DIY decked system ideas.

[Thejet]

Who here has made their own decked drawer system? What would you do differently if you did it again?
Looking for ideas as I have a hard topper on the pickup so see no need for the waterproofing of a name brand deck system.

 

[tony]

I have a tiny truck (ford ranger), so a drawer system would take what little space I have. Opinion here, I don’t see the point of these drawer systems. If you use the bed, you loose it height wise. And are they really waterproof?

What I did was buy 2 large totes with wheels and handles on them. When we take my truck on a trip I can load one or both with items and drive them from the truck right into wherever we are staying. And less than $100.00 for both.

 

[Loper]

I have a tiny truck (ford ranger), so a drawer system would take what little space I have. Opinion here, I don’t see the point of these drawer systems. If you use the bed, you loose it height wise. And are they really waterproof?

What I did was buy 2 large totes with wheels and handles on them. When we take my truck on a trip I can load one or both with items and drive them from the truck right into wherever we are staying. And less than $100.00 for both.

If someone is sleeping in their truck bed I would think a drawer system is critical, otherwise a bunch of your gear would overcrowd the sleeping area.

 

[Thejet]

I have a tiny truck (ford ranger), so a drawer system would take what little space I have. Opinion here, I don’t see the point of these drawer systems. If you use the bed, you loose it height wise. And are they really waterproof?

What I did was buy 2 large totes with wheels and handles on them. When we take my truck on a trip I can load one or both with items and drive them from the truck right into wherever we are staying. And less than $100.00 for both.

That is currently what I do, the totes are annoying as they take up a lot of space for what they hold and what you end up wanting from them is always in the bottom. Decked type system on paper would be better utilized space and a lot more organization.

 

[tony]

If someone is sleeping in their truck bed I would think a drawer system is critical, otherwise a bunch of your gear would overcrowd the sleeping area.

Never even thought about that

 

[Macintosh]

Theres several older posts on the topic as well.

Love mine. Mine is marine plywood, even so I think I had about $200 into it. Plywood has gotten more expensive since 2021 though. If I did it again Id make it more easily removable. It would be easy to do that. I wouldnt take it out much, but once every so often itd be convenient.

Mine has 2 drawers I think 50 or 54” deep (dont recall exactly) plus 2 wing doors up against the cab for towing stuff, straps, tools etc that are accessible through the side doors in the cap. love the layout.

I recently saw a prefab “table” system at wheel-well height that allowed you to store stuff under it, but it was very easily removeable. I might look into that if I did it again as well.

 

[CodyAK]

Only picture that I can find right now. Full length drawers. Left side had 4 slots for long guns and a compartment for ammo/ etc. Right drawer was compartmented for dog training gear, tools, jumper cables, etc.

New truck has an 8’ bed that’s capped off. Thinking about making a new set of drawers with deck slide on top. Would help with dog kennels, coolers, and packouts for work.

I’d make them tall enough to sit a scoped rifle case vertically. Or at least be able to slide a pelican or Apache rifle case out of view. My tailgate locks with the truck now so I wouldn’t worry about trying to figure that out. Skateboard bearings and 1x aluminum tubing would make a good draw slide but the same can be accomplished with uhmw runners. Just don’t build the drawers super tight or you’ll fight them whenever it freezes.

Kreg jig was great. Coarse thread cabinet screws would be best, didn’t bother with stainless hardware. I don’t think they make solid trex boards but I would try to find something composite for the bottom portions of the frame that the drawers sit it. I’d paint or use some sort of bed liner with a bed mat on top. The one in the picture lasted 8 years.

 

[taskswap]

I made the drawers below out of 5/8" plywood. I made a few mistakes but they came out well enough I was actually able to sell them for $50 when I upgraded to another system (I actually went with Decked for that truck at one point - but that was years ago).

It was really easy to make. I didn't have a table saw at the time, so I just ripped four lengthwise strips from a sheet of 5/8" ply. Those became the vertical supports, one to each side of the drawers and a double in the middle. I think I made them 10" high but can't remember - I just did my wheel well height minus the sheet thickness, so the sides would rest on the wheel wells for support. I built the drawer boxes the same way but ripped those strips 1/4" narrower for some clearance.

I didn't bother with slide rails. I just got some 3" wide HDPE tape and ran 3 runners down each drawer box. It worked perfectly as long as I was careful not to pull the drawers out more than about a foot before their total length. Drawer handles were just sisal rope. (I was on a budget but it worked perfectly). As you can see I did a 2/5 x 3/5 layout so one drawer was wider.

To capitalize on the "dead space" in front of/behind the wheel wells I cut a few trim panels from the offcuts to close those off, then used four piano hinges to create hinged tops. I used paracord with some "monkey fist" balls tied on the ends as pulls.

Not shown in the photo but I added a truck topper as well, so I didn't bother to waterproof anything. YMMV