How do you secure your cargo drawers?

[MagicBeans]

I'm nearly finished with the construction of a new set of drawers, (design almost entirely stolen from kevinmorrowland-thanks Kevin) but can't think of any way to keep them held down that won't interfere with other stuff when the drawers are removed. Also, I discovered that the cargo area of my 60 is not perfectly flat, so the drawers have a tendancy to 'teeter-totter' around. That makes me worry that when I do put a lot of weight on top of them one part of them will bearing all the load. Do any of you put shims under there or something?

 

[GLTHFJ60]

Drill holes down through the bed of the 60 and run stainless bolts through. That should be more than sturdy enough.

 

[Randy88FJ62]

Does the drawer system have to be removable? What material are you making the drawer system out of? Does it cover the whole back area or just a square with the sides free and open? Need more info before an accurate solution can be found.

My favorite place to look for latches and fasterers is McMaster Carr. They have a wide variety of cheap fasterers. Try McMaster.com and look around for ideas.

 

[MagicBeans]

The drawers are made out of 1/2 plywood, and have some play room on each side of the fender wells. They look just like Kevinmorrowlands, if you're familiar. And yep, I want them to be removeable without too much of a PITA. If I use bolts that run through the floor, I'm afraid they won't be accessible at all without removing the gas tank. Thanks for the help guys.

 

[Eporter]

One of these days I'll get around to making mine. I was thinking of running long strips of 1x1/8" steel lengthwise in the truck from the tailgate area to where the rear seatbelts bolt in. The strips would be bolted at the tailgate area and bent at an appropriate angle to use the seatbelt bolt holes.

I would weld tabs to the strips so that they could bolt to the cargo drawers.

All I've done is think about this without actually looking at the truck too much. Is this a good idea? Is safety compromised for rear seat occupants with the additional fully loaded drawer load?

 

[GLTHFJ60]

The drawers are made out of 1/2 plywood, and have some play room on each side of the fender wells. They look just like Kevinmorrowlands, if you're familiar. And yep, I want them to be removeable without too much of a PITA. If I use bolts that run through the floor, I'm afraid they won't be accessible at all without removing the gas tank. Thanks for the help guys.

If they are the same dimensions as Kevin's, then you can run bolts through the floor because that's how he did it. If you want to be more sure, pm him and ask exactly where in the drawers he did it.

Here you go: Single Post - Kevin's Storage System

 

[Randy88FJ62]

You could run two pieces of metal from side to side that bolt into the OEM cargo secure points. They’re not D-Rings but look like s’shaped tie downs. Takes you 5 mins to unbolt those and bolt in two metal U-Shaped brackets that bolt to the floor with 4 bolts each and come up and bolt into the side of your drawer system. Since it’s ½ thinck plywood you can mount some type of metal bracket that can secure into the u-shaped metal bracket. Easily fabbed at home with a vice and only requires a drill to have holes for the mounts. Clear as mud?

 

[MagicBeans]

All good ideas. I'll have to do some more thinking, but I like the side to side cargo mount idea.
But what about the drawers rocking up and down? Of course this would be elimanated by bolting them down, but then only part of the drawers would be contact with the floor. Does anybody else have this rounded floor problem, or is my cruiser a freak?

 

[Randy88FJ62]

1/2" thick plywood base for your drawer system will not deflect enough to worry about.

 

[GLTHFJ60]

All good ideas. I'll have to do some more thinking, but I like the side to side cargo mount idea.
But what about the drawers rocking up and down? Of course this would be elimanated by bolting them down, but then only part of the drawers would be contact with the floor. Does anybody else have this rounded floor problem, or is my cruiser a freak?

Mine is completely flat. Bolt yours straight through the floor, easiest solution.

 

[siddersc]

I used the rear seat mounting holes, but that is no good of you don't have the rear seats.
Just bolt through the floor and it will be fine.

 

[kevinmrowland]

(design almost entirely stolen from kevinmorrowland-thanks Kevin)

MagicBeans I want them to be removeable without too much of a PITA. If I use bolts that run through the floor, I'm afraid they won't be accessible at all without removing the gas tank. Thanks for the help guys.

Johnny's right on this one, if you are careful about where you put the holes you can bolt the front and rear of the drawer in with 4 bolts, very secure.
The gas tank is not in the way, if you have your drawers in place and roll under the truck you can drill up through the floor into the drawer carcass. I then put T-nuts in the plywood for the bolts to thread into.
It is very simple and the drawers can be removed in about 10 minutes by just rolling under the truck with a socket.

However, I don't like it, I have been meaning to figure out some kind of quick release so that I can just flip a latch and slide the drawers out.
I'll get right on that........
I figure that if I run a heavy-duty draw latch to a D-ring style hook it would work as I intend, but I want the latch system to be very low profile so as not to interfere with things like the fridge, I am a bit obsessive about wasted space.....

 

[chicago]

For the rear of my bin, I used the stock hold down bolt holes with angle iron to secure it all together (sides of the bin to the floor). The more "aft" bolts, I ran through the fender wells with a big ass bolt, then cut off the excess.
As for the flooring not being level...did you take out the back seat bench?
That will cause all kinds angle problems.

Chicago

 

[kevinmrowland]

Oh, as a side note, the OE tie down points are only in the 62s, or very late 60s. Not everyone has them to work with unfortunately.

 

[Randy88FJ62]

Oh, as a side note, the OE tie down points are only in the 62s, or very late 60s. Not everyone has them to work with unfortunately.

Guess I'm lucky then.

 

[iggi]

My storage drawers are very similar to Kevin's.
The entire box is off the floor by an inch so that I can stash the extension I made to bridge the box and the back of the folded seat.

My drawer bottoms are slightly raised so they clear the bolt heads with no problem.

I just ran the bolts through the floor (after making sure I'd miss anything critical).
It works well but I worked from the top down (instead of drilling up) and it was a pita.
Should have stuck with my original idea of fabricating some steel brackets and welding them to the floor.

Crappy Cell Phone Photo.

 

[GLTHFJ60]

Johnny's right on this one, if you are careful about where you put the holes you can bolt the front and rear of the drawer in with 4 bolts, very secure.
The gas tank is not in the way, if you have your drawers in place and roll under the truck you can drill up through the floor into the drawer carcass. I then put T-nuts in the plywood for the bolts to thread into.

I'm glad I'm not wrong all the time! I still have to secure my drawers to the floor by the way,

 

[kevinmrowland]

I was thinking about something like this:
Mount or weld a tie down ring to the floor on the side of the box and grab the ring with the hook on the latch.
Quick release!!!
And then the ring could just drop flat to the floor, and for the times I want the box out, the rings can be used as good tie down points.
I also think that I might only need two latches, one on each side in the middle of the drawer carcass, if it is locked down strong enough in the center then either end wont lift up.

 

[GLTHFJ60]

I was thinking about something like this:
Mount or weld a tie down ring to the floor on the side of the box and grab the ring with the hook on the latch.
Quick release!!!
And then the ring could just drop flat to the floor, and for the times I want the box out, the rings can be used as good tie down points.
I also think that I might only need two latches, one on each side in the middle of the drawer carcass, if it is locked down strong enough in the center then either end wont lift up.

Isn't the center right about the wheel wells? I like that idea a lot though. You could use a ring in the floor like this:

 

[iggi]

Those quick releases look excellent! Thanks for posting.
Definitely checking into those.

My storage drawers only go to the back of the seat (42.5 inches)
Pretty sure the wheel wells don't extend 21 inches back from the seat.