Thread: County / Defender rear storage drawer build

I bought and used the bunnings kit , no internal bracing. You need to rivet the joints. 5 weeks in the outback taught that lesson.

I had 2x 800mm x 600mm draws (wood) on one side and 600mm x 600mm on the other (tray ute) full of heavy stuff and they survived. The frame was more than adequate.

I made a rear cargo box in my 110 about 3 years ago.
I bought the aluminium and connectors from Ulrich Alumininium.
The alu rails were bolted to the floor using rivnuts.
I also installed some heavy duty drawer sliders ($100+), made a draw out of the same alu and plywood.
The deck was heavier plywood, from memory 12mm.

The drawers hold all the tools and bits ans bobs, guess about 25kg.
On top I have had my fridge full of beer plus boxes etc and into heavy 4wd areas and nothing has broken.
Its probably a tad overengineered (like your spare wheel carrier - which I also have).
Happy to show you what I have done, if your interested PM me.

I think the alu and connectors are fantastic.

If I were to do the project again, I would omit the drawers, although they look nice and function properly, you loose flexibility, storage space and there is extra weight.
I think boxes are a better idea.

Hi Murray,

Can't remember if you had a look at the drawer in the back of my 110 when I picked up the gullwing the other week?

Anyway, here's a couple of pics.
I bought the alu square tube from Capral Aluminium in Laverton North, then any of the joiners from Bunnings when I decided what configuration I was going to do. I haven't riveted the joins in, just used a few blobs of contact cement which seems to have worked.

The tube frame is held down with turnbuckles to the standard tie down points in the back.

One side has a set of roller bearing slides screwed to the alu, the other side is accessed by a lift up top. The top part is 15mm ply from memory and is screwed into rivnuts in the alu.

It doesn't carry a huge amount of weight most of the time, but it's had all my spares, recovery gear, food, camping stuff crammed in/on it for a 6000km round trip up through Flinders, Mt Dare, Alice and back to Melbourne a couple of years ago and held up ok.

Hmmmm, can't access my pics on my phone! I'll find them and post separately!!

Hopefully this works....

Originally Posted by DieselDan

Hi Murray,

Can't remember if you had a look at the drawer in the back of my 110 when I picked up the gullwing the other week?

Anyway, here's a couple of pics.
I bought the alu square tube from Capral Aluminium in Laverton North, then any of the joiners from Bunnings when I decided what configuration I was going to do. I haven't riveted the joins in, just used a few blobs of contact cement which seems to have worked.

The tube frame is held down with turnbuckles to the standard tie down points in the back.

One side has a set of roller bearing slides screwed to the alu, the other side is accessed by a lift up top. The top part is 15mm ply from memory and is screwed into rivnuts in the alu.

It doesn't carry a huge amount of weight most of the time, but it's had all my spares, recovery gear, food, camping stuff crammed in/on it for a 6000km round trip up through Flinders, Mt Dare, Alice and back to Melbourne a couple of years ago and held up ok.

Hmmmm, can't access my pics on my phone! I'll find them and post separately!!

Thanks Dan,
That looks like a simple but effective setup.
Just one question, is the track on the drawer a 'proper drawer track', or is it some sort of steel section or aluminium extrusion that the bearings fit in. It's a little hard to tell from the pics.

Having another look at it, the risen section at the front end of the track suggests it's a roller bearing type drawer track ????

Cheers, Murray

Hi Murray,
Yep they're the 100kg Base Mount Drawer Slide from Dunn & Watson.

Cheers,
Dan

I built a sleeping platform in the back of our D1 using that system. Its good stuff - very light and strong.
From memory I used 10mm ply for the top, and also for a couple of vertical panels in case there was a tendency for the open rectangle with ~600mm for/aft to bend or collapse under load.

You definitely need to make sure the tubes are retained somehow. Pretty sure I relied on the plywood riveted to the top tubes to retain those ones, and riveted the remaining tubes directly to the corner brackets.

Its a while ago, but I likely got the corners and tube from Breakwater Metaland.

Steve

Originally Posted by steveG

I built a sleeping platform in the back of our D1 using that system. Its good stuff - very light and strong.
From memory I used 10mm ply for the top, and also for a couple of vertical panels in case there was a tendency for the open rectangle with ~600mm for/aft to bend or collapse under load.

You definitely need to make sure the tubes are retained somehow. Pretty sure I relied on the plywood riveted to the top tubes to retain those ones, and riveted the remaining tubes directly to the corner brackets.

Its a while ago, but I likely got the corners and tube from Breakwater Metaland.

Steve

I like the light weight aspect of this system, so definitely considering it. The 25mm ally tube and joiners is slightly limited when it comes to making the most of the space you have, for example, shaping the frame into a tightish corner, or on a non standard angle.

The thing I like about steel tube is, it's easy to weld mesh panels in, or other bits and pieces like hooks etc, and it's easy to customise the shape away from square. And because of the extra strength, you can get away with a smaller tube size, my current setup is 20x20x1.6 gal tube and it's been really good. I'm thinking I'll probably go with this again.

They both have their pros and cons.

Cheers, Murray