Drawer system for a Disco I?

[Viggen]

So I'm thinking about what Tom said about accessibility. If I combined the net on the hood with a storage box on the rear.

You just described my set up. Light, accessible and easily removed.

 

[AxeAngel]

Do you have a storage box mounted on a rear swing away?

 

[SeaRubi]

I'd kind of forgotten about them, but some of you might be interested in the Rotopax stuff.

http://www.rotopax.com/

The mounting system is high on the neat-o scale. Whenever I have money again I want to use these to store fluids. The mounts aren't very expensive and simple to install. When I saw them, my initial thought was to install one of their mounts to the ceiling in the cargo hold to suspend one of those medical kits from up high, where it's always easy to reach and unencumbered from other gear and cases.

They can all be stacked and secured together with the center-clamps and easily secured to a roof-rack, etc. The storage versions of the containers are their 2 gallon product with an opening lid. This photo gives you an idea of the size. The storage pack and medical kit are the same dimensions, just different color

As for externally mounting a box for recovery gear, putting one of their storage boxes on a swing-away would give you some great options; just bolt one of their mounts on your swing-away like their demo jeep and Bob's yer uncle.

The price is competitive if you compare it to Pelican or other high quality cases in the smaller sizes. Just another idea.

cheers,
-ike

 

[Alaska Mike]

I'm going to say that I fit in the SeaRubi camp on this one, simply because I don't know if the bulk and weight of a drawer system really makes sense in most applications. Smart packing and mounting should take care of most issues, without having to resort to a custom drawer system.

In my experience, drawers are magnets for clutter and unnecessary garbage. I should know, as I have a big old box of crap in the back of my CJ that rarely (if ever) gets used. My recovery gear isn't even in that box, since it resides in an easily accessed spot up front. Mostly the box has a bunch of odds and ends that I used once 15 years ago and then dumped into the box.

For the Series, I will be mounting the always-useful stuff (like tools and recovery gear) where I can get to it easily, no matter how the vehicle is loaded. The rest will be packed in dry bags or cargo boxes, so it can be easily lashed down as required and removed when I'm not going mall-expeditioning.

I do like that spare tire storage solution, since rapid deployment of my spare is not really high on my list of needs. I might see about adaping that for a hood-mounted spare.

 

[R_Lefebvre]

So I'm thinking about what Tom said about accessibility. If I combined the net on the hood with a storage box on the rear.

How about using my Jerry can swingaway as a storage area for recovery equipment on the trail. Would it be bad to ride with thr Jerry can in the rear cargo area? Obviously if I had a base camp I could leave the can there but for tough trails would it be a bad idea to strap it down inside?

-Sam

One idea is to seperate the recovery stuff. I know I couldn't get all of it into the center of a wheel. Maybe if it's split up. Straps on the hood, chain and shackles in a box on the swing away. The chain and shackles are fairly small, but heavy. I'd bet they could fit in an ammo can or two.

I can't bring myself to store fuel inside unless it's in an FIA approved fuel cell. I have a feeling you might be the same.

 

[craig]

I'd put the least amount of weight on the spare as possible with a DII, and as much weight as possible over or forward of the rear axle.

- They are light in the nose as-is
- The rear tire carrier isn't the strongest in the world. The lug bolts of mine pulled through the metal with nothing more than the extra weight of a 265/75 Mud Terrain tire and a lot of offroading.

It's really easy to add tie-downs to the backseat floors. Pickup some of the tie-downs that are identical to the ones in the DII cargo area from Land Rover (or something similar). Then, fasten them to the floor using the bolts on the back end of the front seat rails, and the front bolts that secure the back seat. Lash the recovery bag in there and you are good to go.

I stored (no longer have the DII) my recovery chain/tools in the back of the rear drawer. I kept lighter, but lesser used recovery items in the front of the rear drawer (hi lift jack base for example). I kept my gloves, recovery strap, etc more accessible.

 

[R_Lefebvre]

That's funny. When I was building my swing away, some of the people I don't listen to because "my ego doesn't let me learn" told me the factory tire holder and door hinges were plenty strong and there was no need for a swing-away.

I did it anyway because my ego doesn't let me learn.

Now this is another person I'm hearing from who have had tire mount or door hinge failures on a D2.

 

[ssssnake529]

Installed the African Outback drawer system.

Was not as easy as I'd hoped it would be, mostly due to truly cryptic instructions, and the fact that it didn't really seem designed to fit the back of my vehicle. (required a bit of fabrication and cutting to get it to work.)

However, the end result is ok, and I'm particularly liking the integrated fridge/freezer slide.

 

[4x4shark]

One thing I didn't see mentioned, but was almost touched on, be careful what you decide to store in the drawers. Things you might need in an emergency when the vehicle is not mobile probably aren't a good choice.
For instance, it would totally suck to need recovery gear and find that you can't get your rear door open because of where you are stuck.
Though one option would be to have removable panels on the deck, so worst case you can unload everything via the back seat to get to the recovery gear that's in the drawers.

TripNet has a different approach to these needs which can be helpful in these types of situations.

As the name imply, they use nets for storage. Nets are hanged vertically like in cargo planes (=save space & accessible) on which hanged pouches are used to store stuff. The nets are hanged using a cross bar (single)

or a cage (triple)

and you can even access them from the side windows...

You can add rugged bags which can function as a drawers and stack them.

Now you're packed and ready to go....

 

[Viggen]

Those nets and things are cool but you have no access to them without the rear door open.

 

[bobtail4x4]

and the quality of all the ones I have seen is poor.

I went for a twin drawer load box.
its behind a dog guard so cant bite me.