Drifta Car Back Kitchen

Our Drifta Car Back (DCB) Kitchen Setup

An unbiased look at our Drifta Car Back (DCB) kitchen setup. What we like and don’t like.

I do say an unbiased, however I must confess that I do love the Drifta made products as I think they make quality items and they are well thought out (you know, practical). We do pay full price, no discounts or freebies (well yet, haha).

So we have had this kitchen setup for a couple of years now. We got sick of trying to pack tables, plates and all your cooking and cleaning gear each time you head out camping.

Before this setup we had everything packed away in containers and our rear drawers, which was ok but stuff moves around when your are travelling and it’s an absolute mission when you need to get anything.

So the guys at Drifta sorted us out and changed the dimensions a bit when they made it (didn’t change the price), so that we could fit the setup on top of our existing Drifta rear drawers when packed up and travelling (this was in our Jeep Wrangler at the time). I then made a few brackets so that I could keep the kitchen in place while driving. First attempt lasted less than 24 hours when I tested it out at Double Island one weekend. The second attempt worked great, just needed to upgrade the fixings to something a bit more heavy duty.

In our 76 Cruiser, the Drifta Car Back (DCB) kitchen setup just replaces one of our rear drawers so it’s a much easier setup. The Wrangler rear cargo area is not deep enough, this is why we had to sit it on top of the drawers.

So how does it all work? Drifta have a few videos showing you the setup so I’d recommend watching those so I won’t go into that in much detail. I’ll just give you a quick rundown of setting it up and let you know what we like and don’t like, and how it works for us.

All folded up our unit is 900mm long, 460mm wide and 300mm high. I think the standard one is slightly higher but check the specs out on their website. It’s not light but I can pick it up easily enough on my own and move it around, Wifey can’t on her own. If you have one that’ll replace one of your draws or you have it stored nice and low in your 4×4, slide it out halfway or so and pull one of the legs out so that when you set it up you can stand it up on the one side, and while you hold it pull the other leg out. Once both legs are folded out it is fairly easy to then get the legs to the height you want. Each leg is adjustable so it’s awesome when camping as you are never in a level spot and you can set it up fairly high if you want. Again the videos Drifta have put together explain all of that much better.

The top then folds out so you end up with a work bench of 1.8m as it doubles in size. You have a single leg that clips onto the side that is also adjustable. We have two drawers on the front of the unit, the top one smaller than the bottom. The top draw is used for all our cutlery and other small things as it has 3 built in dividers. The bottom drawer has a black plastic wash tub that fits perfectly into the drawer, so awesome practical storage. We have our cutting board stored under the tub and then in the tub we have our plates, bowls, cups (4 of each) and then the hand pump and pipe for your water.

There is another draw on the side of the unit that is bigger than the others. In this drawer we have our foldable windbreak for our single gas cooker (this stands up on the side of the drawer perfectly), extra gas bottles (4 or so), dish towels and cloths, salt and pepper, aluminium foil, rubbish bags, tea, coffee, sugar, olive oil and our large Uni Flame cook set, that fits perfectly. I think that’s everything. We don’t store the single gas cooker in here as it’s a waste of space. We did this at the start but once you get out to camp and you take it out, you are then left with a half empty drawer. They came in a good enough case that we store this in the car when travelling. I have a few velcro straps stuck onto the case so I can then stick it under the unit when it is empty (you can see the red case in the photos under the right hand side of the unit).

So once the Drifta Car Back (DCB) kitchen is all folded out, we take out the hand pump and fix this to the right hand side where there is a hole made specifically for this, connect the pipe and then run this to our water. We then remove the black plastic wash tub, you need to lift the drawer off it’s runners and pull it almost all the way out (so be careful here) to get the tub out as it fits perfectly. Might not be the case for the standard unit as ours was made smaller. Put all the plates etc back in the drawer as they sit in the tub. We then remove the windbreak, set this up on the left hand side and take out the gas stove so you are ready to get a cup of tea on the go. Your kitchen is all setup. It takes less than 5 minutes to have it all setup.

What We Fit in the Drawers

So in the 3 drawers we actually fit quite a bit. Thought I’d show you what they look like packed and exactly what we fit in them.

