African Outback Bed Extensions

[adventureduo]

Mike (Mhiscox - the quick/gentle owner of our rig) wanted to be able to sleep in the cruiser if need be. So he bought the African Outback bed extension kit for the drawers system that was already in the 80.

I never bought them because we always had the RTT, but after playing around with them and checking them out and seeing how much storage you gain, i decided to install them. Also i lost a few pounds from taking out the second row. It's always just us two and Dixie so we don't need a second row full time.

One problem arose while installing them. They were too wide to fit in the truck with the doors closed. Apparently Mike in Portland only used one at a time to sleep on so he never hard mounted them. So i had to trim off 1.75" on each side of each bed extension. I guess Christo at Slee said it was a common that some of the trucks would be a bit wider than others and of course mine was the opposite. Strange. Anyone ever heard of this? What could they have changed?

Anyways, after cutting off the excess and re-attaching the carpeting, i drilled the holes and bolted them down. It uses existing bolt holes with recessed anchor nuts in the drawers and a sub frame that bolts into the existing seat bolts. It's really clean and can be removed in 10 mins.

This will be a great place to store sleeping bags and other stuff under the deck. If you wanted to ditch the trailer you could mount a water tank and a inverter too. Dixie can ride up top in her bed while traveling and Yosh can sleep in the truck if i snore too much in the tent

Off with the pics.. since you can't find them anywhere on the net. I don't know anyone else with these. The carpet matches perfectly and everything looks great.

 

[OlympiaFJ60]

Very cool. I like their draw systems. Maybe one for the 60 some day.

 

[4Rescue]

... Apparently Mike in Portland only used one at a time to sleep on so he never hard mounted them...

HEY... WHaT!!! So I guess us Portland folk are too grody, to rain soaked and mud covered to get a nice pretty woman to accompany us out into the bush??? (wait can I say that in mixed company on a family oriented site...) Oh great another ding to my self-esteem, it's starting to look like a dem olition derby car these days HAHAHAHAHAHAHA J/K mate, I just chuckle'd when you called him "Mike in Portland", for some reason. I mean compared to you high desert folk we really are sort of a different breed up here what with the webbed feet, gills and all

Great little mini-write-up mate and literaly EXACLTY how I'm planning on doing the seat area pannels of my own drawer/sleep platform system... I can only hope that it'll look 1/1,000,000,000th as good as those fine pieces do(and almost certainly won't because I'm building it...). I want to have it set up so that, like you I can just run with NO seats (although in my 1st Gen Runner I will still ahve the seats in teh truck) in teh back since it's usualy me and a buddy or teh "fam":

me, Whitney:

(see I can get pretty girls to hang out with me too!!!!! HAHAHAHAHA)
and this big furry beast: Louie the almost 4 y/o Bernese Mt. Dog

...in the truck for any real trips that aren't rafting trips

I want to have it be like yours and have the ability to run one rear seat and still ahve the decking pieces in teh truck to make the bed. Unfortunatly I'm not real keen on an RTT on top of my fiberglass hard-top and I'm not finding a good top to make a pop-top/camper top out of at the moment (maybe this summer when people sell them off thinking the truck will never go topped again)

I've gotten together my supplies to a greater extent (need to settle on carpet) and am thinking that I'll start building in the next few weeks injured hand willing. I'll post up here and let you all know where I need your advice/help talking me down from a ledge HAHAHAHA

One starting question: what is the underlay for these peices/drawers made of, is it plywood or metal??? I want to use metal, but inreality am going to build one out of plywood with strategic bracing so some thought to avoid making it weigh a ton but still be durable (but I do ahve to say, part of the fun to me is building something, going out and fiding out what I need to change and then building that and going out adn doing it all over again, I'm sure I'm not alone here)... So what are yours made of???

CHeers

Dave

 

[adventureduo]

LOL! good stuff Dave.

One starting question: what is the underlay for these peices/drawers made of, is it plywood or metal??? I want to use metal, but inreality am going to build one out of plywood with strategic bracing so some thought to avoid making it weigh a ton but still be durable (but I do ahve to say, part of the fun to me is building something, going out and fiding out what I need to change and then building that and going out adn doing it all over again, I'm sure I'm not alone here)... So what are yours made of???

The actual drawers are made up of aluminum cased roller bearing extruded units with carpet. The bed extensions are actually nothing special, just regular plywood thats carpeted over. Each drawer can hold about 200 lbs. The bed extensions actually are supported by a lip or edge of the drawer case and then there's a subframe that supports the extensions. You can see the subframe in the photos i think.

Here's a couple shots of the actual drawers..








Then there's also two cubby holes on each side with a small door too.

 

[FourByLand]

http://community.webshots.com/photo/2217823660034696539RBUInb

http://community.webshots.com/photo/2032651490034696539MsnTjA

http://community.webshots.com/photo/2854357790034696539txSVEU

That looks clean! Nice job.

 

[4Rescue]

LOL! good stuff Dave.



The actual drawers are made up of aluminum cased roller bearing extruded units with carpet. The bed extensions are actually nothing special, just regular plywood thats carpeted over. Each drawer can hold about 200 lbs. The bed extensions actually are supported by a lip or edge of the drawer case and then there's a subframe that supports the extensions. You can see the subframe in the photos i think.

Here's a couple shots of the actual drawers..








Then there's also two cubby holes on each side with a small door too.

Exelent mate, thanks for the detailed pictures, and yeah IO can see everything I was wondering about. I just realized that those were the outback drawers (yeah I'm kind of dense sometimes eh ). They look SO incredibly well built and the back of your 80 just looks perfect and very well put together, love it. I really like the Fridge slide-out shelf, that is great.

I have this sneaking suspision that I may end up buying a good pre-fab'd drawer set-up because I'm losing confidence in my ability to make it look as good as what you have going on there and I really can't stand junk rattling around in the back due to my own shody workmanship (geez I think I need a hug eh). BUT, I guess if you can make the extentions look great with plywood so I'm glad to see that. I guess it comes down to the drawers because in reality I want them to be extendable like yours and that means REAL strong roller slide/glide's to carry the weight of what I intgend to put in them...

Anyway, thanks again for the info and pics mate, and great looking rig. I'm glad to see you all back together, sorry the SMB didn't work out, but hey, that's a hell of an 80 serries you have to go back to though eh

Cheers

Dave

 

[Co-opski]

OT:
Dave your berner is the same age as my big furry beast.

 

[4Rescue]

Love your monster there mate, great pup, I love St.Bernies alot too, such sweethearts.

Cheers

Dave