Project DIY: Truck-bed Pullout Kitchen (and BS)

adding legs maybe underneath that fold down might work, if you allow enough clearance under the drawer so it will not obstruct the sliding drawer

 

I ended up buying a Harken Hoister kit for my RTT. I'm a bit concerned about leaving it hanging so I'm just going to use it to get it off my truck, then lowering down after I pull the truck out. Thing is my ceiling joists are engineered I beams and the wood part for attaching it seems not so beefy.

The kitchen itself shouldn't be too bad. I'm planning to make it in separate parts that bolts together and to the slide. It might be more of a pain to set that up each trip, but it's only once.

My biggest question mark right now is securing to the bed. Open to ideas here. Right now my plan is this:

Piece of plywood where the slides attach to. On the open bed end, rig some bracket or something to bolt onto Total Chaos bed stiffeners. On the back end, I was thinking to attach a C-shaped bracket onto The furthest bed bolts. Then the plywood would have a slot where I slide that end into these C slots, then lower the other end and bolt to the stiffeners. This is just concept right now, not real sure how well that would work.

 

Too much awesome going on here.

 

subd

 

What weight rating are in the slides that you're going to use

 

They're 500lbs per pair. BTW, they just arrived today. Heavy AF!

 

The weight of these will definitely affect how I do the base platform. A single sheet of plywood with these things attached is going to be too much to move around to really be considered "removable". I might have to do a split system or something.

 

Subd

 

hey man! i would like to put some input here...first off this is my system...


mine is "removable" but I have yet to remove it. i used all birch ply with my construction. I doubled up the 3/4" sheets that support the slides and my bedslide which holds the cooler and 2 6 gal. water jerrys, all in all 300-350 lbs fully loaded. First it takes 2 people to remove and the system is about 150 lbs itself. I plan on rebuilding the system next spring with a more rugged construction that i will plan to keep as a permanent setup.

 

Very nice! I'd be very interested to get some detailed shots of the mounts. It looks like the open bed end, you have turnbuckles that go in a little. What are they attached to? Also, do you notice any "bounce" say if you hit a bump at speed? Also, how are they attached at the back end. Right now, that's the most "experimental" part of my plan.

 

to elaborate on my previous post.

for my setup i used 1/2" birch as a base and 3/4" in birch for the sides and upper deck to support all the gear.

what i have learned:

• to build it right, to build it sturdy, its going to be heavy, especially with your drawer slides. currently i am only using 1 48" slide for my bedslide portion, the drawers are just waxed and on rails.
• seal the wood with a heavy duty deck paint or multiple layers of polyurethane
• you can probably mill out the base in sections to reduce some weight
• the slides are great but bring lube as the desert dust in Utah will start to dry the slides up

I am going to be building 2.0 in the spring and i am planning to alter my design for the next time around

• the left side will sit on a 56" locking slide and this will house my cook partner 22 and have some top access drawers on piano hinges for pots, pans and dry food
• the right side will have a 48" drawer on my current slides and will be held shut with a compression latch. there will also be a small cubby behind this drawer as there is now.
• the top plate will be one solid piece the next time around and will feature L-track for tie down points and the cooler, soon to be fridge will sit on the alucab tilting fridge slide. https://ok4wd.com/brands/alucab/alu-cab-tilting-fridge-slide-large-fridges
• i will mill out the 1/2" base for weight reduction
• i will also be line-xing or herculining the main structure and coating the drawers with polyurethane
• and other stuff that is still on the drawing board

 

turn buckles hold it in i used the existing torx bits on either side where the cubbys/power supply are screwed in but also drilled an additional hole next to them to mount these tie downs https://www.lowes.com/pd/SmartStraps-Light-Duty-Surface-Mount-D-Ring/3740689

 

SORRY, did not read this the whole way through. no bounce at all i have taken it down a bunch of trails with absolutely zero issues. for the back mounts, i used the hole where the tie downs in the bed wall are, i had a local fab shop bent 1/4" steel for me and i drilled holes to match the spacing and bolted them to the the top deck of the drawer system.

 

Ahh, I see it now. Dangit. That won't work for me, though I did consider making a "back wall" to raise the mounting points, or having something made up that screws in where the cab-side cargo track thing is supposed to go - theres already some threaded holes there. In the end, I think the easiest option is the C-shaped hold-downs... if it works, of course.

Also, for those considering doing a system like this: One idea I had (decided to use this instead) was to just build sliding trays on the slides. Then the trays would have mounting clips and such at a regular interval. Then you could build drawers and cabinets in a modular fashion for maximum flexibility, or leave it open for cargo bins and the like. In the end, I wanted a cabinet for my 22" Cook Partner, which didn't leave much room for anything modular, so I just designed it this way instead.

 

speaking of cutting out some of the wood check out @forty2 drawer system

 

Yeah, definitely going to do that, too. The structural strength won't come from the plywood base - it's just a way to fasten it down. The slides will hold it all together. I was thinking four large cut-outs just like that.

 

After a little bit of research, I'm going to pull the trigger on the 12-gallon water tank. It's made of HDPE, which is potable-water-safe, per: http://www.care2.com/greenliving/which-plastics-are-safe.html

The shape/size of it is almost too perfect for this setup and conversely the Aqua-tainer is just too oddly shaped. I think it's a fair trade-off: Cabinet storage on one side to free up the same amount of storage on the other side (or close to it).

http://www.denhartogindustries.com/wp-content/uploads/product-pdfs/SP0012-RT.pdf

 

i cant wait to start seeing this come together.

oh not sure if you mentioned this or not, are you running a shell?

 

I'm not - open bed. It's why I'm taking extra precautions with using marine ply and epoxy resin. I am a little concerned about the slides, but I suppose they will get a little shelter from my RTT. I'll probably run some weather stripping around the cabinet openings so it seals when closed.

 

now this is becoming even more interesting for me because I was debating on going with camper shell or not as I wasn't sure how the whole system would fair being exposed to the elements (socal "weather")