AirDownGearUp SS1: Storage, Sleeper and Drawer System for 100 series

[jlm43]

Thanks for the reply.

I would think the load capacity would be dependent on the shear strength of the hinge pin and the hinge attachment screws.

My daughters would be the primary users of it as a sleeping platform and I can see them sitting against the edge when they are hanging out in the truck.

I’m thinking some sort of bracket attached to two of the supports could do the trick.

 

[Air Down Gear Up]

Thanks for the reply.

I would think the load capacity would be dependent on the shear strength of the hinge pin and the hinge attachment screws.

My daughters would be the primary users of it as a sleeping platform and I can see them sitting against the edge when they are hanging out in the truck.

I’m thinking some sort of bracket attached to two of the supports could do the trick.

Adding some support brackets would certainly make things stronger, but i haven't run into any issues with the strength of the wings. We wanted to keep it open under the wings to ease access. With this question specifically in mind, I loaded up the platform with a whole lot of weight yesterday working a landscaping project at the house. Total load here is 904 pounds, 906 if you count the vegetables that are just out of view .

As expected no issues whatsoever with the platform. I intentionally piled the paver base bags all the way on the edges, supported largely by the wings. Bags are 50 pounds each, so you have some portion of 100 pounds being supported by the wings. Pretty similar to what you'd expect if you rolled over onto the edge. The wings are attached with a 2 foot section of hinge, with a total of 24 screws secured to propnuts supported with a flange base on the underside of the platform. This configuration gave us a nice distributed load across the hinge, making it pretty strong.

 

[Air Down Gear Up]

Another pic, with the not-yet-unpacked memorial day camping trip gear shown under the platform. Had some left over dry food and the full kitchen set up stored, could have fired up some mac and cheese had the desire had. haha.

 

[RedogLX470]

Well, I am almost done with the SS1 shelving system. Initially I wanted to get a drawer system but ultimately decided in favor of the SS!. So far I am pretty happy. It's light, easy to remove and allows me to store longer items out of sight. I bought the kit and it was pretty straight forward to assemble. Finished it with a grey stain and a coat of Polyurethane as I was not sure if I was going to use anything else. I ended up getting a rubber mat from Amazon. I will still have to glue it down and install the hardware over it.
Now I am looking for a few boxes for a nice custom fit.

 

[JAW]

Drawers!

We have completed the prototype and after a few days of testing we are feeling good about these drawers. A few key take aways:

• Full extension: Perhaps one of the most important features of this system, the drawers can be fully opened. This is a critical feature, allowing complete and easy utilization of the drawer. Without full extension any inaccessible drawer space is effectively useless. This is not available on most other options in this price point
  
• Easy sliding: The slide mechanism for this drawer system is impressive. Under full load, these drawers can be opened/closed with 'one finger' operation
• Hold shut and Hold open feature. We have incorporated a feature that secures the drawer fully shut, half open and fully open. Allowing you to access you gear in off-camber situations with no concern.
• 250 lb capacity: Drawers will be rated at the slide limit of 250 pounds. Great for storing heavy gear safely under the platform.

This will be available for sale very soon! As with the platform system, these will all be CNC machined for excellent precision and easy assembly. Options will be lined, unlined and sold as an individual drawer; allowing flexibility for your preferred setup/budget. These are bolt-in compatible for all platform systems.

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@Kyle Bell - Any update on the drawers? Would love to purchase or build a set based on your experience.

 

[Air Down Gear Up]

@Kyle Bell - Any update on the drawers? Would love to purchase or build a set based on your experience.

We are getting close! Design has all been finalized, and we are currently working with our vendors for CNC options. As soon as we got some cost numbers back we will be offering the drawers for sale.

 

[JAW]

We are getting close! Design has all been finalized, and we are currently working with our vendors for CNC options. As soon as we got some cost numbers back we will be offering the drawers for sale.

Thanks Kyle. If need any first customer trails or feedback put me down on the list. Happy to be your first drawer customer.

 

[RedogLX470]

Thanks Kyle. If need any first customer trails or feedback put me down on the list. Happy to be your first drawer customer.

X2

 

[ogsuv]

Not drawer related, but I may be interested in one for the drivers side only. The other side has my 10" subwoofer and I can't live without that.

This is my setup with the sleeping platform for HIH8. 5" ish memory foam mattress cover (full) with a full mattress fitted sheet wraps perfectly around the whole thing and is pretty comfy.

Later I may carpet the top for daily use, but not sure yet. Anyway, I have no regrets for buying this. I could have put something together, but not as nice and it freed up my time to do other maintenance, etc... to justify the cost. Thumbs up ADGU!

