• RME Gear & Apparel

Storage solutions, drawer system building?

Greg

Greg

Make RME Rockcrawling Again!
Admin
Location
Grand Junction, CO
Ok, I already have one thread on organizing the Land Cruiser for expedition travel. I'm looking to move beyond bungee cords for a more permanent solution. I have never really been a fan of drawer systems, thought they added un-needed weight, but after seeing a few of them I'm interested in building one for my needs and could use some feedback.

My needs involve working around a large freezer/fridge, so I'm thinking about building a box with one drawer for storage and one opened slide-out that the fridge will sit on and be secured to. The drawer will be sealed up when closed, keeping it's contents safe & secure. The opened slide out will be convenient when loading or unloading the fridge.

Let's talk about materials... I'm not much of a wood worker, matter of fact I failed highschool wood shop due to the fact I found it boring... when I was there. :eek: So I could use some guidance on selecting the right parts & materials.


Material- I'm thinking 3/4" particle board will be plenty beefy for carrying all the weight. It's not the most expensive thing either, which is good. Any thoughts on material selection?

Hardware- I've read good things about ball bearing drawer slides, mostly that they open with the same effort empty as loaded. I stopped by Home Depot and the highest weight capacity they had was 100#'s. I think that could do the job, but considering one slide will hold the fridge that weighs 50# empty and possibly another 50#'s full, I'd rather have a heavier slide. The enclosed drawer will hold fluids, tools, recovery gear, etc. All that stuff will be easy to add up to over 100#'s, so I'm thinking slides rated for 200#'s would be a good idea. I quick search turned up these-

http://www.thehardwarehut.com/catalog-product.php?p_ref=16786

Size- I'm thinking of building the drawer so it's 10" deep. Something deep enough that you have a good deal of room for storage of larger items.


I'll probably either paint it or cover it with carpet. The finish is undetermined at this point. Lining the box inside with carpet or something similar would be nice to keep noise down. It would be great to have some kind of tie down for securing items on top of the drawer box.

Any thoughts? I'm new at this kind of stuff. :ugh:
 
Greg

Greg

Make RME Rockcrawling Again!
Admin
Location
Grand Junction, CO
Just some numbers for my reference...

Looks like 43" x 43" would be a good fit front to back & side to side.

The freezer/fridge is 16.5" wide by 24" long.
 
Tacoma

Tacoma

Et incurventur ante non
Location
far enough away
Avoid particle board at all costs. It is heavy, and soaks up water like a sponge.

Instead, use Baltic birch, and seal it when you're done.

hardware looks alright, depth looks good too.

EDIT: that's Baltic birch plywood, I mean. Light and strong
 
DOSS

DOSS

Poker of the Hornets Nest
Location
Suncrest
I agree particle brings the suck..

you may look at using a roll on bed-liner instead of carpet.. easy to clean.. if your auto fluids get on it, it shouldn't be that big of a deal.

If you can spare the space I love the dedicated kitchen pullouts :)
 
Tacoma

Tacoma

Et incurventur ante non
Location
far enough away
a box made of 1/2" baltic birch, with a divider or whatever for drawers, that size, would be very light, and plenty strong to hold your stuff. I made a couple over the years for my work vehicles, they all held up great and the last one was in a box van with about 600lbs of stuff on it at all times.

I used a dado blade to cut some shallow locating grooves, and glued and screwed it together. You can use a router with a straight bit, or a spiral bit (to pull the shavings up and out of the groove) with a guide if you don't have a table saw and/or a dado blade.

If your drawers aren't going to be 43" deep you can put a divider across the back of them too, will add a lot of rigidity to the box, as well as one between the drawers. Nothing you dont' know. :D
 
Kiel

Kiel

Formerly WJ ZUK
I still can't believe how expesnive the rollers/slides are. I have been eyeing the builds on expo for a while and the organization the drawer system adds is awesome. Plus you can stack on top without having to move everything to get to the bottom.
 
P

Panos

12Volt Specialist
Location
Salt lake City
not a cheap option! but i am a dealer for truck vaults. they have standard stuff and can make anything you can come up with. I know you are wanting to build one, these are just cool. go to truckvault.com i have some pretty crazy testimonials from personal customers on how strong these are, oh yeah and fire proof. anyway if anything i could probably get you parts to build yours
 
cruiseroutfit

cruiseroutfit

Cruizah!
Moderator
Vendor
Location
Sandy, Ut
Lees Valley has offered some pretty competitive pricing on the sliders themselves in the past:
http://www.leevalley.com/hardware/page.aspx?c=2&cat=3,43614&p=43616

Otherwise many have scored decent sets of heavy duty sliders at NPS though you may have to swing by a handful of times to get what your looking for.

As far as wood, construction, etc... no rear opinion there as I've never built one, that said I would sway away from particle board. Take a look at the synthetic stuff too, Adventure Trailers are using it in their drawer systems and its pretty neat.

Check out some of the 80 drawer builds on Wasatch Cruisers (Tim York's in particular) very well thought out.

Excited to see what you come up with!
 
MOODY

MOODY

Bald Guy
Location
Sandy
I should probably take some better photos of it, but T Taylor builds these platforms that utilize the 3rd row seat brackets to create a shelf in the back. I too wanted a drawer system for the longest time, but I didn't like the weight and costs associated with them.

I am able to strap my fridge onto the platform, and leaves me 9" of space underneath for the heavy items like stoves, cook bin, recovery gear, toilet, etc.

It also has a built in tray for holding two fuel or water jerry cans. I have never been as organized. I think Trent is making them still. It was unfinished, but I primed and painted it and sealed the wood platform.
dsc0830j.jpg
 
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