Drawer Systems

Glad this thread was started. This is my current project. I have been deliberating over which system/design to use myself for the last few months. Do I leave the seats in? Should it be easily removed in minutes or semi permanent? Water tank? Looked at all on this forum and each had their good points, some very good designs, but none which satisfied all my wants. Looked at many on the web and also contacted a few custom fab companies for design suitability and pricing. Custom Installations (WA) and Full Boar Fourbie (Vic) do some really nice work.

I'm after a permanent drawer half filled with recovery gear and tools etc., the other half on trips filled with camping goodies. A heavy duty fridge slide with a footprint just wide enough to allow for my fridge, and a cover for stacking gear on top on trips, but removable for access to fridge around town without opening tailgate and sliding out. Space for my solar panel and Drifta kitchen. Water tank.

I have decided to make my own.
Due to several factors, mainly the size of my 90lt NL fridge and also that I wanted the extra 17mm in height required at the rear to allow clearance of the tailgate, to be built in to the drawer system sides and not just a spacer at the rear edge. I will be using 12mm & 17mm marine ply, mainly for noise absorption and 6mm ally plate. It will stay in the car 99% of the time, but able to be reverted back to original without much fuss.

Seats will be removed. It's nice to know you have that seating capacity, but I have only used those seats once anyway. Removing them will save some weight and allow space for spares, infrequent used tools, inverter, water pump and a larger capacity water tank.

I wanted a water tank behind the second row seats, but even with 900mm deep drawers, the off the shelf ones wouldn't fit.
With the fridge being so big, I need to use full extension 914mm sliders (these ones 227kg Locking Drawer Slide - Heavy Duty ) so when extended it will clear the upper tailgate panel mould and allow full opening. 864mm won't allow this. That makes for a total drawer length of 942mm. This doesn't leave much behind the rear seats. With the angle of the seats I would get a small tank of about 30lt; but with removing the seats, I can use that space below the false floor on each side of the centre seat support which will stay and help support the floor. Should end up with around 50-70lt.

The other thing I really wanted was a pull out table built in to the fridge slide. Unfortunately the height of standard ones are between 110-130mm, which once again didn't allow the fridge to open. After many trial setups with the fridge and using bits and pieces to replicate the fridge slide angle and final height, I will use 6mm aluminium for this part which will allow a slide out table and full opening of fridge.

The fixed drawer side will have a slide out top to allow access to the removed seat space below the floor. Something like this;

Attachment 122775


The fridge slide side and cover will be similar to this;

Attachment 122776

A similar fridge and unit;

Attachment 122777


My design drawings.
Attachment 122773Attachment 122774

Not everyone's cup of tea, but I think it ticks all my boxes. I'll post up a few picks in a month or so of the finished product.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Strop

I have seen the Drifta drawers and they are just down the road from me. Would still like to know about access to the side pockets.

---

Access to the side pockets is possible but tight. I have left the factory scissor jack in the right side. Access to the wheel winder is provided via hole in base of unit. You have to unload one drawer to operate the ratchet and with a well-packed drawer this takes very little time. A thread detailing socket adapters for the winder is linked below. If the 3rd row is removed the space under is quite easily utilised via further holes in the base.

It's over two years now and I'm still very happy with the Drifta unit. It's been used on a few long and many short trips. We have always been able to camp close to or right beside the vehicle, so I find with smart packing within the drawers that everything is easily accessible. It always comes out when back home, being only used for trips.

If I was buying one now? I would get Drifta again and would probably get the same configuration. I would ask for a few more cutouts in non-critical areas to reduce weight. It's not excessively heavy but every little bit helps. The skinny spaces on each side between unit and trim can be awkward to utilise because of the turnbuckles that hold down the unit getting in the way but I've found a few things that can slide in (burner wind break, small shovel and wood saw). Sometimes I would like a smaller unit with perhaps just one drawer and fridge slide but not often enough to warrant doing anything about it.

https://www.aulro.com/afvb/images/im...017/05/917.jpg

https://www.aulro.com/afvb/attachmen...40019-copy.jpg

Here's a couple of thread links that gave me inspiration and ideas:
D3 D4 rear fitouts
Drawer System
D3/D4 - Build yourself a Custom Storage Drawer unit.

