Cargo drawer build in progress! We've grown quite tired of how long it takes to set up and tear down camp while out and about. Our previous method of piling everything into the back of the rig like a game of Tetris just doesn't work. The most frustrating part is dealing with bedding/sleeping bags/air mattresses that are the first things you pack away when breaking camp in the morning, but have to sit on top of everything else (tables, tent, etc.) once packed into the rig. I've been brainstorming a solution for months, but I had a lot of criteria that needed to be met. It has to allow easy access to anything that we'd bring with us without having to pull things out of the way (for example, need to be able to get to the fridge for a lunch stop or to get to tools/air hose without having to completely unpack the rig). It must be flexible and modular enough to allow for changes in what we bring, as our compliment of camping gear varies widely from trip to trip based on the distance/time, the climate, how many of us are going, and cooking/pot luck plans. It also can't break the bank, needs to be something I can build within my fairly limited skill set, and shouldn't be too heavy or fragile.
I watched countless You Tube videos and read dozens of forum posts, both specific to the Xterra platform and to other vehicles. I thought very hard about the different ways I'd pack up the rig for different types of trips, what I needed to bring and could live without, and even stacked various items inside and used some scrap lumber to formulate the best layout. Although not perfect by any means, I'm pretty happy with the design I landed on.
It incorporates a built-in drawer on the passenger side, which is equal width to the narrower side of the fold-down rear seat. The opening for the drawer is 10" tall by 16" wide, and the drawer box itself is 9" tall by 14.5" wide by 28" deep (after the heavy duty drawer slides and necessary movement spaces are accounted for). This big drawer will hold all of my recovery gear, tools, some basic survival gear, and other items that stay in my rig 100% of the time. The driver side is a large open cubby space to hold bulky items that can still be accessed when other stuff is stacked on top. Like the passenger side, it is the same width as the larger side of the split seat back, and the cubby is open on the back so that long items can fit all the way through with the seat in the folded position. This side will perfectly hold a FrontRunner Wolf Pack (or two, if I slide them into the seat area a little bit) and my Gazelle hub tent, and I can fit my camp chef folding table on top of the tent as well.
The top platform will be flat across, including removable "wings" to cover the side edges of the cargo area but still allow access. Those side areas will be a perfect place to store bungee cords and ratchet straps, spare parts, a light sweatshirt, a rain poncho, umbrellas, gloves, cold weather gear, etc. Under "daily" operating conditions, the flat platform will be perfect for the occasional bag of dog food or case of water from Costco. The cubby side should hold all of my photography and firefighting gear, and the drawer side and wings will carry what stays in the rig all the time. In "camping" form, the passenger side of the top platform will have an articulating slide mechanism mounted to it, which will hold the ARB 50 quart fridge and slide out/drop down at a 45 degree angle to allow access. The top of the driver side is open for sleeping bags, air mattresses, duffel bags, and other bulky camping items that normally bury everything else, and the cubby will hold wolf packs with food/camping items, as well as the tent and table. I'm also working on making the passenger side of the top platform removable, so that I can still sleep in the back of the rig when I take solo trips (the cubby is exactly the right width for my air mattress, by design), but I haven't actually cut it out yet because I need to ensure that the fridge slide has enough wood to mount securely to the passenger side. I'm also going to cut a large access hole in the floor of the drawer side, and may make a portion of the floor of the cubby side removable, to allow access to the storage space underneath. I will keep snow chains, spare wiper blades, and some other items under there.
The drawer slides come today and the fridge slider will arrive on Friday, so I'm hoping to have most of the project completed by the end of the weekend.
Test stacking stuff and deciding how I want the layout configured. Scrap pieces of 3/4" thick plywood proved to be very useful in this step.
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Assembling the floor piece
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With the top platform mounted. Nice and square!
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In the back of the rig (not mounted yet, just testing the fit for now)
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Here's how the Wolf Packs and the tent fit into the cubby side
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This is where the fridge should end up sitting with the articulating slide in place. Again, it'll slide out and tilt down at 45 degrees, which should bring it down to the same level or lower than if it were on the floor of the cargo area.
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The drawer box built out. I had to order 250 lb. drawer slides, as this will be a big drawer loaded down with heavy stuff.
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