 

[Air Down Gear Up]

Drawers Drawers Drawers! We are ready to offer our drawers! The drawers are designed to be a modular part of the platform system: They can be purchased one at a time (and of course as a pair) and can be retro-fit at any time to the platform. This was key for us, as we wanted to allow maximum flexibility of the system and create a way to spread the purchase price over time while still incrementally improving your storage capabilities.

The drawers are made of 1/2" baltic birch plywood and are built using a half-blind dovetail joint, with the bottom sitting in a groove captured on all 4 sides. They are mounted on full-extension, ball bearing, locking slides with a load rating of 250 pounds. The slides are attached to the drawer using threaded prop-nuts and screws. The slides are attached to the uprights of the platform with installation NOT requiring the platform to come out.

The inner dimensions of the drawer are 9" tall, 17" wide and 36" deep. As part of the drawer system, the area under the wings is separated with a divider to prevent gear from falling into the drawer area and interfering with their operation. With the full extension slides you are able to access every bit of the 36", no awkward reach to get the last few inches. I have been running a production-grade setup all summer, and have been very happy with the performance. The setup has proven to be rattle free and i haven't experienced any hardware backing out. The drawers open buttery-smooth even when fully loaded, making accessing all your gear downright enjoyable. I look for excuses to have my drawers open on trails and camping just to show off!!

I have attached a few pics below.The eagle-eyed will notice the drawers are not the same size, on the left we went with a taller drawer but found the clearances were too tight. The drawer on the right is what we settled on for total height. We are anxious to hear what everyone thinks, lets us know if you have any questions!

 

[RedogLX470]

Kyle,
looks really interesting. Do you have pricing yet for the set or just one. Any group buys again for current owners?

 

[Air Down Gear Up]

Kyle,
looks really interesting. Do you have pricing yet for the set or just one. Any group buys again for current owners?

For the initial launch of the drawers we will be offering a group buy of $360 each (Plus shipping). Regular sale price after the group buy will be $400.

 

[JAW]

Looking forward to purchasing. Any estimated dates?

 

[Air Down Gear Up]

Looking forward to purchasing. Any estimated dates?

Awesome to hear!

We are actually ready with the product offering itself, at this point we just need to update the website to enable ordering. I would expect we should have that updated in the next few days. We are anticipating a 3 week leadtime on these first few as we get all the procurement ironed out.

 

[suprarx7nut]

I'll reiterate: 100% extension, lock in, lock out slides. I'm stoked about that!

We played around with some other locking mechanisms, but the integrated locks are just the best. We'll get a video up soon showing the action on the locks. It's very slick. If you've seen the high-end systems out there it'll be familiar.

We also played around with a few fastening methods for the drawers, but ultimately chose the dovetail joint. It's perfectly seamless and allows 100% usage inside the drawer with nothing to catch inside or outside the drawer and nothing taking up valuable corner space.

 

[Air Down Gear Up]

Here's a quick video showing an overview of the drawers. It's hard to emphasize enough just how smooth, robust and easy these drawers are to use! Hoping this video helps to point that out. Even with a fully loaded drawer it's truly a 'one finger' process, with a nice satisfying 'click' when the drawers lock open/close.

The website is also updated with some more details on the drawers.

 

[Enrique Sonora]

Here's a quick video showing an overview of the drawers. It's hard to emphasize enough just how smooth, robust and easy these drawers are to use! Hoping this video helps to point that out. Even with a fully loaded drawer it's truly a 'one finger' process, with a nice satisfying 'click' when the drawers lock open/close.

The website is also updated with some more details on the drawers.

This is great. Keep posting the group buy updates and vids like this. Thank you for the hard work.

-P

 

[Air Down Gear Up]

Was able to get the website updated with some more detailed information on the drawers under the 'Product Details: Drawer' page. Also, they are now officially for sale! As of right now we are anticipating about a 3 week lead-time for these as we get everything streamlined with vendors, etc.

 

[JAW]

@Kyle Bell are you able to offer a bedlined version of the drawers matching the platform? If not how easy hard is it to do on ones own?

 

[Air Down Gear Up]

@Kyle Bell are you able to offer a bedlined version of the drawers matching the platform? If not how easy hard is it to do on ones own?

We can certainly offer a bedlined version of the drawer! I would need to spend a little time playing with that process to get an estimate on what the cost adder would be, but probably similar to the difference between the lined Vs. Unlined platform.

DIY bedlining with the product we have been using isn't necessarily difficult, but it is certainly a time consuming process.

Are you thinking drawer face and the inside of the drawer for bedlining?