Andrew replied:

sensei, I've just finished making a set of _Affordable_Storage_Drawers.aspx for the back section of my gq. I keep all my recovery gear in the _Affordable_Storage_Drawers.aspx so they needed to be able to carry alot of wait. I looked into ball bearings and special slides but the cost was way to much. I ended up making my own out of thin piece of hardwood (20mm), x the height of the _Affordable_Storage_Drawers.aspx then a little bit less (180-10=170mm), x the length (900mm). Cut that piece in half so you have two (85 x 20 x 900mm) lengths, sand it, rub some sort of wax over the pieces that are going to rub together, then attach the bottom piece to the chasis of the _Affordable_Storage_Drawers.aspx, and the top piece to the top side of the drawer. Even with all the weight of my gear, it slides easily and is strong. And cheap!

Truckster replied:

Go down to your local club and have a look at some examples of what the blokes are using.


As for where to get the ball bearing units, Carac I Think in Dandenong sell them...

Eric replied:

Sensei.
I agree with andrew, I have found the ballbearing rollers to be a trap if you stop on a slope and release the draw it can open suddenly and nock you of your feet. Eric.

Jack replied:

HI Gary:
You may want to look at "double extendable" roller slides. You can buy them from most kitchen manufacturers/suppliers. They are generally used on "pot drawers" in kitchen manufacturing, are not overly expensive, fairly light, but can handle a reasonable load. A friend of mine has his own purpose built drawer system (in a Prado) and he carries his tools and recovery stuff in them without any trouble. It withstood the "vibration test" betweem Moomba and Inniminka recently.
Good luck.
Jack

Gordon replied:

Gary,

Universal Engineer's Supplies have an industrial version of the kitchen type slides in a number of sizes and weight capacities.

I use them for _Affordable_Storage_Drawers.aspx and fridge slides. I use part # 420.77.761 for my fridge slide and another slightly longer for my _Affordable_Storage_Drawers.aspx.

They are not cheap, but they do work and they are strong.

They have offices in all mainland capitals so you will find them in the phone book.

Gordon

sensei replied:

Gorden,
I will look into them and see if they are what I need. They sound good..Thanks

David_NSW replied:

HI Folks,
I have constucted a home made drawer system for my GU. I am a carpenter so naturally used timber (ply wood). I spent alot of time researching a suitable sliding setup for the _Affordable_Storage_Drawers.aspx.
Unfortunately heavy duty kitchen style sliders are not really suitable, they just won't carry enough weight. Remember your talking about live loads when your vehichle is bouncing along rough tracks.
The heavy duty rollers that you find on the commercially made units are great, but very expensive and are probably more suit to _Affordable_Storage_Drawers.aspx constructed from metal. Also some highly accurate engineering would be required to end up with a setup that didn't rattle it's head off on anything other then the smoothest black top.
I ended up using strips of the hard plastic material used on boat trailers. It comes in 1m lengths and is designed to slide with very little friction with aluminium boat hulls. I used aluminium angle on bottom edge on each side of my drawrs with slides along the plastic strips.They slide very smoothy and easily even when heavily loaded.
I'm very pleased with the result, the whole thing cost about $300 for materials. The plastic strips I readily available from Boating Accessory stores.
Hope this helps. Good luck. David