Rear Storage System

Well, last weekend at the Queanbeyan 4x4 show, I picked up my rear storage core system from Offroad Systems (ORS). I had ordered them a little while ago, but rather than having them shipped, I decided to just grab them from the guys and meet them directly at the show.

First impressions was a good quality, well made product. Being made from aluminium, they were very light weight and the ORS lads had thrown in some drawer dividers and a table-top plate. I had ordered them with the drawer front plates, lock and handle kits as well as the removable drawer liners. ORS DIY systems information available here and pricelist here.

Components:

• 2 x 455x780x280 Aluminum Drawer Frames
• 2 x Lock and Handle kits
• 2 x Drawer Fronts
• 2 x Marine Carpet Drawer Liners
• 1200x2400x12mm Structural Ply
• 2m x 2m Grey Marine Carpet
• 1L Carpet Adhesive
• Incidentals; nuts / bolts / staples, etc

Installation:

1. First off; I had to mount the two cores on top of each other. Fortunately they were built with this in mind and had some captive nuts already installed ready for the task; shown in picture 2. Rather than have metal on metal, I decided to add some rubber matting as spacers between the two units as shown in picture 1.
2. Once bolted together, I took measurements of the top, sides and back of the unit. Then cut pieces of the 12mm structural ply to match. I purposely made the sides and top longer to captivate the drawer fronts when closed. The rear panel was sized to cover off the edges of the top and side plates with the view of protecting them from chipping and other damage.
3. Next I dry assembled everything to make sure I hadn't made any mistakes (fortunately everything was spot on for a change!). I then laid the panels down on the marine carpet and cut out the pieces needed, extending all edges by 150mm to allow for fold over and securing on the back of the panel.
4. Using the carpet adhesive, I applied it to the top of each panel using a "V" shaped applicator, waited the 10mins or so for it to go tacky, then applied the carpet by placing the panel down onto the carpet. Weight was then placed on each panel to make sure the carpet was secured.
5. The longest part of the process came next; securing the carpet on the back of each panel. I found the easiest way to do this was to cut the carpet diagonally with a razor to the corner of the panel, fold it over 'dry' (no adhesive) and trim away any overlap. Once this had been done to all panels, apply adhesive, wait for it to go tacky, then secure with staples using a staple gun.
6. Once all the panels had been completed and the adhesive had set (generally > 24hrs), it was time to secure them to the frame. To do this, I used M6 x 12mm stainless self tapping screws. Each side I secured with 6 of these screws, with the exception of the top panel; which I secured using countersunk M6 bolts going into captive nuts (see picture 2).
7. The final panels were the drawer fronts, which were secured with the same self tapping screws, but also 2 bolts that secure the handles, as well as 2 more bolts that secure the locking mechs. This was a fairly simple process, as the supplied front panels were pre-drilled with the locations for the locking mechs and handles.
8. As a side project, I had decided to mount my MaxAx on an outer panel of the storage unit. Being that the axe was to long to actually fit in the box, it seemed like the logical choice; as knowing my luck if I mounted it to a roof rack, the rack wouldn't be on the car when I needed it!
   To do this, I bought a couple of QuickFist clamps, which would have been more than adequate, but I also decided to engineer an axe head holder from 30x30x3mm angle iron. Once welded, and tidied up with a grinder, the steel was primed and then painted gloss black. I mounted the bracket to the drivers side panel with 4 x M5 stainless bolts. The QuickFists were mounted with M5 bolts also.
9. Finally it was time to mount the entire unit to the base board. I reused the 2 pre-existing securing locations that were holding the base board down on the drivers side. For the passenger side, I used 2 "T" nuts that pull up into the base board ply from underneath.

1. Rubber matting spacers

2. Captive nut installed; these locations are in each corner, top and bottom.

3. Frames bolted together

4. Carpet adhesive spread on panel

5. Panels finished; trial knock up.

6. Side panel fixed in place

7. Quickfists and axe head holder bracket bolted down

8. Max Ax fitted in place.

9. Storage unit installed

10. Locking mech and axe head holder

11. Bottom drawer; note the 4 spacers, these aren't fixed and can be put anywhere.
The green thing under the Woodmans Pal is the table top, just mount it sideways across the drawer.

12. Axe in place; 60mm gap running down the side, allows access to side compartments and 12v plugs.

13. Rear of storage unit in relation to the fridge base.