Do you find you still have plenty of room in the back of your truck on top of the drawers for other gear? That's my biggest concern with a drawer system. Is that I spend the money or the time building one and it ends up not being worth the expense and is in the way half the time. It's one reason I contemplate a leer Locker since it's up and out of the way, but being on top of the topper, idk how accessible it will end up being.
The Locker is pretty accessible, the back part drops down a foot, then slides out like a drawer...pretty handy in that respect.
I run a topper that is taller than cab height to accommodate a large kennel on top of the truck vault. The only time I feel at a disadvantage is when loading a bull elk into the bed. you have to put the head in last and leave the topper door open, which I’m not a fan of. if you are building your own, which I have done, I would really think about how much height you will need inside the drawers. I store guns, optics, ammo and fishing gear depending on the season. The truck vault system really does drastically increase the storage space in the bed while also keeping the bed completely open. If you put the numbers together of what good materials cost to build a drawer system similar to the truck vault, you’re not money ahead to diy if your time has much value.
But you are also getting them up to the level of the window vents which helps. Honestly I never have the dogs in the bed when it’s warm out so I’ve never thought about it too much.
I think 2Golden has it right. They're closer to the window vent. For my application, I'm not too concerned as I normally put my dogs kennel in the cab with me. Even when I had 2 guys in the cab, I could stack 2 kennels on top of each other.
Yeah good point. Out of curiosity, what truck vault did you go with? I did a quick build online last night and it came to $3800. A bit steep compared to what I could probably DIY. Of course maybe not quite as polished.
That looks plenty nice for my needs. Did you add drawer slides or do they just slide on the bed?
Built a box that sets inside fender wells and level with the top to hold 2 drawers… then a sheet of wood over top wrapped in outdoor carpet. No slides and build the drawers loose in case of cooler spill so drawers don’t swell and bind. I wax bottoms couple times a year. Build light as possible as setup can get real heavy real fast. I can’t imagine going without drawers and kennel in bed, everything has a secure dry place.
I’ll post some better pics this week, it’s due to be cleaned out and stocked for a camping trip
Thanks that would be awesome. I know there's a lot of DIY videos on YouTube as well and if I do go the drawer route, I'll probably end up building a simple one like that. Having the option to remove it relatively easily is a plus for me too.
I went with the all weather offset utility. Ive built 2 drawer sets before and if you use comparable materials as the truck vault you really aren’t saving anything. You can definitely put a pencil to it but just the quality heavyweight ball bearing drawer slides are gonna cost $450 per set. Then get the price on linex for the exterior and it adds up fast. I would definitely make sure if you diy that you do a linex exterior. The carpeted ones are impossible to get dog hair and blood out of.
