Rear draws/shelves - what do youu carry?

What vehicle do you have, it may help with some designs

Kev

I agree with the suggestion to keep the fridge as low as you can. Makes it easier for short assed women to access it and not disturb your drinking time.
2nd Suggestion is to make one of the drawers at least 250mm deep because packets and bottles can then be stored standing up without spillling the contents everywhere.
My set up is bottom two drawers for cooking and tucker, top drawer for spares and junk. Clothes are kept in plastic tubs and so are the tools, spares and recovery gear. water is kept in 10 litre containers because they are lighter for the missus to carry than the 20 litre types. I know I'm very considerate for SWMBO so you don't need to acknowledge me for it. LOL

I made my set up based on the link you posted. Very light and easy to install and uninstall. Only you know what yours will need. Keep the fridge low as mentioned.

Pixie,

I built my own from timber/mdf/chipboard, and minimal steel . We sleep in the back of the Troopy, so the whole area is required for a bed at about half height. Under that the wheel arches are boxed for 2/3 of the length of cargo space to provide storage for stuff that is rarely used and provide lateral support for the 2 drawers which also run for 2/3 of the length of the cargo space. One is wide enough for the Waeco fridge (the fridge also determines the height of the bed platform), and this leaves a width of a bit over 600 mm for the second drawer. That dimension is important because 600mm is a nice standard imperial size and a lot of gear is made to this size. (We have a barbecue which folds into 600mm, 600mm plastic bins... lots of gear fits in "a bit over 600mm" that won't fit in 600mm.)

Why 2/3? The front third is accessible from behind the seats (we only have two front seats, all other seating removed.)

Since we don't drag a trailer, everything has to go in Troopy yet be accessible as required. The general rule then is that stuff you need freqently or in an emergency is stored at the very back just inside the back door, stuff you need rarely can be buried deep. There's a picture of our rear setup in our rig photos here. The "kitchen", and the table and chairs will be used several times a day so occupy prime real estate immediately inside the rear door. Behind that is space for stove, thermos, and the stuff you'll only need once a day. Deeper still are 2 plastic bins holding canned food, tools and other stuff you'll probably access once a week or more.

The fridge in the smaller drawer also has pride of place. Buried behind it is recovery gear, compressor etc and behind that is bulk water ( day-to-day water is stored within easy reach on one of the wheel well boxes.)

Just how you proceed will depend on you own requirements, but I suggest that you keep in mind the old imperial modular sizes (600mm) and allocate the most accessible space to stuff you'll need frequently or quickly. Also, if our experience is typical, be prepared to go back to the drawing board pretty often!

HTH

John

Mrs / Mr Pixie ,

I have two drawers ( one on top of the other ) next to my 73 litre fridge . On top of the drawers and fridge I have a flat shelf .

In the bottom drawer I carry all the bottles of sauce , jars of everything and food .

In the top drawer I carry all my cutlery , plates etc and saucepan , billy , frypan , garbo bags , detergent stuff ,tongs and spatula .

On the shelf I put clothing bags etc .

Cheers ,

Willie .

G'day Pixie,

I lashed out and bought the 'Outback' drawers with fridge slide. Like others have said - the lower the fridge the better - especially for a taller fridge like the engel 40. My drawers have the fridge on top and can be a pain - it also limits a fridge extension like kool zone etc.

In my drawers I have all cooking equipment and some food (sometimes all food) in one drawer and recovery equipment and tools in the other. Recovery equipment weighs a fair bit so keeping it in drawers is a great idea IMHO.

Try getting all your camping/touring equipment out on the driveway and packing it as if in drawers - may get a better idea of size and what can fit - you'd be surprised how much gear you can fit in drawers!

Hi Pixie,
You say "I personally think that an easily removable storage system is best as you can remove it easily when not required". Unless you really have too (too many kids). I think you would never want to remove the draws. Yes you might save 100kg of weight but you never really know when you'll need them. I use mine on weekend trips and week long trips.
Just a thought.
Alex

Thanks for the replies so far

Some very handy tips in there which could become all too obvious AFTER the fact

It's interesting to see how people travel so differently. With children, I suspect it will be a while before I can fit a camping trip all back into the vehicle alone.

