Storage drawers. Slides or no slides?

[psilocyBen]

Finally getting around to building a sleeping platform/storage system for my 2005 GX. I’m in the early stages or brainstorming and designing and I’m debating whether or not to use drawer slides. The other option I’ve seen is to use UHMW plastic strips have the drawers just slide on those. I like the idea of having nice slides, but I also see potential for them to make a lot of noise when on rougher terrain (maybe this won’t be a problem with locks?). With the plastic, I like how they’re cheaper and potentially sturdier, but since I don’t have a tailgate to support the drawers further when they are out, I don’t like the idea of them falling out. Anyone here have experience with both? Which would you guys recommend? Planning on two doing drawers of equal size, about 3.5 feet deep. Any insight is appreciated!

 

[Overlandeffex]

Look at the KISS drawer system form Landshark outfitters. I have a set and really like them.

KISS Drawers

Keep It Simple Storage (KISS) Drawers still moving content from the old website

landsharkoutfitters.com

 

[psilocyBen]

Look at the KISS drawer system form Landshark outfitters. I have a set and really like them.

KISS Drawers

Keep It Simple Storage (KISS) Drawers still moving content from the old website

landsharkoutfitters.com

I just checked them out. They look super nice but I’m trying to build myself and save some money. I saw they use plastic strips instead of actual slides. Would you recommend that method?

 

[desmocruiser]

I built my own in 2 different 80's and tried cheap slides, then no slides when the cheap ones failed and finally ended up with heavy duty slides. In my opinion the high quality latching

slides make the drawer system function as intended with no noise and dependable operation!

 

[psilocyBen]

I built my own in 2 different 80's and tried cheap slides, then no slides when the cheap ones failed and finally ended up with heavy duty slides. In my opinion the high quality latching View attachment 2444990View attachment 2444990View attachment 2444991View attachment 2444992View attachment 2444992slides make the drawer system function as intended with no noise and dependable operation!

Sweet. Thanks for sharing. Those looks nice. Yeah I have been debating which slides to get if I go that route. How important are those locks? I figure if I make the system long enough so the handles I add will pretty much touch the tail gate/rear hatch when closed, I may not need them, but they would be nice. Also how many lbs are your slides rated for? Do you think 250 lb slides are good enough?

 

[desmocruiser]

I think they were rated at #300 Lbs Each, I purchased them from cabinet parts . Com if I recall correctly, not cheap but worth it.

I really like they fact they lock open and closed. If you have slides that work well and open the drawer on a downhill incline, they don’t stay open and I have no tolerance for any rattles etc. so latched closed was important to me as well.

 

[thegadgetguy]

This is how I did my slides. I used 1/4" HDPE corner trim on the along the two bottom sides. On my drawers I have one big drawer on the left and two smaller ones stacked on the right. I went with this approach because of low price, simplicity, and compactness of sliding mechanism.

The drawers fit snugly left to right in their slides, so no rattle. I don't have any latches - the tailgate when closed keeps the drawers closed. The tailgate and natural friction of the drawers on the slides keeps them from moving or making noise. When extended, the drawers don't sit on the tailgate at all - they are "wedged" between the top and the bottom of my overall housing, if that makes sense. You can't pull them all the way out with this configuration, but I've honestly never really felt the need to. They also just slide right out, so sometimes when I'm packing I will take them inside to pack and then just carry them outside and install fully loaded.

I really like not having any latches, and I also really like that you can pull the drawers out however far you want (1/2 way, 1/4 way, 3/4 way out, etc.), and they will just stay there, even if you are on a hill. I have a fridge slide that's on ball bearing slides and the fact that it just rolls around on even a slight incline drives me crazy. If you go ball bearing slides, get the 300 or 500 lb ones, and I would consider dual locking (both in and out) absolutely essential.

I would definitely use this approach again. The only reason I would use ball bearing slides in the future is if for some reason I needed 100% full extension of the drawer (e.g. for a pullout kitchen or something). The downside to these slides is that my heavier drawer (normally has 100 - 150lbs of stuff in it) takes a bit of oomph to pull out. It doesn't bother me, but if you had kids or smaller people who needed to get in there, ball bearing slides might be a better choice.

Here is a link to the corner trim I used. I used corner trim because it has a 90 degree internal corner, unlike the radius you would find on a piece of angle. This way I could make the square edge of the drawer fit tightly into the corner so no rattles.

