ply. I want it to look neat, rather than just have a load of holes in the ply.

waiting for the “how to patch hole in van panel after screw came through”

Remember to avoid countersunk screws as you’ll have even less grip with them.

😆 TR – if I had the know how I’d do exactly what Maccruise says and fix to steel, but I am worried about screwing right through the side of the van!

I’m not giving up on the holes …. don’t know why, I’m just a bit bored.

Carabinas… a quick google tells me they are £3 a pop and you can match the colours of the carabinas to the carpet… or if your in touch with your interior design (and it sounds like you are 😀 ) contrast the colours for a stylist but cheap alternative.

In my very best northern blonde bird from Changing Rooms voice…. “I think it works reeeeeallly wellllll”

TR – if I had the know how I’d do exactly what Maccruise says and fix to steel, but I am worried about screwing right through the side of the van!

If you do that just make a feature of it – hang a picture on it of something. Just make sure you don’t use more screws than you’ve got picture frames though, other wise you need think of something else – coat rack or a collection of horse brasses

Glue some wooden blocks to the plywood using a strong version of no more nails (Evo Stik GripFill or Sticks Like White) and screw into them.

Here’s the inside of my van.

IMAG0149 by ScotRoutes, on Flickr

I could try to track down where I got the metal rails from? They are simply screwed onto the ply but there are lots of screws so the load is fairly well distributed.

The ply will most likely be 6mm thick. Add on 1mm for the carpeting.

Now those metal rails would do the trick Scot.

http://www.vanbitz.co.uk/details.asp?ID=104

They are bare steel. I put some silver Smoothrite on them before fitting.

Great, thanks Scot.

Where does the double bed get stored?