Astrocat with a Habitat

Update:
- Sold the ARB Slide
- Bought new Centric F/R brake pads, rotors, and drums
- Bought a Dunn & Watson +60L fridge slide
- Also bought 36" Dunn & Watson 500lb locking drawer slides for new drawer build
- Bought new EZ-Tube aluminum framing for new drawer
- And 3/8" laminated Birch plywood from DIY Road Cases for drawer siding
- Planning to add exterior L-track on the Habitat

Installed the new front brake pads and rotors. The rotors are StopTech but the stock size, not a Big Brake kit. Ended up with drilled and slotted because slotted was out of stock when I ordered.

 

Oh yeah, I guess I also forgot to mention when I bought a fridge.



Got a great deal on a used Overland Pros 54L dual-zone fridge/freezer. Actually bought it from Nick, one of the owners of Overland Pros.

So that's why I bought the Dunn & Watson slide, because it fits the fridge dimensions perfectly, and even with shipping from Aussieland its cheaper than the Front Runner (which is the only other one I could find that was a close fit), while also having a much better load capacity.

 

Have you finished the build out of the drawers? I'm interested to see some more photos you got. Last I saw you were filing down all the cuts at mod day lol

 

Haven't finished it yet, I'm currently on vacation in Maui. The outer box is finished and I mounted the sliders in it, so when I get back I just need to do the drawer box and decide on how I'm mounting it. I also need to paint the wood base for the fridge slide.

 

Nice, I’m flying out to Honolulu this Thursday.

 

I've also been bad about taking photos of the process, but here's where I left off via screen capture of an Instagram story.

 

Any reason why you didn't finish the fronts with extrusion?

 

Yeah, to save an extra inch or so on the inner box width and to be able to mount the slides directly to the side panel and allow them to clear. If I used the framing on the front the slides would have to sit inside of those to clear them. I'm basically trying to maximize the inner dimensions vs the outer dimensions so there's less wasted space. I'm just hoping it doesn't compromise the strength too much, but I'm just going to see how it is once finished.

 

How does the quick frame feel? I am can't make up my mind on either Quick Frame or the T-slot. I ordered some T-slot material from 8020 to mount my Eezi-Awn Manta, that stuff isn't cheap!

 

Sorry, somehow I don't think I got a notification of your post or just missed it somehow. I didn't see it until now, oops.

The quick frame is pretty light compared to t-slot I think, but it feels strong once it's all assembled. I will note that I am a little concerned with my design having the open end of the drawer box unframed might make it weaker, and it might have been better for me to go with 1/2" ply instead of 3/8", although it's already getting heavy with the drawer slides, which are at least half the weight right now. I'm hoping once I mount the drawer box it will help stiffen everything up.

Also on that note I picked up my drawer box today. Ordered a dovetailed birch plywood drawer box from Western Dovetail. Price was very reasonable, especially because they are pretty local in Vallejo, and I could just go pick it up instead of shipping it.

Edit: Also, while t-slot is more expensive, unless you go the cheaper joining route with exposed frame ends, the fancy 3-way corner joints ala Goose-Gear are by the far most expensive part of building with t-slot. The other part I didn't like was figuring out how to fill the sides with panels. You can slide in 1/4" panels into the t-slot channel, but I need something I can feel comfortable standing on (and I'm not even very heavy, 145 lbs). Then it just gets way more complicated to mount thicker panels, so wasn't worth it IMO, as nice as it would be to have the track for anchoring.

 

Oooh, western dovetail looks nice. I just wish I lived close to there to pick it up.

 

Mounted my drawers in the bed yesterday. The storage drawer still needs a front face, but it's otherwise good to go. Fridge slide is great, just need to get the fridge wiring sorted. Next up I need to work on a mount for the water tank.



Oh yeah, I also got my Prinsu rack on.



So I'm working on getting solar soon.

 

do you have a photo when stuff is tucked away? interested in seeing how much space you have when you get in and whether or not the cabinet holds your weight well

 

I'll take a better overall shot with everything stowed tomorrow, but these somewhat show the placement:





The Fridge slide is close but not all the way up to the tailgate, while the drawer is set back about 14 inches, and leaves about 8.5 inches of space from the front wall.

The cabinet holds my weight but it does flex a bit, I'll just say I don't think I'll be jumping on it anytime soon, but it could very well be stronger than it seems. I've got some large panels leftover that I might just test on to see if I can make them break under reasonable stress.

 

Here's that better photo.

 

And here's something to show the amount of flex on the top panel when I stand with all my weight on the middle edge. As you can see it practically touches the top of the drawer box, so I'm going to try to avoid this.

 

You could probably reinforce with some steel bar.

 

I thought about that, but it seems like the steel would just flex with it, maybe if I use some with a very short sided angle that would clear the drawer.

 

3/4" aluminum angle would take care of it. Holes on each side 4" apart should do it.

 

Home Depot has some aluminum C channel that you can wrap on that front edge that would reinforce nicely.