Drawer questions.

[Blain]

I'm getting all the measurements together for the drawer I'm going to be building but had a few questions for ya.

What/how do you keep the drawers closed and secure when your driving? I'd rather not have them fly open and bang the rear hatch when going up a hill.

How/What do you use to secure the whole thing to the floor? The box I have back there now is held on with a ratchet strap. There is a rail on each side I could utilize, that has movable hooks in them.
Any other suggestions?

Thanks
Mike

 

[AKRover]

Lots of examples can be found here.

http://www.expeditionportal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=9034&page=8

I personally used some recessed t-handle latches. The whole thing is held to the vehicle by a bolt through the floor in each of the rear most corners and by turn buckles attached to a seat belt bolt towards the front of the vehicle behind the rear seats.

 

[Blain]

OK, Thanks! I've looked through that thread and it's where I got most of my ideas from. Just didn't find any solid info on how they all attach to the floor of the vehicles.

 

[Hawkeye]

I use southco latches for all my systems. If you google "paddle latches" you will get alot of results for many different kinds of latches.
As for attaching to the floor most SUVs have some kind of tie-down in the rear cargo area, many times you can use the existing pre-threaded bolt holes and simply attach through the bottom of your system into a pre-existing hole.

 

[jbs]

In my first set, I used a pin through the top into the edge of the drawer. On my second set I used a 50lb air strut mounted inside the top of the drawer. One end is attached to the front driver's side of the drawer. The other is attached to the center PS of the frame. That way it pushes the drawer in when the drawer is more than half closed and assists in extending it open when the drawer is more than half open. I find I don't every need the drawer more than fully open or closed, but if I did, I would add a pin like I used on my first drawer. I also like the paddle latches, but wasn't sure I'd be able to position them where I wanted and still have them latch.

 

[bj70_guy]

For the drawers on my BJ74 I used Accuride HD locking sliders. They're great, they lock in the full open position and the full closed position.
You can see the little yellow levers on either side - pull down on them and it unlocks.

 

[R_Lefebvre]

Yep, I got the locking sliders for my kitchen slide on the trailer. Haven't installed them yet.

 

[FlatlinesUp]

while I havn't gotten mine built, I had planned on using a simple pin/hole method from the top of the platform edge there will be a 1/4" hole that a pin fits into and locks into one of multiple holes along the top edge of the drawers. The pins will be cabled/wired to the box, and a stick/screwdriver/whatever can easily be substituted if need be as a quick fix.

I'm simple.