80 series draw install.

[Chris]

I don't think I can match Ben's epic post on a build, seeing as how these come out of the box, into the car, throw away box, fill drawers, close door, open beer. But here's a start.

I have opted for bought drawers. I simply can't spend all of my time in the garage. I want my life back and be able to drive the damn thing. But a few challenges along the way. First of which is the leisure battery. I need that to power all the gubbins but I don't want it in the way. So first thing, out with the slitting disc Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr, thunk.

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In with a stainless custom sized battery box. Squeeeeeeaak..

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Drop the battery in. Cluuunk.. More flush than a welder on payday

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OK slightly fouls the exhaust. Hmm I bet that will re profile easy enough with this piece of 2x4

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Gets loads of protection from the chassis rail. Almost like a planned it

Then this steel frame goes on underneath to bolt through and sandwich it all together with some sealant in between

[attachment=0:2gr8flh8]photo 5.JPG[/attachment:2gr8flh8]

So, work going to get in the way for a few days, then Friday off, drawers in, connect the leccy up best I can for now, fill the drawers, beer in the fridge, spare pair of pants and off we go!

Chris

 

[munster]

Nice one

 

[Bat21]

Get some rubber insulation around that battery.... if those terminals touch the sides you'll end up with another barbecued Cruiser

 

[Ben]

nice work mate.

what make of drawers have you gone for?

 

[Chris]

Hey Paul, not a chance that the battery can touch the sides. I had the box made up to give a tight fit. There will be a restraining bar across the top too using one of the seat mounting holes and a new point on the other side.

Ben I went with the ones from Sense of Adventure - Will's outfit.

Chris. I know I could have saved a packet and followed my own design idea. But I am tired and need a rest from making stuff.

Chris

 

[Sam]

You bought some? ... Did I put you off your plan? ok ok I know I didn't exactly follow it ... still, give me a shout if you get stuck - you know, me being a real pro now and all that

Must admit my first thought was terminal leads touching the sides...
followed by "my word won't that get a little warm sitting on the exhaust?" ...
followed by "shut up and learn something Sam"

So, popcorn at the ready... especially interested in what reason you'll find for a shiny custom milled "what not"

 

[Chris]

Don't worry folks. The terminals are nowhere near the edge of the box. It's purposely deep so that nothing can bridge the positive either. The leads have rubber caps on an there'll be a wooden cover on top. So enough with the short circuit stuff already! The battery can barely move. There will be a hinged clamp to go over just in case I roll it.

The exhaust bit will be remedied. Just got the maths wrong by a couple of cm. There are in line fuses in the supply from the charger and there will be a cut off to the appliances in due course. Just all a bit rushed this week. Better than having it rolling around in the boot though.

Yes, I bought drawers Sam. Yours and Ben's look great, but I just don't have the time.

Chris

 

[adrianr]

Great job Chris!!

Got me thinking a much bigger box cut through the whole floor would give a lot of strage space for stuff....

The outfit that made the box - do you know if hey can make any size up? And was it expensive? Strikes me if they can do any size they could make up the size for fitting into the rear door which would be very interesting to consider.

 

[Chris]

Yes they can and yes they were but not as much as say AO drawers. Design is were the cost usually is. And there are stiffeners etc in the rear floor. But someone on here has done this already and it looked ace.

Chris

 

[SpinDrift]

looks good. The leisure battery in the boot area is always a hassle because it needs to be properly secured and occupies valuable space. You've addressed both these issues with this solution. Great job

 

[Olazz]

Clever idea Chris. How are you going to get at the battery once the drawers are installed over the top? Is there a door in the bottom of the drawers for access?

 

[Justin_Elliott]

Looking good....