McMaster-Carr

McMaster-Carr is the complete source for your plant with over 595,000 products. 98% of products ordered ship from stock and deliver same or next day.

www.mcmaster.com

Pros:
-simplicity
-cheap
-easy to implement and doesn't eat up 3/4" of width per slide like high capacity ball bearings
-easy to clean (just vacuum/wipe off). The grease on the ball bearings seems to attract dust.

Cons:
-harder to pull/push in out than ball bearings
-not 100% full extension
-i'm sure there are others but this is all I can think of at the moment

Finished:

 

[psilocyBen]

This is how I did my slides. I used 1/4" HDPE corner trim on the along the two bottom sides. On my drawers I have one big drawer on the left and two smaller ones stacked on the right. I went with this approach because of low price, simplicity, and compactness of sliding mechanism.

The drawers fit snugly left to right in their slides, so no rattle. I don't have any latches - the tailgate when closed keeps the drawers closed. The tailgate and natural friction of the drawers on the slides keeps them from moving or making noise. When extended, the drawers don't sit on the tailgate at all - they are "wedged" between the top and the bottom of my overall housing, if that makes sense. You can't pull them all the way out with this configuration, but I've honestly never really felt the need to. They also just slide right out, so sometimes when I'm packing I will take them inside to pack and then just carry them outside and install fully loaded.

I really like not having any latches, and I also really like that you can pull the drawers out however far you want (1/2 way, 1/4 way, 3/4 way out, etc.), and they will just stay there, even if you are on a hill. I have a fridge slide that's on ball bearing slides and the fact that it just rolls around on even a slight incline drives me crazy. If you go ball bearing slides, get the 300 or 500 lb ones, and I would consider dual locking (both in and out) absolutely essential.

I would definitely use this approach again. The only reason I would use ball bearing slides in the future is if for some reason I needed 100% full extension of the drawer (e.g. for a pullout kitchen or something). The downside to these slides is that my heavier drawer (normally has 100 - 150lbs of stuff in it) takes a bit of oomph to pull out. It doesn't bother me, but if you had kids or smaller people who needed to get in there, ball bearing slides might be a better choice.

Here is a link to the corner trim I used. I used corner trim because it has a 90 degree internal corner, unlike the radius you would find on a piece of angle. This way I could make the square edge of the drawer fit tightly into the corner so no rattles.

McMaster-Carr

McMaster-Carr is the complete source for your plant with over 595,000 products. 98% of products ordered ship from stock and deliver same or next day.

www.mcmaster.com

Pros:
-simplicity
-cheap
-easy to implement and doesn't eat up 3/4" of width per slide like high capacity ball bearings
-easy to clean (just vacuum/wipe off). The grease on the ball bearings seems to attract dust.

Cons:
-harder to pull/push in out than ball bearings
-not 100% full extension
-i'm sure there are others but this is all I can think of at the moment

View attachment 2445011

Finished:
View attachment 2445017

Thanks for all the info, I love your setup. Definitely making my decision harder now, I was literally about to order slides. All the pros you mentioned are definitely a plus. When calculating the actual usable width of each drawer, the slides definitely eat up a lot of space. So you think I wont have any problem pulling them 3/4 of the way out with no tailgate to support? I really do like the idea of locking slides which are just effortless to slide out, but at the same time I feel like apart from that, there are just more cons with them. Also, so you only used the HDPE on the corners? Nothing else underneath or on the sides?

 

[thegadgetguy]

Thanks for all the info, I love your setup. Definitely making my decision harder now, I was literally about to order slides. All the pros you mentioned are definitely a plus. When calculating the actual usable width of each drawer, the slides definitely eat up a lot of space. So you think I wont have any problem pulling them 3/4 of the way out with no tailgate to support? I really do like the idea of locking slides which are just effortless to slide out, but at the same time I feel like apart from that, there are just more cons with them. Also, so you only used the HDPE on the corners? Nothing else underneath or on the sides?

I don't see why you would have any problem with that - that's what I do with mine. They're about an inch above my tailgate when extended.

Yeah I just used two HDPE angle strips per box.

I think either slide type is a good option. I just wanted to save money and try something a little different when I made mine. For my needs, they've worked very well, and I think better than ball bearings would have.

 

[psilocyBen]

I don't see why you would have any problem with that - that's what I do with mine. They're about an inch above my tailgate when extended.

Yeah I just used two HDPE angle strips per box.

I think either slide type is a good option. I just wanted to save money and try something a little different when I made mine. For my needs, they've worked very well, and I think better than ball bearings would have.