Side Draw:

From left to right:

• Single burner wind break
• Dehumidifier bag
• Uni Flame large cookset (see further below)
• 4 x tea towels rolled
• Salt and pepper grinders
• 2 x coffee mugs (need to get some better ones)
• 2 x stemless wine glasses
• Bin bags – store them in roll of green cloths
• Roll of disposable cloths
• Paper towel
• 2 x rolls of aluminium foil or we swap one for baking paper
• 3 x butane gas refills
• Sugar
• Small Snow Peak folding cutting board, knife and Drifta boot liner cover

A few updates to what goes in the side drawer now, still everything above and now also:

• Uni Flame toaster in a Drifta boot liner bag
• Portlex coffee grinder

Bottom Front Drawer:

From left to right:

• Hose and hand pump for water
• 4 x plastic tumblers
• Stubby cooler
• 4 x bowls (need to upgrade these as they are too small)
• 4 x plates (these are ok but want something nicer, served us well though)
• Olive oil
• Washing up liquid
• Sponge
• Oven gloves
• 2 x clip lock bags to attach camp permits to tent usually
• Wash up tub
• Cutting board
• Bottle opener

Top Front Drawer:

An assortment of things in no real order.

• 4 x knives, forks and spoons
• 2 x steak knives
• 2 x teaspoons
• 2 x tongs
• 1 x peeler
• 2 x sharp knives (big and small)
• Measuring spoons
• Scissors
• Spatula
• Serving spoon
• Wooden spoon
• Lighter
• Matches
• Wine bottle opener

Cookset:

Just quickly this is what is inside the Uni Flame cookset. I will do a more in depth post later. This is the perfect size for this setup and has everything you need.

Update – got a canvas bag from Drifta to replace the standard net bag that comes with the set. Great addition to this versatile cook set.

Read more about the cookset here.

What We Love

The Drifta Car Back (DCB) kitchen setup is a clever design and great use of limited space. We have everything we need all stored away in the one compact unit. All we need to do before leaving on a trip is restock tea, coffee, sugar, a few gas bottles and nothing else.

You get an awesome 1.8m of bench space, plenty of room for everything while camping. The plastic wash tub that fits perfectly into the bottom draw is a really clever use of space. The hand pump that you connect to your water makes life so much easier without having to pick up and pour heavy water containers.

You get a surprising amount of storage space in the three draws. I would highly recommend a cook set similar to the Uni Flame ones that fit into one another, as this allows you to easily fit all your pots and pans in the side draw. I think the windbreak is an additional cost and it’s worth it. We do a lot of beach camping where the Easterly’s hit you hard, and we don’t have any issues when using it.

The adjustable legs are fantastic as you are never on level ground, so you can always get it setup just right compared to camp tables with static fold out legs. The DCB is so compact and well setup that it works perfectly for day trips as well.

What We Don’t Like

The inside of the drawers can get mouldy quite easily. We have a couple of those small dehumidifier bags that you get for camera bags to assist with this. Make sure when you get home and store the unit you take out the hand pump and pipe as any moisture will create a serious amount of mould. Also don’t leave any damp dish towels or cloths and make sure your cutlery etc are nice and dry when packing the unit up.

We do a lot of beach camping at Double Island and Fraser and have had a few issues with some of the metal components rusting. I know things will rust especially around the sea so make sure after each trip you spray WD40 on all the metal hinges etc. so I won’t put that one on Drifta. We did have some serious rust after our first beach trip to both the carry handles on the sides. I had to remove them and take them both back to clean metal using a wire brush on an angle grinder and then respray them with a good rust protecting paint. Since then the handles have been perfect. So not sure what paint was used but it didn’t do a very good job.

The last thing that has been more of an annoyance than anything else is the drawer runners on the two drawers that sit above each other, were not installed correctly so they don’t slide perfectly. It’s not terrible but just annoying.

Verdict

Even though we have had a few issues as highlighted above we love the Drifta Car Back (DCB) kitchen setup. We will keep this forever as it is super practical and versatile. Setup is a breeze and we get so much bench space. If you get the right gear you can fit so much in the drawers as I have shown you above. We could probably fit more if we changed a few things as well. Good for a few days camping and even a day trip.

Follow us on Instagram to see all the places we go with this setup and the awesome meals we cook.

If you want to see the Drifta Car Back (DCB) Kitchen setup range on their website click the link below.

Drifta Car Back Kitchen Range

This is the DCB Kitchen that we have got, website link below.

DCB Kitchen – The one we have

If you have any questions send us a message on Instagram or comment below.

More to come…

The thoughts of Peter.