I am far to poor (cheap) to afford one of these expensive drawer systems. And I figure, they don’t actually meet my needs anyway. Normally I don’t want all my camping gear in the car, so although drawers give more space, unpacking and repacking them is not much fun. Opposite Lock sells a nifty solution, but the price was still a bit out of reach.
So I copied my old man.
A timber shelf with plastic boxes under it, carpeted. Have boxes for day to day, and another set on the shelf in the shed for camping. It’s quick and easy to pack / unpack / change over, practical for camping as you can leave the boxes at the campsite. And cheap.
| Plenty of space in the cruiser, not very useable. |  |
| A quick twist to the top mounting straps for the Milford cargo barrier moved them up, and the top of the barrier forward 15mm. Every bit helps. The mount points the instructions give you for the cargo barrier put it back 1.5″ from the seat, losing heaps of rear space. |  |
| I swapped the short straps for the long ones, re-drilled them and trimmed to length. This pic shows the short strap beside the long one. The hole in the floor is just visible.This gained 1.5″ of space at the bottom of the barrier and pushed it within 5mm of the back seat. The long straps are normally used if you mount the barrier in the “forward” 2 seat position. |  |
| A trip to Bunnings found the boxes I needed. The smaller ones on the rear of the sides are due to me needing to maintain access to the child seat mounts. It’s a combination that works well. The steel bar was to give me a level to measure to that would clear everything. |  |
| 15mm structural ply for the sides. I tried 15mm for the top, but it was not strong enough to bear my weight. The top is “about” 1100 x 1100, but measure your car to be exact.I ended up using 21mm ply for the top. Tip for beginners (and me), make sure the top & bottom grain of the ply runs side to side. It is much stronger this way. I can now stand on it and it doesn’t bend. |  |
| The sides were profiled to clear the plastic trim near the wheel arches. I wanted it as wide as possible. |  |
| I used 45mm x 3mm aluminium angle in the corners to strengthen them. It’s light, cheap and strong. Angle is screwed and glued. |  |
| All joints are drilled, glued and screwed. I used the new Polyurethane wood glue, it’s much stronger than PVA and bonds to more things. All screws are 10 Gauge. They need to be drilled as you are going into the end grain of the ply. |  |
| Rear tie downs are 6mm stainless turnbuckles from Bias Boating and the U bolt from a galvanized wire rope clamp. This gives a very low profile loop. Grind the sharp points off the turnbuckle hooks, they really hurt. The floor is the factory tie down point. |  |
| Holes drilled for the kids seatbelts.The front is tied down with cam buckle straps to the front factory tie down points. Cam buckle straps are lower profile than ratchet straps. Zip tie the bottom hooks to the barrier to keep them from coming off. This gives a simple and very strong tie down. You can’t tie down to the barrier as it’s not well secured up/down. It is only strong back / forward.
If you do these up first, then the turnbuckle tensions them as you do up the rear. |
 |
| I used 2m x 1.5m of Marine Grey carpet and 1L of contact adhesive again from Bias. Tip: Read the instructions on the can of adhesive, it works much better that way.I deliberately didn’t put side “wings” on mine despite initial plans to do so. After trying it I found a plastic Jerry can of water fits perfectly on each side. I’m very happy with the result and storage from the boxes.
Overall weight is under 15KG inc boxes. (haven’t measured it exactly). Much lighter than the cargo barrier. |
 |
The next step is a fridge slide from 4WDSystems for my Waeco CF50 and I’ll have something that is more effective than a $2500 set of drawers for $500.
Hi Paul
I have done much the same thing in my 90 series Prado. However, I put the wings on mine – they sit flat on top of the wheel arches and are attached by piano hinges. They fold up to allow me to easily install/ remove the shelf. They also give me the ability to use the full width of the back of the truck for boxes etc. That then makes the whole storage area tighter. I am interested that you say the cargo barrier is not well secured up and down. I have attached my shelf by a number of brackets and plates attached to the barrier and have never noticed any vertical movement. Thinking about it, this might be because my bottom bolts and straps are very close to the base of the barrier. By the way, I find liquid nails works as well as any adhesive when fixing the carpet.
Terry Gannon
Reading about what you did with yuor 90 series Prado. Any chance of some pictures? That would be good.
Cheers
Richard