Honestly, if we had it to do over, I'd likely opt for a separate shelter outside of the house/garage. The shelter works, but there have been instances where we had to make a decision when the tornado warning came along with sizable hail. This means making the decision to put the truck out in harm's way in order to gain access to the shelter. And, in every instance (thus far) no imminent threat of tornado actually materialized, yet the truck ends up exposed to damaging hail anyway.
Also, in the back of my mind I worry about being in the shelter after a tornado has leveled the house and the possibility of a gas tank rupture from the wife's car leaking gas in and around the shelter. I would NOT want to be in there with debris piled on top of us when a gasoline fire broke out. I do keep a fire extinguisher in the shelter now, just in case. But, that isn't really a viable solution. For the record, the shelter includes an 8-ton hydraulic jack that is intended to lift the lid up enough to escape should debris make it impossible to slide the door back, but that only gives me mild consolation. I feel sure that the jack mounting bracket and/or welds (welded to only 10 gauge steel walls mind you) would give way long before anything as heavy as 8 tons was able to be lifted. I have actually cut a 4x4 pressure-treated post to place below the bracket to help transfer some of that weight to the floor. But, the floor would probably buckle too. Who knows.
As with most things, there is no perfect solution, so you make compromises. With the benefit of hindsight, I'm not sure we'd make the same shelter decision.
Steve
I made my own storage box out of aluminum, and made it to fit the whole rear box area. Then had it Rhino lined outside and carpeted the insides, insulated the bottom then added a heavy duty floor mat to the bottom.
