150 rear drawers

[rob017 Lurker Find all posts View Profile Close rob017]

Anyone got pics or ideas on mounting drawers to a gxl with the third row seats still in?

I'm wanting to install a fridge enclosure and storage drawers. The tie down points at rear of luggage area look suitable for mounting but the tie downs at front of luggage area are only into the seats. These don't seem suited for a fridge on a slide as the leverage affect would likely cause the fridge enclosure to lift and the drive drop.

[talk2tiny Moderated member Find all posts View Profile Close talk2tiny]

Anyone got pics or ideas on mounting drawers to a gxl with the third row seats still in?

I'm wanting to install a fridge enclosure and storage drawers. The tie down points at rear of luggage area look suitable for mounting but the tie downs at front of luggage area are only into the seats. These don't seem suited for a fridge on a slide as the leverage affect would likely cause the fridge enclosure to lift and the drive drop.

Hey rob, I built mine with the seats still fitted. Have a look in my build up thread. After they did the Simpson crossing though I need to make a few tweaks. Main thing is a brace across above the fridge as the walls currently have too much spread and the top drawer can drop off the hinges. Other than that and some dodgy carpentry on my part, they worked a treat. I just ratchet strapped them down to the luggage hooks too. The only tip there though is to cross the straps over, I didn't to start with and they moved forward a bit.

Tiny


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[rob017 Lurker Find all posts View Profile Close rob017]

Thanks Tiny. I checked out your drawers buildup page. Are the luggage hooks strong enough to hold your drawer setup firmly when all loaded drawers are pulled out?

I'll post some photos of my setup another day.

Rob

[talk2tiny Moderated member Find all posts View Profile Close talk2tiny]

Thanks Tiny. I checked out your drawers buildup page. Are the luggage hooks strong enough to hold your drawer setup firmly when all loaded drawers are pulled out?

I'll post some photos of my setup another day.

Rob

Hi Rob, it was rare for me to have more than two open at a time but I certainly had no trouble. I think the luggage hooks would take more strain from bouncing around on the tracks than just sitting with the drawers open but the hooks were certainly find for me in both cases.


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[rob017 Lurker Find all posts View Profile Close rob017]

Here is a photo of the fridge storage compartment I have made. Aluminium frame for the fridge on heavy duty slides. I like the idea of having my fridge in an enclosure rather than on an open slide so the I can pull the fridge out without having to worry about things falling behind the fridge. I'll eventually build up a full draw set like my next post will show. My challenge is to work out how to secure the rear of storage units so they don't tilt up when I slide out the drawers.

[rob017 Lurker Find all posts View Profile Close rob017]

rear drawers

This set of drawers was from my 80 series Landcruiser. Took me about three days to make but I wanted to maximise storage. It had drawers for recov gear on left. Centre from bottom upwards was open area for stretchers and chairs, drawer for chainsaw, open area for stove. Right was open area for fridge and drawer for food. I was more than happy with the set up.

Because the 80 had a drop down tail gate, I never needed to worry about a fridge slide and I just slid the fridge out on to the tail gate.

The unit was in two halves. I could just install the right half if I was using the fridge and still have a large open section on the left of cargo area.

[Trevc Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Trevc]

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Here is a photo of the fridge storage compartment I have made. Aluminium frame for the fridge on heavy duty slides. I like the idea of having my fridge in an enclosure rather than on an open slide so the I can pull the fridge out without having to worry about things falling behind the fridge. I'll eventually build up a full draw set like my next post will show. My challenge is to work out how to secure the rear of storage units so they don't tilt up when I slide out the drawers.

Good looking box Rob. I've got a Drifta one (same as yours but carpeted) and is great for the exact reasons you said.

Trev

[ras Lurker Find all posts View Profile Close ras]

Great info here... Anyone put their 2nd battery in front of the fridge, in a battery box? Reluctant to put an aux battery under the bonnet (inner guard cracking, extra weight) when I will only need it when I need the fridge... If so, what size battery and what size fridge did you manage to fit in...
Ideally one of the rear seats would still be available. Eventually the other side would have a drawer system, thus being a flexible solution.

Am I dreaming?
Ras

[mjrandom Out of control poster! Find all posts View Profile Close mjrandom]

Great info here... Anyone put their 2nd battery in front of the fridge, in a battery box? Reluctant to put an aux battery under the bonnet (inner guard cracking, extra weight) when I will only need it when I need the fridge... If so, what size battery and what size fridge did you manage to fit in...
Ideally one of the rear seats would still be available. Eventually the other side would have a drawer system, thus being a flexible solution.

Am I dreaming?
Ras

Yes. 120AH and 52L fridge. No drawer but a flat area beside the fridge. I pulled my 3rd row seats out but no reason you couldn't run the base on top of the seats. My infeed to the battery charger is an Anderson plug so the whole lot can and does come out in about 30 minutes. Seats take another hour ish. Have a look through my build, link is in my signature. Happy to answer questions.

[ras Lurker Find all posts View Profile Close ras]

Yes. 120AH and 52L fridge. No drawer but a flat area beside the fridge. I pulled my 3rd row seats out but no reason you couldn't run the base on top of the seats. My infeed to the battery charger is an Anderson plug so the whole lot can and does come out in about 30 minutes. Seats take another hour ish. Have a look through my build, link is in my signature. Happy to answer questions.

