Camping Table – Specifications, Constraints

For my final project I am building a camping table to put in the back of my car. I am a fan of camping out of my car, and I would love to have something that I can put things to cook on when I want to. I would also love it if it’s something that I have made myself, even if it is technically worse than buying a camping table from REI or some other outdoor store.

There are some serious specifications I have for my project. I want the table to be large enough so that I can work with it. I can use the trunk of my car for some storage, but to be able to put up a cutting board and a grill on it so I can have cook comfortably. I also want it to connect to my car. If the table connects to the trunk nicely I would be happy with it. I also want it to be able to store in the back of my trunk, so if I could fold it up and store it with other camping gear it would be awesome. I want the table to look good too, so I am not going to make it out of plywood or anything like that, but nice wood stained boards so that it can fit to my aesthetic. I also want to make the legs touching the ground to be adjustable so that I can put it on uneven ground.

There are some constraints I have for my table. I need it to attach to the trunk of my car using the trunk latch hook, I need to find a way to properly connect it to the hook so that it stays on. I also need it to be the proper height of my car, with the adjustable legs, so that it can be as flat of a surface as possible for cooking. I also needed the folded down size of the table small enough to fit in the trunk of my car so that I cant take it around. I want to laser cut some designs into the side boarding and maybe legs, so I need them to be small enough to fit in the laser cutter. A final major constraint is that I live in an apartment and can not do any major woodworking at home, so I need to arrange times so that I can do some work on it at my friend’s house.

The trunk latch in my Toyota Forerunner