VERY nice, George. A few days later than I expected, but you made it! This is one of the nicest, if not the nicest, storage setups that I've seen. Very clean. If I ever feel that I want to go with something like this, I will be blantantly copying everything you have here! Looks like this will come in handy and glad you like it. Nice job.

 

so let me just go ahead and say what everyone here is thinking. Do you have the drawings, dimensions, etc for this? So that I can steal your design more easily

 

Is that Baltic plywood?

I love that stuff.

 

Great work. I want one.

 

Looks good, similar to the one I built. I want to add the "bed" attachment to mine next.

 

Very nice indeed! I had ruled this out but now you have me thinking........

 

Thanks all!

Transalper: I used KV 8500's 28" Long. They are great. You mount a channel on the drawer and it locks into the case mounted slides. They easily remove by pressing a plastic lock. Here is the link to the MFG website for the product. KV 8500

Gapguy: The whole thing weighs less than 100 pounds. I take the drawers out to mount it in there easily by myself.

Jokeplayer: I do have some sketches, Perhaps I will take a pic of them or scan them. I will also post some additional pics.

TStango: I will post some pics showing the support for the extension. It is just a piece of plywood that is attached with a piano hinge. The piece is beveled so the piece folds down beyond 90 degrees so that there is no chance of it folding while there is weight on it.

Ranski: The slides (as mentioned above) are KV8500's. They are 150# class, but I think the 28" version is good for 110# at 3/4 extension. As mentioned these were much cheaper than the extra heavy duty telescoping versions that were in the range you mentioned. Mine cost me $23 per set from Siggia Hardware (a wholesale cabinet hardware place in the SFV).

Darren: Sorry, it took longer than I thought too. When I hinted in the other thread that I was just about finished, I had ordered the paddle latches. One week later I called them and though they were in stock they had not shipped yet. Once they came I took one day to finish the project.


sdastg1: I will try and post pics of my sketches. I have some cutting list stuff too if I can find it. My garage is destroyed because of simutaneous projects around here.

Steve: There is some Baltic Birch plywood here, I had some 9 ply (nominal 1/2") that I used for the drawer bottoms and backs. Just about everything else is 23/32" (nominal 3/4") ACX ply from Home Depot @ $36 per sheet.

Hopefully I can get the other info and pics up tomorrow...
Thanks for the encouragement.

 

Looks great! Just for reference, here's the thread to the one I built a couple years ago:
https://www.yotatech.com/forums/f2/my-cargo-box-finished-almost-pics-9985/
To keep the overal price down, I shied away from using sliders, and just used wood on wood- the drawers won't slide out by themselves and wack you in the gut if you're parked uphill. Definitely the best mod I did, and the one I get the most comments on. It'd almost be worth starting a "cargo box" thread with all the different designs so people could see what a few of us have down.

Congrats!

 

None of the measurements in the designs below are final. They are all estimations on paper and do not account for actual material (vs. nominal material) thickness. Take this for what it was, brainstorming.

Here is the preliminary sketch of the space and the idea.



Here are some actual measurements.
]


Better concept, though the support for the extension changed and this had a design effect on the area between the drawers.



Some more measurements.
]



Also, some details on the extension.


The draw catch




The extension leg


If it looks like I will be using this without more than one passenger I may make another extension that is longer to be used exclusively without the rear seat bottoms.

EDIT: I now use the long extension exclusively. Taking out the rear seat bottoms. The sleeping area is now much longer and a comfortable 6'3" or so, with even more room if I decide to move the front seats forward while sleeping.

 

I made something very close to that mine has only 1 draw and a bigger dead storage in the back. For my bed a took a piece of 3/4 plywood overlap the dead storage by 6in and under the wood i put a 1in wide strip of wood with 2 hooks to keep it from moving. up front i bought some threaded pipe from home depot and these plates that get screwed to the wood all i do is set it up screw the pipe in to the plates which seat on the floor right behind the pass and driver seat throw some foam pad down and go night night

 

Finally... Re-posted the pics...

 

Thanks for the update SkyRat. It makes me think I may raise the plans for my cargo box to be above the gas fill tube instead of above the fender wells.

 

Thanks for the great pictures and ideas on doing this job SkyRat. When you originally made this topic it gave me the inspiration to try to do the same thing. BUT, I am not as good of a carpenter as you are so I kind of cheated on my set up a little bit. I used your idea for the platform and sort of modified it so it would gap my lack of ability in wood working skills and bought a cargo box already made with one large sliding drawer with removable deviders and a key lock from Costco. I mounted a 1000 watt inverter in the same place that yours is mounted and used almost all the same hardware to hold it down to the floor that you used. I carpeted mine to match the inside of my Runner (tan) and glued it down. It is almost the same hight as your platform. The only other thing that I did a little bit different is that I needed a bit more inside storage space without having to put stuff on top of the platform. So I took out my rear seats completley and hinged 2 piece's of 2x4, one in each of the front corners so that they sit just about in the middle of the rear floorpan where your feet would be if sitting in the rear. Now I have all the extra storage space under the platform also for extra storage. So when I want to put the rear seats back in I just remove the front half of the platform and just put the seats back in !
Thanks to you it worked out great and we have spent many nights sleeping very comfortably in the back of the Runner.

 

thanks for rehosting the pics, your cargo box w/ sleep extension is almost exactly what i've had pictured in my head for about a month. great job

 

What did you use for joinery on the ply? Just glue and brads?

Especially curious about building the drawers and attaching the top to the box...

Thanks!

 

The drawers were dovetailed together.
The other pieces of the box were largely glued and screwed with Drywall Screws.
The top was fastened from the inside with screws only. No glue. That way it could be re-carpeted without too much hassle. I have not removed it since putting it in. The carpet is just now starting to pull up around the trap door to the cubby. I keep sliding things onto the carpet and it has started catching a bit on that lip. I will have to glue it down again soon. Not too bad for having lasted almost 5 years now ...

 

SWEET JOB!! I do a lot of solo wheeling and find myself more often that not sleeping in my runner somewhere out there and have been looking at designing a raised platform to accomodate an extra body in the back as well as a place to store stuff under, out of sight. i would be very interested in knowing a few more specifics (actual drawings would be amazing, cause like everyone else that has seen your rig, i want to copy the whole damn thing!!) did you use 3/4" plywood? how do you keep the support for the sleeping extension open? do you have a way to quickly remove the seats? i am planning a trip to california via the oregon coast and would like to have my rig outfitted before i go. i will have a ton of gear, from recovery, to climbing, flyfishing, surfing as well as camping gear and would like to keep it out of sight when im not in the rig as well as have a safe haven to crash in after a long doay on the water.

cheers, T

BTW great work!

 

If you look closely at all the pictures in all the posts. The info is pretty much all there. Read the whole thread because I have answered alot of questions too. I have multiple posts some show photos of the actual drawings with dimensions.

There is a leg in one of the pics that is attached by a piano hinge that supports the extension. I eventually made two extensions. One for the seat bottoms folded up and a longer one for the seat bottoms removed. The removed ones provide almost a foot more sleeping length. 3/4" for everything. Later I added locking paddle latches so I could lock the drawers.

Please copy anything you want. That is why I posted it.

 

I'm doing one right now very similar to SkyRat's except in a 92 4runner... it's also a little different because the drawers are 2 different sizes.

I drew it up in google's sketchup, which I'll post a link to when I'm done.

Thanks SkyRat! Your box was definitely my inspiration, as you'll see.

 

Nice to see you are still around George.