FINALLY! A commercially available drawer system for the FJ that doesn’t take up the entire rear storage area. If I come across as very excited, it’s for good reason. We all know that storage in the FJC is an issue. Add mandatory gear (recovery, maintenance, etc), add kids, add dogs, and a fridge and very quickly your truck will be popping at the seams.A couple months ago we saw the new MPAC MSM on IH8MUD and immediately contacted Doc over at Springtail Solutions. While new boxes weren’t shipping until January (and most of them were already spoken for), he was able to get a us a slightly used version in time for this issue. The drawer arrived well packaged and (like all Springtail Solutions products), the hardware was separated very well.
Installation of the system itself is super easy. Four bolts into existing locations is all it takes to secure the box to the truck, and a quite a few bolts & nuts secure the drawer to the 500lb rated slides. Of course, before I could install the drawer, I had to remove the jack from its storage location since it will not be accessible. Easy enough. The hardest (and most time consuming) part of the install was relocating the power outlet since our FJ is equipped with the OEM inverter.
The outlet pops right out and after removing the connector I decided to re-mount it on the same panel, on the top side. This required careful measuring and cutting the plastic to make a hole large enough for the outlet to fit it. A couple of self-tapping screws (that will eventually be replaced with bolts) and the outlet was re-mounted. This process took about an hour.
Four bolts into the truck, drawer bolted in, and the included combo lock installed. The entire drawer installation took less than an hour. The final item was re-mounting the fridge on the new platform.
Our unit shipped with ½ of the mini-grid attached, Doc left the passenger side grid off so our fridge would fit properly. I ended up using a piece of the mini-grid on the front of the drawer to secure the fridge. The rear of the fridge uses the same hook as before since the hooks behind the seat are retained when the drawer is installed. I kept the same tie-down straps as well so that the fridge is easily movable to the garage or another vehicle.
So after a total of about 2 hours, the new drawer system is installed and functioning perfectly. The super duty ‘Accuride’ sliders are smooth and lock in several positions, so your drawer will work fine even on a hill. The system is very secure and very heavy duty, weighing in at over 100lbs. It’s definitely an upgrade on our old solution and I can’t wait to use it on the trail. While pricing with shipping runs about $965 (with Mini-Grid, $915 without), this drawer is well worth it. Other drawer systems are either overkill or are not meant for heavy duty use, so in many ways this is a bargain.
Source: Springtail Solutions
Website: http://www.springtailsolutions.com
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