MR.. Had a look at your build and it looks like what I had in mind. Wont be removing the 3rd row seats, and the base will only sit over one of the seats, allowing the other seat to be used. I also already have a battery isolator under the bonnet with an anderson plug to the towbar, so will utilise this, and bring in the feed from underneath.

Great build and a really nice Prado.
Thanks.
Ras

[mjrandom Out of control poster! Find all posts View Profile Close mjrandom]

Ras, thanks. I was going to put the fridge on top of the seats but it would make the fridge very high, the lid would only just open and my wife would have to climb in to get to the fridge. Then I was going to remove one seat and drop the fridge to the floor with a custom board. I even made up the brackets to support the seat trim and then was told to forget about keeping one seat. That made things a lot easier. There are a couple of people who have done a single fridge mount on top of one seat. Easy to bolt down using the factory tie downs if you have a GXL or VX (I think) the Kakadu seems to have a rail system instead of tie downs. Just watch the overall length as the rear door upper section comes in quickly. I think I have about 50mm from the fridge base to the door at the back but only 25mm at the lid, about 25mm between the battery box and the fridge and virtually nothing between the box and 2nd row seat. With the fridge open the lid sticks out some 70mm or more so no way to open the fridge fully with the back door closed.

[ras Lurker Find all posts View Profile Close ras]

Thanks for the tip MR. I dont have a fridge or battery yet, so have some flexibility in the actual sizes. Was thinking of an Optima D34. Width is 175mm. Try and keep the batter box width to about 200 to 210mm. That would leave about 700mm for the fridge. I noticed that the back door rakes inwards as you pointed out, so will need to be carefull to make sure the fridge fits. Would like a 40l.. Sounds like i need to make up a dummy box the size of the fridge and actually check that it will fit before I pull the trigger on the purchase. I still want to leave the 3rd row seats in since they are getting use now.
Ras

[mjrandom Out of control poster! Find all posts View Profile Close mjrandom]

Since I am sitting in camp trying to decide whether to go for a paddle, feed the fishes or swim I had a bit of a measure up. If I sat my National Luna 52L Weekender fridge on top of the rear seats and a board it would just fit in the location it is now. The NL is 710 long including handles and 520 high including the NL baseplate. But my home made battery box is 380 high and 240 wide to give lots of room for a DC DC charger (and the 120AH AGM battery) and it would force the 2nd row seat back more upright. However if you used a proprietary plastic battery box like I fitted to the Rodeo it would fit. Just. The plastic box is 270 high by 230 wide. The Rodeo fridge and battery are less of a permanent arrangement plus being in the tub I wasn't so bothered about appearance. If you were happy to go with a plastic battery box then a fridge up to the dimensions of my NL would be doable. We bought a 60L ARB fridge for the ute and I am quite impressed but at 845 long no chance in hell it would fit even without the 3rd row seats. I also use a DC DC charger in the ute so that sits on top of the box rather than inside as I have done in the Prado. NL is a good fridge but expensive. The ARB 47L fridge should fit at 705 long. No idea about other brands. By the way I offset my fridge and battery box towards the centre of the car so I still have access to the inverter which is useful for charging camera batteries etc but not much else. I can also charge off the aux through a stand alone inverter connected to the 12V socket if necessary but it and the USB ports are usually charging other stuff like phones and pads.

[Nik83 Member Find all posts View Profile Close Nik83]

I dont mean to necro a thread, but....

Whats the load rating on the back of the rear seat latches/tie down points? (7th seats, in the boot). The wife is adamant that one day we might need them, and that precludes me putting in a false floor. Booo, hisss....

That doesnt mean though that i cant put a false floor on top when i go camping... As long as i can tie it down properly. I gather the points are crash resistant, and it would just come down to my workmanship on how well they keep together in the long run (thats arguable but i like a learning curve).

Oh and if anyone has bright ideas on securing a false floor/nik83platform to the existing points, im all ears.

[talk2tiny Moderated member Find all posts View Profile Close talk2tiny]

I dont mean to necro a thread, but....

Whats the load rating on the back of the rear seat latches/tie down points? (7th seats, in the boot). The wife is adamant that one day we might need them, and that precludes me putting in a false floor. Booo, hisss....

That doesnt mean though that i cant put a false floor on top when i go camping... As long as i can tie it down properly. I gather the points are crash resistant, and it would just come down to my workmanship on how well they keep together in the long run (thats arguable but i like a learning curve).

Oh and if anyone has bright ideas on securing a false floor/nik83platform to the existing points, im all ears.

I went your way for ages too and built my drawers to sit on top. It's handy but FYI, it's actually very little work to take the seats out and put them back in again. After I built mine, I did a longer trip to the cape and decided to remove the seats to add a bit of extra space and reduce the excess weight. It's seriously a 10 minute job so I wouldn't worry too much about taking them out to build your false floor.

If you don't though, you can just undo the bolts holding the cargo tie downs in and get some longer replacements to bolt your false floor in the same holes. No idea what the crash rating would be but they seem pretty sturdy to me.