DIY Drawer System Question

you're good, just wanted to bust your balls

 

OKAY! so bear with me as I whipped these up pretty quick but i will attempt to provide as much detail as possible and will obviously answer any questions.

here is the "ariel" view:


The sides will be full length and 58" inches long by 8 3/4" tall and will be doubled 3/4" birch so essentially 1 1/2" wide. The center support will 48" long by 8 3/4" tall and will also be doubled 3/4" birch. the sides and center will be tied together with a 3/4" piece that runs between the two 56" sections and behind the back of the 48" center support. the base will be constructed of 1/2" birch and will be milled out where the light red squares are for weight reduction.


this is a view from the front looking into the bed. left drawer will be 48" long and will run on my current slides. the right will be more complicated. the purple box will essentially be a tube. 1/2" birch on the sides and bottom, 3/4" on the top which will sit flush with the fixed top plate. the cooler will sit on top of the 3/4" much like it does now. this whole section will move on a new 48" locking drawer slide. the inner drawer (orange) will also be on a 48" locking drawer slide and will not be "load bearing" per say. it will still be on hd slides because it will hold my cook partner 22 and i will have a 12" x 18" cutting board on it as well. I am going to use a piano hinge on the top portion so i can use the inside of this inner drawer to house utensils, my cast iron and dry food.

this is still a very rough idea. the one thing i DO NOT like is that it will stick out 8 feet from the back of the truck. it will be sturdy but unless i am PERFECTLY level this will probably be less than ideal. My other thought at this time is to nix the double slide concept and just use one 56" locking drawer slide make a sliding pantryish thing to set my cook partner and cutting board on. and using a professional fridge slide like this: https://tembotusk.myshopify.com/collections/fridge-cargo-slides/products/jumbo-side-pull-slide to mount on top of the drawer system and hold my big ole cooler. i dont ever see myself going to a fridge...

 

also your alls input is what i am relying on, i want to make this the best system possible. fire away when ready

 

Dead simple and clean was my approach when I built mine. All together I kept my spending to under $100, but I had the main box material (5/8" PF Maple ply) on hand already.

 

love your design, i don't have nice maple laying around though...so under $100 is not ever going to happen lol

 

I love that you cut holes in to lighten it up and give it a cool look. What does VHMW stand for? I kind of figured it's what you're using to slide but curious what the acronym stood for

 

I last paid $42 a sheet for shop grade PF maple and two you could get the job done in two sheets with a little creativity. That keeps you under $200

VHMW - very high molecular weight, very slippery plastic. Not as slippery as UHMW (ultra high molecular weight), but tons cheaper.

 

You have a router I presume, based on the speed holes you cut out the bottom sheet and the vertical divider

 

Yup, full wood shop.

 

It is everything I hoped for. Love the coloring job

 

i envy you. I have most things to be dangerous with but not a router...

 

Yea I have a fairly limited supply of tools as well. Might go to a workshop and rent a space for a day to mill and cut everything

 

The way you built the drawers with the cutouts reminded me of the Paulk Workbench definitely worth the look on youtube. I can see the way you built yours it could be removable as well which is what I'm looking for. I dont have a topper so instead of carpet I'll lay down the Tacoma bed mat.

 

I went very light weight and maxed out the storage space by not using rails. I wanted to be able to remove my drawers completely to lighten the truck up or to swap other items into the area under the deck.

I built the boxes out of 1/2" maple ply with aluminum reinforcements in the corners and I put outdoor carpeting on the bottom of the drawers. I then cleaned my bed and put a very light coating of silicone on only the raised ribs of the bed where the drawers would be sliding on.

They really slide like butter, and because I don't have drawer sliders, etc. I have much larger drawers that I can take out easily. They do NOT slide out all the way though, which is a negative. A positive is that it cost very little to build and is very quickly removed from the truck. Has been in for a year with no issues, and weather is kept out with a softtopper.

 

@Jack0928 @forty2 I'm getting closer to starting this project and wondered if you did any anchoring to the bed w/ this drawer system that you have? Or does the weight and fit keep it from sliding back and forth during braking/accelerations?

 

Nice designs andninfo here, thanks! I made the back end of my old bed on my Gen 1 DCSB expandable for changing the sleeping platform into a 7’ one - if the drawer slide outs are strong enough, one could use them for supporting a sleeping extension on top of them when they are partly pulled out. Going to do this on my new Gen 3 too.

 

I anchored my drawers with turnbuckles and L brackets.


i used on of the existing bolts for the side storage drawers and drilled a hole to put a grade 8 bolt through the other side of some tie down points i bought at lowes then added and eye bolt to me drawer system.

the L brackets are at the front, ill try to snap some pics and get them up in a couple hours.

 

as promised

here is a picture of the tie down that i bolted into the bed for the turn buckle.



and here is how i secured the front with the L bracket. this helps to keep the drawers from lifting when i have the cooler full and extended fully on the slide.

 

Doubling-up 3/4" birch is ridiculous overkill. 3/4" birch is already overkill without being doubled up anywhere. And the weight of the thing will be insane.

If designed well, you can get away with using 1/2" birch throughout the whole system. Many folks have done so - look at the threads on ExPo.

 

I have it doubled up currently and agree it is overkill. i am going to rebuild/redesign here in the spring and will be adjusting accordingly. I will still stick with the 3/4" birch for the uprights tho.