home built

[MOAK]

8 years ago I built drawers to stow stuff in for the rear of the Landcruiser. ( first photo ) 2 years ago we changed things up a bit, dumper the Yeti, and stepped up to a fridge. The Yeti used to be in the nose of the trailer and the fridge was not going to work there at all as I like keeping all of my major electronics in one place. The fridge was way too high for my wife and the old system I built wasn't cutting it any longer. I priced out all the commercially built systems and, well, I couldn't see spending that kind of money to get something that made me feel like I was compromising. Sooooo, I built my own, for the cost of a sheet of 3/4" plywood, 2, 1"x12" x6 pine boards, a couple of eye bolts, and some scrap aluminum angle I found at our local scrap yard. Maybe $175. I repurposed some of the old stuff. The fastener on the top drawer is a vintage double sash window latch circa 1960s that I found up in my barn. (I keep everything, someday I'll have to rent a small roll off and just start heaving it out the door) I had zero plans, I just started measuring and building. My wife helped a lot as she keeps me from making stupid mistakes. Now our fridge has a good home, we have a lot more room for stuff, and everything is much better organized. No more moving stuff out of the way to get to other stuff below it. The 16 gallon water tank is used for our shower system. The sides are hinged. I didn't count the price of the new power inverter in the bottom left of the photo or the 250 watt subwoofer on the bottom right.

 

[Biker Eagle]

Did a similar system myself except the guy that gave me the plans made his out of 3/4" plywood and said to use 1/2" to cut down on the weight. I took his advice and used 1/2 and regret it. The 1/2" is warping a little whereas the 3/4" probably wouldn't. But it's 4 years old now and still works. With the fridge slide total cost was about $350.

Works well in the GX. And added an Orange Boxx fold down table. I have a Wally World ez up 4x6canopy that covers the open area of the back of the GX.

 

[MOAK]

Nice job. I considered staying with 1/2" but for the reasons you outlined I used 3/4" where strength mattered. The face and sides of my drawers are 1"x12", (zero warpage & strength, as the bottom drawer slides wood on wood thanks to having a tail gate) In order to cut down on weight most of the plywood in front of the fridge and some along the front side was cut out. The platform is an open frame. If I had it to do over I'd narrow the center and sides a bit more than they are. I'd wager that it weighs about the same as solid 1/2".