Thread: Defender 110 rear pull out drawer

Looks good. You will end up with quite a large hole on the right I would suggest an access hatch, mine is 3/4 the depth of the back by about 100mm wide and you will get a heap of stuff in there. I use it for spares that are heavy that I am unlikely to need. It might not be the best place for a compressor given the lack of ventilation.


Sent from my iPhone using Thumbs

Mine has 10mm ply on the top but will soon be replaced with thicker ply as it sags under the weight of the fridge and stuff[dog] above, only enough to cause the draw end to slightly bind when opening and closing, in my side hatch[door check strap area] i keep ropes and water pipe/breaker bar for undoing maxi drive caps, the top over that area is hinged.

Good stuff mate. Don't forget a stopper for the drawer so it doesn't put pressure on the rear door if you're going uphill....or really accelerating hard ;-)

Also, if you're going to modify your rear door in any way i.e. put a shelf or mount tools on it, make sure you leave enough room.

I love my drawer, although I do find it gets disorganised quickly. Needs dividers.

Bobby

I have 10 or 12mm ply and it bows under the weight of stuff. Depending on the weight you put on top i'd consider 18mm or thereabouts. Or use C angle on the leading (unsupported) edges to give rigidity.

As an alternative idea to a draw, I pot riveted a length of alu angle to the vertical sides of the wheel boxes and placed sheet ply across the void so the top of the ply is level with the wheel boxes. I covered the boot area with marine carpet. You have the entire sub floor to your disposal for storage. The ply comes in 1000mm x 1200mm so there is no need to cut. Down side is things that get pushed to the back (behind the seat) are difficult to get to. And if you are enthusiastic off road the contents can/do slide into the back door. I cut and fitted checker plate to the door to overcome that expected damage. If i wasn't lazy I'd knock up some mechanism to stop the contents pushing against the door.

The mid point of your idea and my set up is to abandon the ply on top of the wheel boxes and knock up a draw system that sits in the void between the wheel boxes. Would be easier to fit and save weight of ply on the wheel boxes that may be redundant.

MLD

I found a false floor under my garage from my Dad's long-gone Defender, it has 12mm form ply with 1/2" SHS steel transversely bracing it. I tested it in my County, with my food and cooking boxes sitting on it, there wasn't any noticeable deflection, and I hadn't bolted it to the wheel wheels, so if fixed it would have supported more weight without flexing.
I'll be reusing the SHS with a fresh bit of ply when I make mine.

This sketch might be of a little help.
I was originally going to make the drawer from aluminium but I ended up making from 10mm ply and glued and screwed the bits together.
The notch at the back goes over the rear seat mount base.
The top deck across the guards I think was 18mm formply.

Regards

John D - Defender 110 2.4

Is this for a puma defender?

Reason I ask is that i'd like to make a drawer system but it needs to be removeable if we ever need to fit the third row of seats back in for when we have visitors. Just a thought.

The other thing that i was thinking is to split it into two long drawers... or a drawer on the left and hatches on the right - that way you can brace the top of the unit in the middle where the maximum sag would be, and also avoid the clashing between the drawer and the door opening.

Post pics when complete

FWIW - My setup has a shorter drawer with a trunk at the back.

The trunk is lockable, accessible from the top and it is where I keep all of the main spare parts for the truck. I stick them there on the basis that I will rarely need access and it keeps them buried and out of the way.

The drawer is then shorter, which makes it more manageable and due to the hinge, etc... there is a small hatch on the RHS where I can store a few bits. I keep my 'kitchen' in the drawer, so that I don't have to unpack anything for a lunch stop.

If you make the top removable and rivnuts to secure to the tub, it'll make it simple to pop it out if needed.

HTH

M