Drawer 'Flap' Ideas...

[Somebodyelse5]

Does anyone have pictures of how they attached a 'sleeper flap' onto the front of their drawer systems? 'Sleeper flap' being a flap to fold over the front seats to make one big flat area.

My current setup has a big piano hinge and I am less than thrilled with it. It is not very strong, when it is folded up it gets in the way, its added weight, and I'd like it to be removable.

Any suggestions? French cleat maybe? What have you guys done?

Pictures here:
Land Cruiser Drawers

 

[LBridges]

No pictures, but I have been thinking of the same thing. While not removable, I was planning to use a plastic type hinge I found at a teardrop trailer site. has a couple of minor advantages over traditional piano hinge, height (only 1/8", maybe could be flush mounted), non-corrosive, not hinge pivots to catch at bedding material. I'll be watching this thread to see any removable panel ideas. Best of luck.

 

[Ramathorn15]

Check my drawer build. Mine is removable and doubles as a table when out. It's a first build and I plan to modify it some but the way it connects will stay the same.

 

[Magnetic 111]

I used two piano hinges. I still think it was the strongest way to go. If you're sleeping on a pad, you won't notice that it sticks up about an 1/8".

 

[Somebodyelse5]

I used two piano hinges. I still think it was the strongest way to go. If you're sleeping on a pad, you won't notice that it sticks up about an 1/8".

View attachment 1266726

View attachment 1266729

Looks killer!
Take a look at my pics though, thats the setup I currently have.

Im thinking abot a french cleat so its removable

 

[Ramathorn15]

Looks killer!
Take a look at my pics though, thats the setup I currently have.

Im thinking abot a french cleat so its removable

I like the French cleat idea but I don't see how you can make it sturdy. I guess if you maybe put a 2x4 under the extension for one half of the cleat to screw into? I don't think screwing the cleat into the side of a 1/2 or even 3/4 inch piece of ply would be strong enough.

 

[Somebodyelse5]

I was thinking something sorta like this....
Imgur: The most awesome images on the Internet

Where the cleat goes the full width of the drawer and some sort of pin to keep it down.

 

[Somebodyelse5]

I like the French cleat idea but I don't see how you can make it sturdy. I guess if you maybe put a 2x4 under the extension for one half of the cleat to screw into? I don't think screwing the cleat into the side of a 1/2 or even 3/4 inch piece of ply would be strong enough.

I see what you are saying. I think I could extend the bottom of the lower piece of the cleat (green in the imgur link) down and with glue and a decent matrix of screws through it to keep them all loaded in shear I think it would be plenty strong.

 

[Odyseuss]

2001 LX470 build LEGUSY

I did something similar to what I think that you are describing in my build. It only covers 1/2 of the drawers though as I don't plan to remove my fridge and only use it for 1 person. It helps to protect the top surface of the drawers from heavy bins that I slide in often. It is removable with 4 screws and stabilizes the front quickly with 2 pvc legs, its very sturdy even after days on the trail (though it may need a bit of retightening) and its easy to set up.