I had grown tired of having to unload everything from the back of my Cherokee every time I needed some little thing, which was usually on the bottom of the pile of camping gear, clothing and food. The top-loading army surplus footlockers I was using had a large capacity and were very sturdy but the lids had to be removed to access the contents. A drawer would make packing and unpacking easier, while allowing items stored on top to remain undisturbed. Tuffy's Oversize Security Drawer part #63 looked like the easiest solution so I ordered one from Rusty's Off-Road.
With the drawer in hand, the first order of business was making sure the drawer slides stayed attached to the outer box. The slides on the box were retained by 4 puny countersunk head screws on each side. Two of the screws had already pulled through the slide, allowing it to come loose. My fix was to drill out the nutserts on the box to allow the installation of larger hardware. Here you can see an original screw, along with the other one that had pulled through the slide. Next to it is a 6 x 1.0mm, grade 10.9 flange-head bolt that I replaced all 8 of the original slide retaining screws with.
Strangely, the slides mounted to the drawer were retained by twice as many screws and they fit much better. I left those as they were delivered.
This drawer system was designed to fit a TJ so mounting in my Cherokee turned into a little more work than I expected. The XJ "frame rails", gas tank, gas tank mounting humps, fuel filler hoses and spring shackle mounts were in the way of all of the obvious places to run bolts through the floor. I ended up running (8) 3/8" carriage bolts from underneath to mount it because the rounded heads would be nicer to the plastic gas tank that would be sharing the same space.
Here's the 4 bolts on the right side. Looking at the imprint left by the tank on the floorpan, you can see how close the tank is to the rear mounting bolt.
I reused the holes I hand previously drilled for tie-down loops to bolt the left side of the box down.
A couple of pieces of scrap 2x4 served as spacers to allow the drawer to clear the rear hatch trim. All of the holes are drilled in the floor and spacers:
Making sure all the holes line up before placing the box in the Jeep. The Tuffy box replaced another of the green footlockers that is still chained over the folded rear seatback.
Outer box bolted down. I installed 5 tiedown loops on the sides to give me somewhere to secure all of the stuff I plan on putting on top of it. I also covered the top of the box with adhesive backed felt sheet to provide a non-slip, cushioned surface. I ended up adding 6 more tie down loops after going on a couple of camping trips and finding out that I picked poor locations for the first batch of loops.
A closeup of the mounting hardware on the left side. As you can tell, this was the side where I reused the old tiedown loop holes that were already in the floor.
With the drawer in hand, the first order of business was making sure the drawer slides stayed attached to the outer box. The slides on the box were retained by 4 puny countersunk head screws on each side. Two of the screws had already pulled through the slide, allowing it to come loose. My fix was to drill out the nutserts on the box to allow the installation of larger hardware. Here you can see an original screw, along with the other one that had pulled through the slide. Next to it is a 6 x 1.0mm, grade 10.9 flange-head bolt that I replaced all 8 of the original slide retaining screws with.
Strangely, the slides mounted to the drawer were retained by twice as many screws and they fit much better. I left those as they were delivered.
This drawer system was designed to fit a TJ so mounting in my Cherokee turned into a little more work than I expected. The XJ "frame rails", gas tank, gas tank mounting humps, fuel filler hoses and spring shackle mounts were in the way of all of the obvious places to run bolts through the floor. I ended up running (8) 3/8" carriage bolts from underneath to mount it because the rounded heads would be nicer to the plastic gas tank that would be sharing the same space.
Here's the 4 bolts on the right side. Looking at the imprint left by the tank on the floorpan, you can see how close the tank is to the rear mounting bolt.
I reused the holes I hand previously drilled for tie-down loops to bolt the left side of the box down.
A couple of pieces of scrap 2x4 served as spacers to allow the drawer to clear the rear hatch trim. All of the holes are drilled in the floor and spacers:
Making sure all the holes line up before placing the box in the Jeep. The Tuffy box replaced another of the green footlockers that is still chained over the folded rear seatback.
Outer box bolted down. I installed 5 tiedown loops on the sides to give me somewhere to secure all of the stuff I plan on putting on top of it. I also covered the top of the box with adhesive backed felt sheet to provide a non-slip, cushioned surface. I ended up adding 6 more tie down loops after going on a couple of camping trips and finding out that I picked poor locations for the first batch of loops.
A closeup of the mounting hardware on the left side. As you can tell, this was the side where I reused the old tiedown loop holes that were already in the floor.
