Fourby Storage units

Maybe you could consider just a one side drawer system.
Leave the fridge on the floor on the other side. Anyone do this kind of system?
Gary

I have Black Widow in my 2005 Prado. Two drawers on the bottom (his & hers) and a deeper one on top drivers side (maintenance and recovery gear). Black Widow will configure whatever you want. Their gear is pricey but top quality.

On the issue of fridge height, have you considered a drop-down fridge slide? Have a look at www.platinumgear.com.au as an example. I don't have one, but recent a thread suggests it is good.

Bruce M

I've run Off Road Systems storage units in both my Patrol and the D40 Navara. Excellent quality albeit a bit pricey. Can get the drawers folded up in either gal or aluminium.

G'day, what is your 4WD? regards, aussiedingo

We have an LC with the outback twin drawer system and a bed extension. All rear seats were removed. We can sleep in it if the weather makes it difficult to put the tent up. We also put a drop down fridge slide in the back. It takes a bit of room away from the "bottom" of the bed area so our feet may be a bit close. But what the heck at least we are dry, the fridge is easy to get at and we have a bundle of extra storage under the "front" half of the bed.

Wouldn't do it any other way. Cannot carry passengers but thats not a problem. Our family all have their own means. We don't need a trailer or anything on the roof either.

Cost a bit more than we expected at the start but we are comfortable, dry and definitely not overcrowded.

I hope this link to a photo of the setup (no drop slide yet) works:
LC setup

I found the best system for us when touring is to have the fridge as low as possible for easy access with 2 draws to the side. This allows bags, tents or crates to be stacked on top of the false floor & a simple 1/2 cargo barrier to stop stuff coming forward. In front of the 2 draws there is a small cavity where a 50L water container fits with a 12V pump. Either side there is room to stuff sleeping bags, shoes, coats & pillows etc.
I've looked around but found no company that makes this setup, especially one that can be removed in under 15 minutes allowing large items to be carried or 3rd row seats refitted. Engineering workshops will custom make all or part of them for a similar cost or in my case 1/3 the price as I did most of the assembly.
Cheers Craig...............

Hi Epicurean, I'm also considering the same sort of dilemna. What to do? I had a bit of a look at bestoffroad.net.au as they seem very good value for money. I'm actually leaning away from drawers at the moment. While they allow you to easily organise things neatly, I think there's a bit of wasted space in the drawer mechanisms. And unless they are custom-made to fit all your specific equipment, you'll always be left with some unusable space in each drawer because you won't be able to fill them all completely.

My brother just made a very simple storage system: basically a platform about 30cm above the floor of the car, supported on verticals just inside the wheel arches and a divider running long-ways. He loads his recovery gear in one side in strong plastic crates/cubes and food/cooking stuff (again in strong plastic containers/tubs in the other side. He's also put a front on it to stop things sliding forwards on the seat backs (and give lateral strength). A layer of auto-carpet on top and he chucks everything else on the platform. Importantly, he's got turnbuckles to secure the platform to the anchor points in the floor of the car.

I'm currently toying with the plan to build something similar myself. My wife is very short so couldn't even look into a fridge that is mounted on top of a drawer or platform and I think the "drop slides" are a bit of an unnecessary complication. Personally, I would have the fridge slide at floor level and a cabinet built around it (with ventilation gaps) which mean I can stack things against the sides and above it without them caving in when I slide the fridge out. I would then have a false floor next to this - I could store the recovery gear etc. underneath (for easy access) and other stuff on top. It would be a "shelf system" rather than a "drawer system".

If you make your own, don't forget to leave room to access the jack etc. through the side panels - I once loaned my jack and wheel brace to a guy who'd built himself a storage platform hard up against the jack panel and was faced with unpacking and unbolting the thing in the carpark.

We manufacture these things for a living and advise most of our customers to stick with the standard two drawer side by side unit.

Primary reason being that in normal day to day use they are still functional ie you still have useable floor space (being the deck of the drawers) with the space of the drawers underneath. Therefore there is little need to ever remove them.

The "Double Stacked" style of unit is next to useless in day to day use.

A single (deeper) drawer on one side with the fridge slide at floor level is another, cheaper option but is still not as practical as a flat unit.

You also need to ensure the fridge slide is easy to remove on a flat unit so that it can quickly revert to everyday use.

As far as the extra height goes, keep in mind most drawers are only around 300 mm (12 inches) high. A simple little plastic folding step (about $10) at K Mart will solve your problem. Carrying the step is no problem at all, it folds up like a book and takes about 5 seconds to set up.

As for Fourby Fitouts, I don't consider them as a direct competitor to us as they operate in the top end of the market where we are at the value end, so I'm happy to comment on them. I reckon they leave Black Widow and Outback for dead in both design and flexibility. They offer excellent "modular" designs that are very adaptable.

Hope this helps.

Jim.

Went through the same process earlier this year.

Inspected all of the options mentioned and decided on Fourby Fitouts for our NS Pajero.

Since having system installed in March, we have undertaken 4 trips and will be heading across the Simpson in July.

I have no association with any of the providers of these systems and can only speak highly of the service and quality we received from Fourby Fitouts.

Not only will you get a great product, you will find Mark most knowledgeable on places to go and anything to do with 4 x 4 camping trips.

We certainly don't regret our purchase and when the time comes to change vehicles we will install another Fourby Fitout for sure.

outback epicurean - we have used a system built by Off Road Systems which has three drawers on one side and only the slide on the other. This is a good set up as the wife in not all that tall.

We have been away at times with only the fridge slide in the back, which is convenient as we have not required the drawers for that trip.

Off Road Systems was the best we could find and would build they way we wanted them.

They have a web site.


A J

Sorry people. Still learning this site.

A link to a photo of our system is above in the followup to my in itial posting. Seems I have a lot to learn here.

Have a look at the last follow up at the words "Can you try this link"

Phil

Epicurean,

When looking for a drawer system for our Prado I think I talked to just about everybody that markets drawer systems. One thing I discovered is that there is quite a difference in the size of the drawers - both length and depth - between the various manufacturers. We ended up with Black Widow because they were the biggest drawers (volume wise) that I could find, at lease for off the shelf systems. I am not going to recommend any manufacturer to you but suggest you ask a lot of questions about exactly what you are getting so when you buy you get what you expect.

One of the things that I also discovered is that if you buy drawers with a built in frdge slide the slides can be quite wide. so if you fridge is small-ish like ours (50l Waeco) then you end up with quite a bit of unusable space either side of your fridge.