1. With it being mounted behind my seats, I have to crawl in to access anything. The older I get, the harder that is.
2. I never really set my rig up for overnight, so this has only been an issue for our Rubicon trip, but got the ball rolling nonetheless. When you have all your gear in there, you block access to the tools, so fixing something on the trail means unloading everything...
Since Oct, I have been on the hunt for a drawer system that will fit in my bronco bed. I saw many pop up, but as I did my research, discovered that the steel ones are VERY heavy! A similar model to what I have in steel is 249lbs, whereas the Alum version I have is 85lbs. I'm afraid the wood one wouldn't hold up to the abuse of rock crawling. So I knew I needed Aluminum, which unfortunately, come in select sizes.
A couple hours south of here, I found a guy selling this one for $900:
https://www.weatherguard.com/products/t ... nted/317-3
That was way out of my budget and I respectfully offered him nearly a 1/3rd of that price and he took it. So I made the road trip on Saturday and picked it up. I washed it all out and discovered it needs some work.
All the drawers have damaged rollers. These are revited into the drawers and must take all the abuse as the rollers nearest the front of each drawer are like this:
I stopped at the hardware store and picked up some buttonhead #10 hardware to replace the revits in hopes it will clear the sliding mechanism. I don't have a revit gun, but also, they failed once, so I'd like to try and prevent that again. Can you believe that the kit to repair just one roller is @ $12? For a roller, inner sleeve and revit...
Also, there were holes in the top and I filled those with JB weld in hopes to make this somewhat weather proof. The welds that hold the top panel to the sides have broken loose, but I think for now, I am just going to caulk that crack.
I have yet to decide if I am going to change anything with the top panel. If time were no issue, I would peel off the old grip tape and see if I could find a white roll-on bed-liner to apply. If not, replace with more grip tape.
I have some short carpet that I have used to line toolbox drawers in the past, and I think I will see if I have enough to do that to these.
I could see myself installing some rubber bump-stops to the back of the drawers if the metal arched part at that back of the box isn't enough to keep the drawers from rolling when closed.
I also want to see if adding some simple lashing rings to the sides front and back would be beneficial for strapping things down on top. I'll see if what is already attached to the roll cage is adequate or in the way before I decide.
I need to come up with my own dividers. It came with some plastic ones, but maybe I can find some cheap aluminum sheet metal and make a bunch more??
I also need to find a way to organize my tools so they are not loose inside the drawers. My wrenches are in a tool roll, my sockets are in a plastic container, but I may need to pack it so they don't bounce around. And I have other tools I need to find an inexpensive way to organize so they don't rattle around. Open to suggestions.
Each drawer has rectangular slots punched into the bottom of it and perhaps I could utilize those to install a rubber strap or something. Should have plenty of space as this likely nearly triples the space from my old toolbox. And I should have room inside for my air hose, winch bag, jumper cables, they are just loosely floating around behind the drivers seat now.
I am looking forward to this being easier to use when on the trail, but also more secure when my bronco is parked on a street somewhere. I don't have a way to lock it currently, but they sell a kit for that, or I am sure I can make something up on my own.
man!!