Okay cool, yeah the only thing i'm concerned with is not being able to pull the drawers out far enough to access items without them falling out. If I had something with a tailgate, obviously this wouldn't be a concern, but being that I have a GX, my hatch opens sideways and there is no tailgate to further support. How deep are your drawers? And about how far can they extend before they start to hit your tailgate, about 75% or so? Thanks again

 

[Don Lacer]

I will just add; WEIGHT. I have two sets of full extension slides and together they have to be at least 75 lbs. That is a lot of weight that could be used elsewhere. I ended up removing my Baltic Birch 18mm set up. It was so heavy and I have a VDJ-78 which is not under powered. I'm now in the process of building my own version of Drifta Drawers using a much lighter 12mm plywood and teflon slides. All total, it's about half the weight of my previous setup (Expeditions 7 style).

 

[psilocyBen]

I will just add; WEIGHT. I have two sets of full extension slides and together they have to be at least 75 lbs. That is a lot of weight that could be used elsewhere. I ended up removing my Baltic Birch 18mm set up. It was so heavy and I have a VDJ-78 which is not under powered. I'm now in the process of building my own version of Drifta Drawers using a much lighter 12mm plywood and teflon slides. All total, it's about half the weight of my previous setup (Expeditions 7 style).

Oh wow, 75 lbs is a lot of weight. My drawers aren’t gonna be very deep so I don’t need the 500 lb load capacity, but it looks like they’d still add about 20 lbs at least. You’re new setup sounds like it’s going to be nice, half the weight is pretty substantial.

 

[thegadgetguy]

Okay cool, yeah the only thing i'm concerned with is not being able to pull the drawers out far enough to access items without them falling out. If I had something with a tailgate, obviously this wouldn't be a concern, but being that I have a GX, my hatch opens sideways and there is no tailgate to further support. How deep are your drawers? And about how far can they extend before they start to hit your tailgate, about 75% or so? Thanks again

This is with the drawer extended over 3/4 out. They never touch the tailgate at all.

 

[psilocyBen]

This is with the drawer extended over 3/4 out. They never touch the tailgate at all.


View attachment 2446066

That does look very nice, cool to see it doesn’t even touch. How deep are those drawers?

 

[thegadgetguy]

That does look very nice, cool to see it doesn’t even touch. How deep are those drawers?

I think the big one is about 32” deep. The smaller ones on the right are slightly less so due to a sub enclosure in front of them.

 

[psilocyBen]

I think the big one is about 32” deep. The smaller ones on the right are slightly less so due to a sub enclosure in front of them.

Okay cool. I think you’ve convinced me to go this route. Is two full length strips of UHMW on the bottom for each drawer enough for good sliding action, or would you recommend ones on the side as well?

 

[thegadgetguy]

I will just add; WEIGHT. I have two sets of full extension slides and together they have to be at least 75 lbs. That is a lot of weight that could be used elsewhere. I ended up removing my Baltic Birch 18mm set up. It was so heavy and I have a VDJ-78 which is not under powered. I'm now in the process of building my own version of Drifta Drawers using a much lighter 12mm plywood and teflon slides. All total, it's about half the weight of my previous setup (Expeditions 7 style).

Teflon slides sound very interesting. How do those work? I had no idea the ball bearing slides were so heavy.

How much did your old setup weigh? Do you have a build thread anywhere?

 

[thegadgetguy]

Okay cool. I think you’ve convinced me to go this route. Is two full length strips of UHMW on the bottom for each drawer enough for good sliding action, or would you recommend ones on the side as well?

I think you could probably just have wood on wood sliding on the sides if you wanted to without much issue, but I think ideally you would have some sort of low friction surface on the sides, so that you can make it pretty tight so there’s no wiggle/rattle. The angle I used accomplishes both tasks with just one piece of material.

 

[Don Lacer]

I don’t have a build thread. I’m waiting on the Teflon material. I have no idea how much it weighs now, but I added gullwings to both rear windows with floor to ceiling boxes at 9mm wrapped in boat carpet. The center boxes don’t weigh more 75lbs. total. I think I was pushing 200lbs. with the Baltic Birch. At 12mm they are more than strong enough to support my weight. When I get everything finished I’ll post some better photos. Here’s a photo to give you an idea. I haven’t built the refrigerator box yet.

 

[secretasiansam]

I didn't use slides of any kind. Just plywood on plywood. It's stiff, but not horrible. I think my wife struggles a bit but she can open them.