For what it's worth my mods can be viewed The various mods I've done, including the drawers and how they fit around the duel battery set-up and fridge. Not a Patrol but you get the idea. Drawers are deep so stuff can stand up.

Pixie,

I have a commercial Drawer system in the back of the Jack.
Two drawers side by side with a built-in fridge slide on the left side.

I stack whatever is required/fits on and around the top surface of the drawers.

The right hand drawer contains all the safety & recovery equipment and is accessible at all times without unloading anything.

The left hand draw is a "utility" draw containing things like first aid kit, torch & 12 volt light and usually some bottles of red stored in a strong cardbord box which stops them rattling.

My Bride doesn't worry about the height of the drawer. She just makes me access the fridge for her Jack Daniels or Chardonnay.

Gaday Pixe. For ease of installation/removal the storage system should be no wider than the gap between the wheel arches. By utilizing the tie down rings & mounting brackets for the 3rd row seats you can hold the box in place securely and still remove it easily in 15 minutes. (many unit's are bolted in permanently)
The simplist & lightest system can be made of RHS steel tube with weldmesh fitted on the sides for fridge ventilation. 12mm marine ply on top trimmed with carpet will be strong enough to store almost any weight. Mounting the fridge to the bottom will allow easy access inside & 2 draws (1 above the other) can be mounted beside. I use the top draw for food, drink, cleaning items, thermos & eating utensils. It's an easy draw to access so everything required to make lunch is in there along with the 1st aid kit. Bottom draw has all the heavy gear, tools recovery, billies, spares, lights, pegs etc.
Beween the box & the rear seats is a small cavity large enough to fit 3 x 20L jerry's. They can be accessed by simply folding the back seat forward. I have a small 12 Volt pump with a hose running out the back for convienient water at the rear of the car.
A 1/2 cargo barrier extends from the storage system to the roof secured utilizing the screws for the rear handholds.
Down the sides of the storage on either side sleeping mats & bags along with pillows, coats & shoes can be squeezed in. By not building the boxing system too high there is sufficient space to fit plastic storage crates up on top along with a full sized Minute type tent.
Aluminium makes the best draws trimmed with marine carpet & pinchmould. 100 kg sliders will hold the fridge & bottom draw while the lighter one up top would only need to be 50kg.
Be very aware of keeping the weight down minimising materials to the size they need to be. Many of the commercial ones are far too heavy making them difficult to remove & far too heavy to be carting around for the life of the car. Chip board & MDF to a lesser degree disintergrates over time on the rough corrugations so stick with the dearer but lighter marine ply.
Pull all your camping gear out & measure it up to ensure they fit the size of your draws. I'm a big fan of building a pattern first to see if it all fits. Heavy cardboard taped together will give you an idea of what it will look like before you start cutting & bending the expensive materials.
Cheers Craig.................

I am going through the same process Pixie.
In my case I have a new CT, so the kitchen and some small storage is in the CT.
I have made a fridge slide for a 60 Evakool on one side of the drawer system at the moment.
Next to that I plan to have a compartment only a few inches high so that I can slide a BBQ plate and frame in there. Keep as much of the heavy stuff down as low as possible.
On top of the BBQ plate area, I plan to put a drawer slide the will hold various spares and recovery equipment and also the camp oven.
Then I will see how much room I have to play with for a 2nd drawer slide on top of that. The more space you have, the more you want to take because you have room. Not always a good idea.
On top of the whole frame, I will have a bifold 6 ft table. That is only a few inches high and the folded table is about the same size as the frame for the drawer system. I figure it will be very easy to get the table in and out if we need it.
I would like to keep it all at a height that I can still see out the back window.
That's the basic plan, but I also have quite a lot of space in the CT.
I just wanted to put some of the heavier stuff down low in the car and not having it going walkabout in the car in an emergency stop or on rough roads.

Dave

Pixie,

The plans for my drawers can be downloaded from my website at Dave's 4wd Project Page.

I solved the fridge height problem by tilting it as it slides out.

That way I could still maximise my space by storing all the recovery gear below it. Space above the fridge is often wasted in many storage systems.

There are also good pics of my setup in the article on my ute in January's 4wd Monthly from earlier this year.

Many others have built my drawers now and I haven't had any complaints.

Dave