check out my fridge slider - anyone want it?

tpd

New member
Hi,

I just finished building a slide-out tray for my cooler (and one day a fridge), and discovered it's 1/2" too long to fit in our camper. Doh! Somehow I misread the drawing & dimensions for the slides, and then missed a bunch of opportunities to spot my mistake before I was all done and about to install it in the camper. Oops.

The thing is far more heavy-duty than it needs to be, but that's by virtue of me wanting locking slides, so all I was able to find at a somewhat reasonable price were the 3600 series slides from Ryadon, the same as you get from Orr & Orr. These have a 500lb rated capacity, and boy do they feel like that's an understatement. If I could have come up with a decent auto-locking system of my own (and I'm still on the lookout for ideas) then I could have used a much lighter grade of slides. The rest is just 1/8" aluminum extrusion and 1/2" birch plywood for the tray.

The tray is 18" wide x 30" long, so it will fit a range of different coolers and fridges. It extends 30". We have a RTIC 45 qt cooler, and I have a desire to get either an ARB 50 or Dometic 50 qt fridge, both of which will fit on this.

I think it actually turned out pretty nicely, although having 2 locking slides is overkill, but I wasn't about to additionally buy a pair of non-locking 500lb slides just to mix & match. I was just about to put some tie-down points on the tray when I discovered my mistake, so those are all that's missing.

2017-08-31 12.53.52.jpg

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2017-08-30 19.07.31.jpg

Seeing as I need to buy shorter slides (28") and either cut down the other bits to fit that, or simply start over, I thought I'd see if anyone wants this thing.

Cheers,
Toby.
 

tpd

New member
Thanks. Yeah, I'm an idiot -- I didn't take into account the length added because of the latches.
 

BobsCreek

Adventurer
hehe, it happens.. I had an issue with my fridge because my measurements for the space it was going into didnt include its damn handles.
 

Superduty

Adventurer
1/2" is all you need? Have you looked at shaving a little bit off the back? You can also cut the locking tabs at least 1/4" and maybe even 1/2".
 

tpd

New member
1/2" is all you need? Have you looked at shaving a little bit off the back? You can also cut the locking tabs at least 1/4" and maybe even 1/2".

Unfortunately, no. I looked at those options and it's not really viable to get quite what I need. Pretty annoying.
 

tpd

New member
Sorry for the tardy response here, we were camping off the grid over the long weekend.

I'll start off by saying you can get the Dometic sliders for ~$200 and they probably come with a warranty. However, they only extend 24", which wasn't enough for me, which is why I built my own. I needed 28" or so of extension to clear my countertop. If 28" is good, 30" should be even better, right? Yeah, about that...

The dimensions of the tray are 18" wide x 30" long and has a full 30" of extension. It'll fit a Dometic CXF-50 and an ARB 50 fridge, and we were going to use it with our RTIC 45 which would have had plenty of room to spare. I was going to fasten some tie-downs to it once I decided the best spot for the cooler, but haven't done that -- I'll leave that to the next owner.

Envelope / outside dimensions for the entire slider are 21-7/8" wide (that's to the outside bottom of the extrusion legs) x 31-1/4" long (the latch handles add the 1-1/4"), and it's 3" high. The tray surface is 1-1/8" above the deck.

Here's my bill of materials, I bought everything from McMaster because finding the extrusion was a pain elsewhere. Consequently, I paid a goodly amount for the fasteners, but they're all 18-8 stainless, which should play nice with the aluminum extrusion.

30" full extension 500lb locking slides $137.30
aluminum extrusion, 1"x2"x1/8" $21.20
aluminum extrusion, 1.5"x1.5"x1/8" $25.87
1/4-20 hex screws $4.06
1/4-20 lock nuts $4.42
1/4" washers $3.37
10-32 hex screws $2.33
10-32 lock nuts $5.75
#10 washers $7.60
1/2" birch plywood base $0.00
shipping $13.84
total $225.74

It weighs 24 lbs on my luggage scale, and I can cob together some packaging for it. I'll be shipping it from 80302, in Boulder Colorado.

Bearing in mind I have some time into this thing, make me an offer.

Cheers,
Toby.
 

tpd

New member
Slider completed!

Follow-up on the saga of my fridge slider. In the end I used some 28" Knape & Vogt 8908 sliders and they're awesome!

However, not all was easy, and there was another false start. I'll get into that later if you want to keep on reading. Otherwise, here's some pics of the finished product. I utilized the push/pull aspect of the K&V's friction lock to build a handle bar across the front of the tray. It connects to both slider's locks so you can pull / push the bar and it unlocks both sliders and pulls open / pushes closed the tray. Really nifty feature of those K&V sliders. Additionally, I made the locking bar from 1.5" alu L-section, and it rests on the tray, so you cannot trap your fingers in any way. Entrapment was looking super-possible with the regular handles in place. Having the momentum of 50+ lbs of fridge sliding back and your fingers get caught against the lip of the camper's rear deck? No thanks.

IMG_20171018_173453.jpg

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The problem came in that the customer service engineer at K&V swore he knew all about the sliders, but turns out he really didn't. Their layout drawing of the sliders doesn't include an overall length, so I called to find out what it was. Also, I wanted to know how the slider locks/unlocks if you take the handles off because their literature just says that you can... and nothing else. The sales engineer said you don't need the handles, the locks will just unlock if you give a good tug on the drawer body. That is incorrect -- you need some kind of handle (theirs or your own design) to move the locking bars or else the slider is locked solid.

I was also told that taking the handle off would cut about an inch of the overall length, which meant I could use their 30" sliders, and have it fit my tray in my camper and not cut the tray down. Also not correct. Removing the handles only takes about 1/4" of the length, so the 30" sliders were too long for me, necessitating getting shorter 28" items and having to trim an inch of the back of my tray. So now I have some 30" Accuriude and 30" K&V sliders available if anyone wants them.

Also, if you get sliders shipped direct from K&V expect them to arrive munched. Mine were in a box with zero packing material. Both ends of the box were punctured and I can't believe that the sliders were still in there. Worse was how the locking mechanisms were bent from being smashed around in a delivery truck:

IMG_20171007_111351 (Large).jpg
IMG_20171007_111400 (Large).jpg

In the end it worked out, and I'm very happy with the slider, even though I put many, many hours into it.
 

tpd

New member
Thanks. It's not 100% one-handed operation, but it's close. I can do it with one hand but my wife needs to grip it at either end. I guess there's some technique involved ;)

Part of the issue is that the brackets I used to attach the handle to the locking bars allow some slight flex, as does the locking bar. Ultimately it means you can still pull one slider unlocked and leave the other locked. A sharp pull in the middle gets them both, though.
 

richxd87

Observer
thanks for sharing your design! So a sturdier middle pull bar, say 3/16" think AL could possibly stiffen it up enough to remove the flex and allow easier one handed operation? Also, how tight are the slides, do you think they'd have any significant rattling? I actually bout the Dometic slides and they make too much noise inside the vehicle for me.
 

tpd

New member
The flex isn't coming from the alu L-section handle (it's 1/8" thick), rather it's coming from the little corner braces I used to attach that to the locking bar on the sliders. Certainly sturdier corner braces would help, but there's a bit of play in the locking mechanism of the slider. Imagine that little tiny bit of play amplified down at the far end of 18" handle and you get the idea -- it only has to move maybe 1/8" and that's enough to not unlock one side. I've been trying to come up with an elegant way to make it sturdier and haven't figured it out yet.
 

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