My rear storage/drawer build

[estoddart]

I've seen a couple other home builds of rear storage systems and felt like I could build one pretty easily for pretty cheap, so here's my go at it.

1- remove everything out of the back. Seat, seatbelts, mounting harware, even the carpet. (I later put the carpet back in to keep noise down.)

2- Cut a base for the box out of 1/2" CDX plywood. It's about 42" deep by 59" wide. I also drilled two holes that lined up with the 3rd row seat mounting holes to be able to bolt the box in the back.

3- Using a 2"x10" I cut the two outside uprights and the center I used a 1"x10".

 

[MattL]

Subscribed! I'll be doing something similar soon. I love seeing these kinds of projects.

 

[DBWood]

Nice start, I have a storage system on my DIY list as well. Looking forward to seeing your finished product.

 

[estoddart]

Step 4 - Cut the top piece out of ¾” CDX plywood. With the lower half of the box mounted in the truck I started on the center upright and measured out to the trucks plastic interior left and right. I did this at 2” intervals and transferred my measurements to my ¾” top piece. That system worked really well. I only had to shave a couple spots after test fitting it in the truck. I also thought I could keep the top piece as one whole piece but it wouldn’t fit through the tail gate so I cut up the left side and hinged it so it would fit in and to still give me access to bottle jack cubby.
*sorry I forgot to take a picture of this step.

5 - Paint. I used Miller Paints "Tuff Tread". It's $40 a gallon, durable, goes on thick and will resist water, oil, dirt, ect.

6 – Screw the hinge piece and I used shelf holders to support the underside. That’s all pretty simple and self explanatory.

7 – Next, I bought carpet from Home Depot. It looks like it’s meant to throw on the ground outside your RV or something. It looks very durable and only $19. I’m going to cut it to match the top piece and use black nail/tacks to secure it. I also bought 4 of black flush tie-downs off Amazon that I’ll bolt in to be able to bungee cargo down.

 

[angerhater]

do you already have the drawer slides....i purchased ryadon 2250 for mine ...rated for 250lbs and only 42$ a pr....only 30 in long though...

 

[jynx]

Man I have seen several of these lately, but this one for some reason has me really pondering getting something started myself. Based on your material of choice, you are about 10 1/4" from the floor of the cargo area, correct?

What are you planning to do for the drawers? and where did you get the "tuff stuff" at? Sounds like some really good stuff for this type of application.

 

[estoddart]

jynx - the "tuff Tread" paint is from Miller paints. They have a store near me in Seattle. I'm not sure if they are nation wide.
Yes the box top is about 10 1/2" from the floor. My idea was to have a semi-flat area with the 2nd row seats down for big cargo or a sleeping area when camping. It worked out the way great.

angerhater - I don't have drawer slides yet. I'm thinking undermount ones but I'm still looking at options. It's hard to find slides that are 40" deep.

 

[driver5155]

I like it

 

[jynx]

Estoddart, what sliders are you looking at? I looked into those ryadon slides that angerhater mentioned and if you could make the 30" length work that would be the way to go. To get up to 40" it looks like you are into 500 lb rating and $160 a pair. I'm not sure I'm ready to drop $320 on a pair of slides. I'd be more inclined to put a piano hinge across 10" from the end and make it fold up to access the last 10" of the drawer.

 

[JohnR]

I haven't done a search for this.. but why not some uhmw sliders instead of rails?

 

[jynx]

You mean along the bottom correct, if so my guess is to keep the drawer captured. With slides, the further out the drawer gets the control stays the same and it won't tip out, with just a slick bottom it would get tippy the further out it came. Plus with the uhmw on the bottom, I would guess the more weight on the drawer, the harder it gets to pull.

I guess you could route in a groove and put some uhmw on there and make a side slide for the drawers.

 

[JohnR]

Why not put a section at the top rear of the drawer? It would serve as a positive stop, and help keep it from getting tippy as it slid out.

 

[estoddart]

Added carpet on top and my tiedown points.

pics, enjoy

 

[jynx]

One quick question, how are you putting things together? I know it is attached to the floor, but when you put the top on can you reach the bolts in the base? Or is the removal a reverse of the construction process?

And what bolts did you use to attach it to the floor? Are they countersunk into the base?

Looking very nice BTW.

 

[angerhater]

will it stay in place if you roll the truck?

 

[estoddart]

One quick question, how are you putting things together?

Besides the bolts going into the floor which I believe are 10mm x 40mm x 1.25(?), I used wood glue and 1 3/4" wood screws. The top is only on with 4 screws going in to the 2"x10" outside uprights right now and I can reach the floor bolts easily just by reaching in. The tie-downs are through bolted to the top and the carpet is help down by 3/4" tacks I hammered in.

will it stay in place if you roll the truck?

Well I hope to never find out but I'd give it an 80% chance of staying in place if the truck rolled. I think it would depend on how much stuff(weight) I have in the box.
The floor bolts are counter sunk into the 1/2" plywood so I think they are really only holding on to 1/4" of wood if it were to be inverted. I can grab the top of the box and put a lot of effort into lifting up on it and the top nor the box will move at all. That's good enough for me right now. Since OEM seat mounts had 4 bolts in the floor and I only drilled 2 holes I can always drill and use the other 2 for more holding strength if needed later.

 

[angerhater]

i had considered using an aluminum strap held and the other seat bolts/ holes...fwiw

 

[arndog123]

Nice job.

 

[shermantank55]

Shear strength

I really like the top piece design and am going to copy it and redo mine to make use of the whole floor space. As to rollover or collision strength, I would recommend bolting through the vertical sides near the top (to avoid the drawer) and securing to factory holes, relying on shear strength versus pulling through the ply on the bottom. I used turnbuckles, but you could also craft a steel bracket to maximize use of space. Pics show the turnbuckle and tie down I used.
Again, great design, especially the hinged storage!

Greg

 

[jynx]

Good point, I hadn't thought about it, but this would be a side effect of what I was thinking of doing. I wanted to build a drawers system and make it just short/ tall enough to clear a set of cargo baskets similar to Luke's interior cargo baskets. Those would then serve to lock the drawers down in the event of any type of collision or a roll-over.

estoddart, did you ever settle on a drawer slide for the system?