Wheel Winder Adapter thread link:
Spare wheel winder access via socket extension

Cheers,
Scott

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Strop

BMKal, I can see all the advantages you are talking about. Very interesting setup, though not cheap initially. 3 cars in, probably paid for itself. I see that you have a rear wheel carrier and I am assuming no spare under the back. So, could you access the rear wheel winder with the BOAB unit in place?

Good to hear about the solar panel because that is one of the things I wanted to fit in the back.

Trngia, I have seen the Drifta drawers and they are just down the road from me. Would still like to know about access to the side pockets. Might have to send a PM to Scott who was writing about installing them.

Rob, good looking slide. I can see the uses for it.

All the best,

Laurie

---

I have the standard 2 drawer setup, when I spoke to luke he mentioned that they will build the drawers however you want at no extra cost, so if you want them narrower they will build them for you, we asked for ours to be a touch higher, 300mm instead of 270mm, not an issue and at no extra cost, give them a ring or drop in for a chat.

Scott & Redback, I will probably drive down to Gloucester for a coffee at some stage and have a look at Drifta. They do sell a lot of kit now. I am glad this is something that I can not just jump into - gives me some breathing room & design time. I hope all sit down and drag out the pen and paper to rough out the design they want/need.

I had another look at the Drifta site at the combo fridge/drawer setup. Liked it the first time I saw it. It was very interesting to see all the cutouts on the unit. I am sure they could have a few more as well to lessen the units weight. The ability to get to the turnbuckles for easy tightening appears great. The same can be said for the cutouts on the bottom to access under the unit if the seats have been taken out. Also how they have the last cutout for the spare wheel winder. All well thought through. The drawers on teflon runners should make getting them in and out easy with no need to unpack them, depending on the weight they can carry (That is a question I will have to ask them). I am assuming the install process would be placing the framework in place, tightening it down with the turnbuckles and then putting in the drawers (loaded/unloaded) and the fridge. I am assuming that there is a locking mechanism to stop the drawers just sliding all the way out. They look well made. They say this unit is 50 Kg but I am assuming this is without the fridge slide and table. That would bring it up to around 65 Kg maybe a bit more.

The two drawer unit weighs 35 Kg without a top mounted fridge slide. So roughly 50Kg when slide fitted.

The Drifta units have that great kitchen in a drawer setup which must be taken into consideration if you are doing any touring without cooking facilities. Depends on how fancy you want to get. The cost really does add up though.

I have to admit I have just seen a 4WD Supa Centre drawer unit advertised for $370. I know they are not Australian made and I have no knowledge of their quality. Weigh 71Kg a bit more than the Drifta units and the drawers are smaller in depth. The price makes them very attractive. The BLUE carpet makes them UGLY compared to the Black Marine Carpet. They do not have the lovely cutouts of the Drifta units, nor the ability to access the wheel winder. The fridge will be mounted higher making it more difficult for shorter people to see in. The fridge can only be on the left side (their information). Not sure how difficult the drawers are to remove but wonder if they can be removed full or must be emptied.

Neither of the units have the flexibility of the BOAB units to have boxes to carry to an appropriate location. Though you can get lovely stackable storage boxes from Bunnings that are perhaps very useful if you wanted to build your own unit. I have thought of building my own unit but when you add up the price of all the pieces you need you come back to that price from the 4WD Supa Centre. God I hate that blue carpet.

For my specific unit I need to fit a solar panel into the design. The folding panel is 700mm x 800mm x 80mm. No matter what way I go I want to raise the drawer unit up 100mm so the solar panel can slide under the unit out of the way. Doesn't change anything with the Drifta unit but with every other unit I can now access the wheel winder by sliding the solar panel out and using a socket extension. It also limits the size of the fridge I can carry in the back. 50 Litre fridge will just about max it out. Height problem to see in fridge just made worse.

Then there are those times you want to put something in the back when your storage unit is in place. Is the flat two drawer system better then the stacked one as you still have a little bit of flat space to use.

