03/11/2019

Land Cruiser Build Drifta Rear Drawers

4WD's, 76 Series Land Cruiser, Our Gear 4WD Gear, 4x4, 76 Series Land Cruiser, DIY, Drawers, Drifta, Dual Battery Setup, Electrical, Gear, Storage, Stories by Peter, Tips 0

Drifta Rear Drawers & Second Battery Install

At last I get to my favourite part of the Land Cruiser build and that is installing our Drifta drawers.

The Drifta drawers arrived and they are packaged really well. They look awesome, so well made. Would never go without this setup, it is the best I have seen. Very well made, top drawer is quite small to allow us to fit the kitchen in the bottom drawer (replace bottom drawer with kitchen). The usual awesome table setup – can be used as a work platform in the drawers or pulled out as a free standing table. Fridge slide is an update on my previous Drifta drawer setup in the Wrangler – made sure to spray this with oil to keep this in prime condition. The recess behind the fridge slide for the second battery is going to make life so much easier. Measured the battery recess up and it is exactly the width of my deep cycle battery, so should be a perfect and tight fit, didn’t expect much else from these guys. Just need to come up with a solution to secure the battery and get the most out of the space here. So happy I got the side wings and front infills, again really well made here and clever use of shelving brackets to support the side wings (see the pics below). Look forward to getting this all in Big Betty.

As I wanted to be able to fit our Drifta Car Back kitchen (DCB I think the acronym is in usual Drifta style) that we have had for a few years now, I need to work out where to fit the rear bow shackle supports – simple enough job. You also need to install the anchor points in the rear using two existing holes – simple job however would be easier with another person to help tighten the bolts. I had to use a socket with a couple of extensions and a lot of stretching. I reused the rubber grommet and chopped of the end to act as a seal, I also added silicon to the large washer that goes on the underside of the car, this helps keep the washer in place as well as making sure it is properly sealed from the elements. Check out the photos of where these go below. Once these are in then a couple of slits in the carpet and you are done here. Removed drawers and table and lifted into the back of the 76. Fairly heavy but easy enough to get in on your own, if you have short arms you might struggle a bit here on your own.

The drawers fit perfectly, very tight fit so nothing moving around. Anchored down at the front and then started to test everything and work out all the mods I am going to need to make. Super tight fit for the second battery but perfect. Not much room so won’t be able to use a normal battery bracket. Will need to make something here. Rear seat folds down easy and closes fine, a bit of a rub on the battery but this is due to the thick neoprene seat covers, for me it’s a perfect fit as everything is tight so no wasted space. Tested to see if the kitchen fitted and it goes in pretty easily but super tight at the end. Will wear in over time. Have to chop off the ends of the Teflon sliders as they are too long on each side but that’ll be a job for later on. Worked out where the turn buckle support can fit due to the size of the kitchen on the drivers side (if you don’t have one of these then I’m sure all of these will come already fitted to the drawers) other side easy to fit as lots of space, drilled a few holes and secured these and then anchored to existing anchor points in the cruiser. Tested side wings and these fitted easily and again a perfect fit. Infills also fit nice and tight. Haven’t yet screwed in infills as I will need to make some changes to these before I secure them in place. Want to fit my new ARB twin compressor under the right side wing but need to move one of the side wing side supports and the turn buckle anchor to get this to fit.

Drawers out to sort out the battery and compressor. Battery support a simple one here, just 3 pieces of timber, a trip to Bunnings, screwed everything together, spray painted black and then screwed to the drawers. Battery fits perfect and not going anywhere with timber frame and tie down strap. Plenty of room for fuses or charger, probably fuses as I want to be able to get to these fairly easy if I have any issues and need to change any. Charger will probably be going under the side wing on the passenger side (still easy access from the back side door). Now the next job is fitting the compressor to the side of the drawers. Removed the anchor and bracket for the side wing supports, sat the compressor on the drawers and worked it all out from there. Used some stainless M6 bolts with screw heads rather than the supplied bolts. Need these to keep out of the way of the drawer as the Drifta drawers are a tight fit due to them having no rollers. Went overboard and used all 8 mounting points but only needed to use 4 as per instructions but it is super heavy and just want to make sure it is not going anywhere. Measure the mounting points yourself to mount correctly – the template supplied with the instructions is not to scale. Fits perfect under the side wing with enough room for air flow. Will fit the compressor coupling to the driver side infill somehow.

Existing mounting point and side wing supports

Put the drawers back in after these mods, fitted battery in place nice and securely and really snug and then bolted on the compressor – see our post on the compressor install here.

I then had to modify our kitchen to have it fit the drawers. Simple job just needed to cut the teflon slider ends off the kitchen, mount the spring latch to the front of the kitchen and drill a hole in the side of the drawers for the latch. Had to find a new spot to store the kitchen leg as this won’t fit on the side of the kitchen anymore as there is not enough space in the drawer. Mounted the clips above the fridge and the leg fits in here nicely. Easy to access and stays out of the way.

Read about our kitchen setup here.

All in all it was a fairly easy part of the Land Cruiser build installing the Drifta drawers.