Notes from Reef install (Land Shark Outfitters drawer kit) (1 Viewer)

[lasoundguy]

Gearing up for a road trip (6 nights camping CA-UT-CO, 3 nights AirBnB in Moab) and managed to snag two of the Reef kits from LSO.

I wanted to do a "High Tide" configuration so I can have my Dometic fridge on the right side and drawers on the left. Total parts ordered were:
2x Reefs
1x Anchor Kit for 80 series
1x High Tide setup

All in all a pretty easy kit to put together and nicely done. There are a few minor snags for the double-stacked configuration that I figured I'd document for others so they can plan and avoid some of the pitfalls I ran into.

Drawer assembly was quite straightforward, note I did glue the bottom in on three sides (back and sides) with Titebond and may glue the lids in down the line once I'm sure I am happy with them.

I had to lift the carpet to mess with the bolts for the anchor plate so I went ahead and did some quick and dirty Dynamat'ing of the rear wheel wells while I was in there.

 

[lasoundguy]

Once I got the High Tide setup I did a dryfit.

It seemed like everything was cool so I went ahead and painted the frame. I used Rustoleum black bed liner for the exterior frame, mainly because I had three cans of it in the cabinet left over from painting my WKOR sliders a few months back.

This is the anchor plate, the instructions say to put it in with the logo mark towards the back but that didn't fit at all, I think it's a typo in the directions. (@cruzerDave The picture looks right, the words don't.)

So here's the main catch--this all works perfectly for a single set of drawers. When you double them up, the rear seat hits the back of the drawer...if you slide the drawers back to clear the seat, the hatch won't close.

 

[lasoundguy]

I was able to fix this by doing two things, namely trimming down the leading edge of the drawer frame and then redrilling the anchor plate to compensate for the offset drawer position (it sits about 1/2" further towards the back of the truck than the stock anchor plate holes allow.)

Here you can see where I trimmed (everywhere that's missing paint.)

And this is it wedged into place and bolted down.

Note I did have to take the upper hatch door handle off and pivot around the other way (so only held in by the passenger side bolt) to clear the drawer assembly to close--it's all fitting in nicely with about 1/4" of clearance.

 

[lasoundguy]

Anyway, I will update after our road trip with in-use impressions but for now very excited about it. I also used a portion of the extra extrusion left over from the High Tide kit to bolt my subwoofer to the side so it can finally be rigidly mounted, also happy to get that sorted.

 

[jkiddy]

@lasoundguy great write up. Would love to hear how the trip went!

 

[McDowra]

Looks really nice let us know how the trip goes1

 

[Rwhat]

Did the anchor keep it from moving around?

 

[lasoundguy]

Hey, so yes a year later, trip went great, and drawers have been fantastic over about a dozen camping trips. We leave the bottom drawer packed with tools, spare parts, and camping stuff (flashlights, hammocks, lanterns, etc) and the upper drawer is our pantry and cooking pots/pans (empty it out for daily use.). Super happy with the setup. I throw an NRS 2” strap through the top of the drawer frame and use that to secure loads, has held up (including anchor plate) for about 12k miles so far. The faceplates did loosen up so I glued them in after about six months.

 

[jkiddy]

Hey, so yes a year later, trip went great, and drawers have been fantastic over about a dozen camping trips. We leave the bottom drawer packed with tools, spare parts, and camping stuff (flashlights, hammocks, lanterns, etc) and the upper drawer is our pantry and cooking pots/pans (empty it out for daily use.). Super happy with the setup. I throw an NRS 2” strap through the top of the drawer frame and use that to secure loads, has held up (including anchor plate) for about 12k miles so far. The faceplates did loosen up so I glued them in after about six months.

Appreciate the update, you’ve got a great build - makes me want to place an order with land shark. Do you think the dynamat helped with sound deading?