It is all still going around in my head. I am still thinking that I need to know what I want to put in the drawers to determine the size required. Lots of threads, articles and other sources on rescue equipment being read. Thank heavens to limited finances so I have to wait and consider all options.

All the best,

Laurie

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Strop

depending on the weight they can carry (That is a question I will have to ask them). I am assuming the install process would be placing the framework in place, tightening it down with the turnbuckles and then putting in the drawers (loaded/unloaded) and the fridge. I am assuming that there is a locking mechanism to stop the drawers just sliding all the way out. They look well made. They say this unit is 50 Kg but I am assuming this is without the fridge slide and table. That would bring it up to around 65 Kg maybe a bit more.

---

Laurie, the drawers can carry a lot of weight and still operate smoothly.
Each drawer has a locking handle, you can see this in my photos.
You are correct about the install/remove process.
The quoted weights seem high. Two of us carry the unit when empty quite easily.
What we typically do is remove the drawers and the table and just shift the carcass with fridge slide. Then reinstall the drawers and table. I would have guessed a total weight of 40kg but that's not very scientific or accurate. Carrying loaded drawers would depend on what you put in them but they are certainly easy to put in and out of the unit.

Scott

Here's ours. This photo was taken at Purnululu (Bungle Bungles) in the middle of a big trip.
We have 3 young kids and this works perfectly for us. We carried 2 spares (one up top and one underneath the vehicle). If we punctured 2 tyres in quick succession we were able to remove the drawers in only 5 mins or so to access the spare underneath (luckily that didn't happen though).

Attachment 122869

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Strop

Then there are those times you want to put something in the back when your storage unit is in place. Is the flat two drawer system better then the stacked one as you still have a little bit of flat space to use.

Laurie

---

Thanks Strop! [thumbsupbig] That point has just given me an excellent idea. As I intend to leave the unit in 99% of the time, I'll look into making the centre divider half the width of the fridge slide (about 150mm higher than what it is now to protect the fridge without the cover in place) and same on the other side of slide; both hinged so they fold flat when the fridge is not in use. Hey presto flat floor for around town storage of larger items. Back to the drawing board it is then!

Hey Strop have you considered mounting the solar on the roof?
It could either be permanently mounted like ours, or it could be on drawer slides under a roof rack and be slid out when camped, so other stuff could still be put on top of the rack.
I have seen a Front Runner rack with a panel on runners under the back. When stopped the panel just slid out to work.
Just a bit of lateral thinking.

Mungus, pleased to help. I too only want to take the storage out when I have to but shopping is important.

Pawky, thank you for that photo. Very different but interesting. I think I can see in you photo that there is an elastic band attached to your unit up the top . This can then be attached to the fixing on the yellow plastic containers to hold them in place. I was trying to figure out a way to do this in case I came up with a system using plastic cases. If you have a chance I would love some more photos. It looked a good solution.

DiscoMick, never thought of that. I will keep it in the back of my mind. I use my panel mainly for my teardrop trailer and was thinking of the convenience of carrying it in the car. The underfloor storage Zi designed into the teardrop is not convenient enough. My panel is a folding one but I can see how it would work well for a fixed panel. I don't want a permanent fixture at this time.

I was actually thinking that you could put a piece of 4"x2" timber or similar aluminum tubing under the 2 side edges of any storage unit to lift it so I can slide the solar panels underneath when I need to carry them. The turnbuckles would pull the unit down and keep the lifting blocks in place.

All the best

Laurie

Laurie

If your going to see the guys at Drifta why don't you ask them to look at a better way to lock the unit to the floor. On my drawers I made the base wide enough so I can bolt it down to the luggage points. This frees up a heap of room next to the drawers. Possibly fitting your solar panel. Another area to look very closely at is underneath the middle row of seats. I have all my recovery gear & tyre repair stuff there. Very easy to get at without unloading the car.

I haven't figure out yet how to use the space where the 3rd row seats fold into to or in my case where they put the jack etc but I'm sure it could be used for water storage in a bladder or similar given it is being sat on by the drawers.

Have fun
Rod