Thread: Drawer System

Hi Dreamn,
Is there enough ventilation for the fridge?
Something I am always paranoid about with mine. I always make sure that nothing is near the vents.

Cheers, Craig

Originally Posted by tomar5e

Top class, I like the idea of having the fridge that little bit lower to keep the centre of gravity lower, and of course easier access the beers

How do you fill up and access the auxiliary tank?

Initially I had planned to have a 12v inline pump that would feed into the vehicle tank or the tank filler and the tank breather likewise. both of these would have been tapped off somewhere to allow for disconnection. For the sake of simplicity however I have decided to use a 12v submersible transfer pump for the time being. I do acknowledge that care will need to be taken to avoid spillage and drips. Filling the tank while it's in the vehicle could also raise a can of worms regarding legalities I'm sure but it will be filled through the rear passenger door (seats will usually be in the down folded position). I had considered using this tank for water instead as I still have not used it for fuel as yet but it is likely I will use it for fuel only to be filled when circumstances call for it.

Oh!..there is no room for beer in the fridge...Jack lives there! :P

Cheers
Steve

Originally Posted by Disco4SE

Hi Dreamn,
Is there enough ventilation for the fridge?
Something I am always paranoid about with mine. I always make sure that nothing is near the vents.

Cheers, Craig

Hi Craig

I cant answer that question technically but it was a concern of mine also during construction. I have cut out large sections of the timber frame in the outer side wall and the floor for weight reduction and to assist with ventilation as seen in the top photo and another slotted hole above the fuel tank seen in the middle photo. The bottom of the box is supported on three tapered timbers which create a cavity beneath. Instead of tapering these timbers to nothing at the front I allowed for a 10mm lift that creates a gap at the bottom front to assist with heat escape.

Unfortunately I am unable to give you any accurate details regarding fridge running times as I was still playing around with settings on the fridge and battery configurations when I struck some bad luck which has put my vehicle into intensive care with a local mechanic.

The fridge is connected to three batteries, a 55 amp auxiliary which runs back to a 105 amp sealed AGM which then has one of those portable 30 amp Waeco batteries connected to it with the fridge plugged into it. With this configuration (which I'm not happy with) I was getting around 5 days with the fridge set at -10 degrees (using as a freezer) with an average daily temperature of around 26 degrees. By the fifth day the fridge had risen to around -3 degrees. It should be noted that during this time the freezer was accessed a few times a day and had non cooled items added.

On another occasion while my wife was back visiting our kids in Rockhampton she had left the fridge set at -12 degrees for 5 days undisturbed. By the fifth day it was still running comfortably at -11 degrees. During this time she had done some very small distances around town that would have contributed to recharging the batteries minimally.

Cheers
Steve

Originally Posted by ~Rich~

I decided to take the rear seats out to make more storage room for a desert trip.
Jeeze they are heavy and awkward to move out!

But you do end up with some reasonable space, the max depth is 150mm.


.

Hi Rich,
Did you happen to note what the minimum depth was through this area?
Thanks,
Ian

I'll measure the depth from the underside of my drawer unit tomorrow for you.
It's up the front of course though.

The min distance at the front is 95mm to the floor line, I get an extra 20mm due to the drawer box being packed up 20mm this end - 115mm. (packed up 40mm at the drawer fronts)

Originally Posted by NauticAl

I have just fitted a home made two drawer unit to the back of my new D4. Although it is a very very simple unit, a similar one has worked well for 10 years in the back of my 6.5 litre V8 "Tdi" D1. The unit is made from 12mm exterior ply and 180mm wide pine timber. There are no drawer runners - I just rub candle wax on the timber and the drawers move easily. A friend in Fremantle made one with roller runners for his D2 and he had to fit latches to stop the drawers self opening. I don't need latches.

The side wings on the unit are there so they can be folded up to slide the whole thing out of the back - it needs to be easily removable to use the rear seats or remove the spare wheel. Ti take out the drawers, fold the wings up, untie the two lashings securing it down to the tie down points and then slide it out almost takes less time than to write it down.

The cost of the parts is probably around $200 for the timber, alloy trim angle, epoxy glue, contact glue, hinges, fasteners and carpet. The only tools needed to make it are a jig saw, router and orbital sander - and a bit - not much - of woodworking skill

The unit has two drawers approx 500mm x 1000m. If anyone is interested, I can supply the exact dimensions and a sketch of the unit.

Cheers

Al

Excellent design, well done

I've knocked up a slightly different version that will fit a 60L Engel fridge with a single drawer.

The fridge needed to be mounted low to still enable the fridge door to be opened without fouling on the vehicle. This also gives easier access to the contents inside. Two drawers could have been fitted in a vertical configuration but I opted for just one to accommodate more bulky items.

It proved its worth by surviving a trip up to Cape York via the entire OTT with no failures. Hope to get many more years out of it in the current D3 (and a future D4!).

Thanks to NauticAl and ~Rich~ for the inspiration