Cargo Drawers

Galvanised Steel

The main advantage of using galvanised steel is: it’s not expensive, easy to work with, commonly found and it comes in a large variety of shapes and forms. Galvanised sheets usually come in 0.9mm, 1.2mm and 1.6mm and can be easily bent into box shapes or channels using a pan brake or a hydra bend machine. Strengtheners may also be used such as: “U” channel and “top hat”. Galvanised steel is usually used in the framework of the cargo drawers, either spot or MIG welded (much stronger) or bolted with nylock nuts.

Aluminium

Aluminium is quite light and relatively soft when compared to galvanised steel; however, it’s much more expensive. Aluminium can be very strong when it’s used with strong framing concepts and utilising strengtheners such as: rectangle hollow, “top hat” or “T” bar. Some manufacturers are utilizing both extruded and folded aluminium, which provides great strength (around 120kg per drawer), without weighing in as excess baggage. Storage drawers purely constructed in aluminium can result in up to 60% reduction in weight when compared to other materials on the market. This will obviously provide lighter overall vehicle weight and thus lead to better fuel economy.

Plywood

Plywood was the very first type of engineered wood and it is made up of a number of layers of veneer, each layer glued at right angles to the adjacent layers. These layers are bonded under heat and pressure with strong adhesives such as phenol formaldehyde resin. Plywood is known to resist cracking, shrinkage, twisting or warping and it is generally quite high in strength. 4WD storage drawers that are made with timber are usually made with marine grade plywood, with highly stressed areas being re-enforced with steel bracing or truss rods. When this method of construction is implemented and used with heavy duty rollers, great strength can be achieved with drawer loadings of over 200kg.

• Stainless fittings: Are the drawers made with high grade stainless steel fittings or are they made with galvanised fittings?
• Flush mounted latches: Do they have quality flush mounted ‘T’ latches?
• Do they use quality stainless steel screws, bolts and nylock nuts throughout?
• Are they fully sealed heavy duty roller bearings and are rated at high loads?
• Are these bearings designed to be dust proof?
• Are they finished with premium automotive carpet or industrial carpet?

• Use heavy duty “tie downs” and make sure the tie down points provide extra load security in rough terrain.
• Check the situation for using child restraints. Are anchorage points still accessible or can they be installed in the unit?
• Check whether or not the system complies with Australian Design standard
• Cargo barriers should be installed in all vehicles that carry rear loads. Check to see what options are available with your chosen system. Some systems are designed to suit the popular makes of cargo barrier in either half or full sizes.
• A key-lock is a good feature in storage drawers if you believe you’ll be leaving gear in your vehicle when it’s unattended. There are occurrences where a vehicle has been broken into, yet all recovery gear stored in one drawer was not stolen as the drawer was locked. Thieves usually take what is easily obtainable and a lock provides a simple deterrent.

• Optional drawer partitions.
• Optional bed extension.
• Optional “lift off” table which sits on top of an open drawer. This is usually constructed from 19mm food contact grade polyethylene plastic.
• Optional access to wheel arch storage area.
• 1 to 5 year warranty.