 

[Chris]

Lazz, there's no real need to get to the battery, I guess. With the draw out, you can get to the top connections should you need to, but it's a sealed battery so nothing to really do. The drawers seem to be very simply bolted in and if the battery HAD to come out then you would remove the drawer frame I guess. I'll know more when I fit them in the morning. Got the split charger wired back in tonight and put the rubber terminal covers back on as well as another in line Mega fuse. Worked out the routing for the rear winch too and the twin compressors..

Loads more finishing off to do after Lincomb such as putting the 3 pin sockets in, fused distribution board, 12v outlets etc. But just need to be running for now.

Chris

 

[tonyoakey]

you can easily take the drawers out without undoing the bolts, with the drawer fully open you'll see a grey plastic catch on the side of each runner, one side pushes down the other lifts up and you can then pull the drawer out with 1 part of the runner attached to the drawer and 2 parts left in the body. then they just push back in when your done.
cheers!

 

[Chris]

Are you sure Tony. My last ones were like that but thses don't seem to be. I asked Will and he told me that I had to take all the screws out. I really hope that you are right and I'm wrong because that would be the dog's doodahs.

Whilst not fully fitted yet, they were absolutely fantastic. My inverter will bolt straight onto the back panel as will the compressors. I couldn't designed it better if I'd tried.

Chris

 

[tonyoakey]

ahh then im wrong, sorry, yes, Wills right they are not the removable ones, as you said its a few bolts to undo if you need to get to the battery,
great place for it though, nice one!
Cheers.

 

[Chris]

OK, so Lincomb over and a small window in my social diary. Started to take the drawers out today so that I could put them back in properly and moreover, permanently. This involved wiring in the inverter, compressors, split charger, cut off switch, winch dah dee dah dee dah.

The drawer units are lovely, but I am not entirely happy with the way they fix down. I have pinched a couple of the OEM bolt holes for other things, on which the drawers rely for their installation system. That aside, I think that there could be some better ways of bolting them in. However, these are not generally with in the scope of the average 80 owner, so I am not picking fault at all, merely saying that f you have the wherewithal then you can do it differently and better.

I made some new extending nuts to go into the side channels of the drawers. These eliminate the need to sprottle around trying to tighten them inside a particularly inaccessible space.

[attachment=4:37zqyfod]photo 1.JPG[/attachment:37zqyfod]

The main mounting plates are under the drawers themselves. This is fine of you can take the drawers out easly. It seems that the earlier runners were those quick unlock ones, but Will said that he'd improved them and that in doing so, you had to unbolt the drawers from the runners. The drawers runners certainly are high quality and capable of decent load bearing. But as you have to faff around unbolting them to get to the mounting, I simply swivelled the bracket 180 degrees to have it outside the drawer frame. Oh the joys of making slots in things.

Sorry about the shit iphone pics

[attachment=3:37zqyfod]photo 2.JPG[/attachment:37zqyfod]




Using 50mm cable throughout, I put in the cut off for the winch. I didn't fancy the solenoids welding on and not being able to stop the winch. Also if someone nearby had the same freq on their remote, mine might start spooling in!!!!! They Cyrix Victron is still working faultlessly but does look a bit but rusty. Obviously a tad damp in there.

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Once all closed up, it starts to look quite tidy.

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The back of the drawers is a handy place to mount the inverter. The compressors will go on the other side on vibration mounts, but the inverter went nicely on Rivnuts.

[attachment=0:37zqyfod]photo 4.JPG[/attachment:37zqyfod]

Why do these pictures keep rotating themselves????? That is so annoying. That last one is upside down.

Chris

 

[adrianr]

Very tidy fella!

 

[Chris]

Cheers Matey. A lot tidier in the flesh as they say. And I shall have a vac around before I'm done. I like the iphone, but aside from the appalling battery, the camera is pants. But I bought it as a phone. And it does that just fine. All going together very nicely. Shock proof and rattle-less is all I ask for.

Chris

 

[fridayman]

iPhone pics get inverted by some apps due to the way they use / don't understand some meta data. The problem can be solved by holding the phone with volume buttons underneath when taking landscape pics.