Kettlebell Rack - Design Help

[crokett]

My wife's kettlebells roll around in the car when she drives to clients. This is a problem since a kettlebell is an iron ball with a handle on it and tends to break what it hits. I will make her a rack tomorrow to hold them. Design constraints are that it needs to be strong, it needs to be stable and it needs to be light enough that she can remove it from the car when empty. Oh yeah, it needs to be made of wood. I was thinking PVC but I don't thing that is strong enough to not, well, rack when the weights are in it. At the moment I am thinking of 2 options:

First is something similar to a torsion box with holes in the top that the bells sit in. However this is not adjustable for different sized bells and I would have to cut 6 different sized circles.

My other thought was using vertical dividers. The dividers would have a radius cut in the top edge and the bell would be supported on 2 sides. I would chamfer the corners on the radius. Would this work? This approach has the advantage of being adjustable since she can move the dividers.

[gsmittle]

You answered question #1 (What the heck is a kettlebell?) Now here's question #2: What is a kettlebell for???

The dividers sound like a good idea to me. Are you going to make the rack out of ply or solid wood?

g.

[crokett]

A kettlebell is for exercising. You can do all the stuff you do with a dumbbell, plus more.

I am thinking 2xs for the dividers and sides. Might go with 3/4" ply for dividers since it is lighter. I just realised adjustments won't work. Even if I use 3/4" ply for dividers the adjustments only make sense if I can move in 1/2" increments and I can't do that with 3/4" ply. Anything narrower will not be strong enough.

[billfrommich]

Whatever you come up with should probably have some means of being held in place within the vehicle, as the rack in essence ties the kettlebells together resulting in a single heavy object, which might also tend to move around (perhaps violently) during vehicle accelerations or deccelerations.

[Wood_workur]

here is a kettle bell. now if we know what her trunk was like (as in pictures) that would greatly help with some ideas as to how to secure the rack in the trunk. how many are we looking at here?

[crokett]

She has 6. None of them are that heavy though. She has a minivan. I am thinking of just strapping it to the rear seat supports. That should keep it from moving.

[shoottx]

A couple more questions;

1. does she take them out of the minivan as a group or just a couple at a time?

2. Do they stay in the minivan when not at a clients location, ie home etc?

One answer may be like a gun vault for the mini van. You can look at examples here http://www.truckvault.com/Support/Catalogs/Download.asp

If she takes them all in and out all of the time then something more like an equipment cart.

[mpc]

How about something like a pair of "V" shapes joined at the point - at 90 degrees to each other. Basically just an upside-down cone shape. Then nearly any size kettlebell will fit.

Or your idea of a grid box (like the box Christmas ornaments come in) but rather than making variable sized holes, try:
the horizontal runners - make them thicker than the vertical runners, then stick wood dowels into the horizontal runners (pointing the dowels straight up) so they snag the kettlebell handles. Then the grid can be sized for the largest of the 'bells and the smaller ones will just hang there.

One thing that scares me about these kettlebells, in an open vehicle like a minivan, is the potential for them to become projectiles in an accident. Coming from the commercial airliner design world, I tend to think of "how can this go wrong?" Combine that with my amateur car racing background where tech inspections include "what can fly around if the car rolls?" and you'll understand my concerns. Some sort of box with a lid, or at least a 2x4 that fits over the dowels and is in turn wing-nutted down or whatever will trap these puppies. Then the whole box gets tied to the vehicle floor. All of my cars have a pair of straps in the hatchback area tied to the car floor; these straps have typical slide style length adjustments (like the neck straps of cameras, binoculars, laptop bags, etc.) so I can tie down almost anything I carry... and keep the car's spare tire trapped under the false floor too. These straps were stock on 2 of the 3 cars and happen to meet SCCA safety requirements. So I bought one to tie into the 3rd car as well. So far they haven't been needed in accidents but they have kept a package or two from flying around when I had to mash the brakes to avoid something.

mpc

[cabinetman]

How about something simple like a deep tote tray (sides high enough to cover the weight ball) that a dowel can slide through from one end, through the loops, and into the other end. This whole arrangement could be strapped to the floor.
.

[kirkroy]

Why not just use a tie down strap to connect the bells together in a kind of bell flower?

[crokett]

Thanks for the suggestions fellas. She was at a flea market today and found something. I don't mind, one more project I can cross of my list.

[cabinetman]

Thanks for the suggestions fellas. She was at a flea market today and found something. I don't mind, one more project I can cross of my list.

Well, we're all on the edge of our seats to find out what you found.
.

[crokett]

Nothing special, just some plywood cubbies that happened to be the right size. The unit seemed solid, not sure if it will stand up to the kettlebells but I don't have to worry about it any more.