Custom 48" long aluminum fridge slide

I was on a bit of a quest - I needed to run a fridge under my Diamondback cover, which serves as the mounting platform for my rooftop tent. Therefore, the fridge needed to be accessible from the tailgate. I searched high and low for an aftermarket slide option that would meet my needs, but all had at least one element that wouldn't work for my setup (most raised the height of the fridge too much to fit under the cover, others were too wide, and none of them were long enough, which resulted in tons of wasted/inaccessible space behind the fridge).

So I decided that I needed to build something myself. I scoured this forum high and low, and took inspiration from several different setups and threads. I originally purchased a Dometic CFX3 75DZ fridge, but I just couldn't figure out a design that would keep the fridge short enough to fit under the cover and still be able to slide in/out with ease (needed to be something that my wife and my kid could operate). So I ended up selling that fridge and picked up an ARB Elements 63 quart fridge instead, which is about 1.5" shorter in height than the Dometic (sadly, it is not dual zone and has a smaller overall internal volume, but I do love this fridge so far!).

I know absolutely nothing about working with metal, but I do know that I wanted to avoid making it out of wood (for strength, weight, and size considerations). I wanted to leave a 20" wide space next to the fridge for my camping gear (perfect width for Front Runner Wolf Pack boxes, etc.), which limited me to a 22" width and 19" height for the entire fridge and slide mechanism.

I spent a few weeks thinking up a design, and ran my ideas past a few friends who are good at fabricating things. I don't know how to use any cad software, so I resorted to the old pencil and paper. I even drew a scale mockup of the design on graph paper, with one square of the paper equal to one square inch of the real design.

In the end, I settled on a design that is 48" long and 22" wide. The base frame is constructed of 3"x3" aluminum angle, which is 1/4" thick. The tray portion that holds the fridge is constructed of 2"x2" aluminum angle, 3/16" thick. It's a pretty simple design, with 48" long sections that run parallel to one another, with a few cross pieces of additional angle or flat bar to keep them rigid and squared up. All pieces are riveted together with 1/4" aluminum rivets, with two rivets at each connection point.

The backbone of the whole setup is a pair of heavy duty drawer slides that hold the tray to the base frame. They are 48" long, made by a company called Fulterer (model FR5400-L). They have a 500 pound dynamic weight rating, and they lock themselves in the "in" and "out" positions, which is great if you're parked on a slight hill. I bought them from a company called OVIS, and they were NOT cheap (about $300 after tax and shipping).

The fridge takes up the front 34" of the tray, which leaves 14" of space at the rear of the tray for other items. I mounted the whole slide against the back cab wall, which leaves me about 12" of open space in front between the tailgate and the fridge. This is perfect for camping chairs, duffel bags, etc. When fully deployed, the tray slides out of the bed just far enough for the entire fridge to be outside of the Diamondback cover. This allows the lid of the fridge to open completely, but you still have to reach under the cover to access the items on the rear of the tray behind the fridge. The slide is secured with three 3/8" bolts - two in the very rear, which run through the upright section of the rear cross piece of aluminum angle (against the rear bed wall/behind the cab), and one at the front, which runs though one of the flat bar cross supports. All three bolts run into rivet nuts that I installed into the bed. With the removal of those 3 bolts, the entire frame slides out of the bed and can be put away in the garage.

Overall, I'm happy with how this turned out. It slides as smooth as silk, and is very easy to operate. If I had to do it all over again, I would use smaller and thinner aluminum angle, to reduce the cost and the overall weight. I didn't realize how strong the entire thing would be once it was all riveted together, and it's clear that the 1/4" thick aluminum is overkill. The whole thing weighs about 40 lbs (haven't given it a true measurement on a scale yet), of which about 15 pounds is made up from the heavy duty drawer slides alone. I have seen a few other designs now that use 2"x2" aluminum angle that is only 1/8" thick, and they all seem to do just fine.

Anyway, I just wanted to share the details of my design, in case anyone can benefit from what I learned throughout this process. Enjoy!

Here was my planning/drawing phase. I created a scale drawing of the bed, and ran through a few concepts. In the end, I decided to ditch the other side, and only build the fridge portion (I may still build some kind of slide out for the other side at some point). I also mocked up a scale version of the slide tray, and drew a scale version of the fridge on it. This allowed me to ensure that the whole thing would come far enough out of the bed for the fridge to open.



Here is how the finished product looks:







The base "frame" of the whole setup. Notice the three bolts securing it to the bed. Two at the very rear (on the upright portion, into the back of the bed wall), and one at the very front, into the floor of the bed:





And a few shots with the Diamondback cover opened up, just to show the space in front of the setup, and the space at the rear of the tray behind the fridge:

 

Nice work

 

Thanks Dave! I drew a lot of inspiration from your setup, and I read through many of your posts about it. That's actually why I initially purchased the Dometic 75DZ. In the end, I had to go with something a tad shorter, as my wife and son wouldn't have been able to slide a tray flat across the bed and tailgate (not easily, at least). I experimented with roller casters and researched lateral track slides, but I couldn't find anything that would accomplish the task. I even commented on a Facebook photo (on your Pull Kitchen profile) to inquire about what appears to be a new slide, but apparently it's super secret squirrel status

My end goal is to end up with one of your Pull Kitchen setups, to further simplify things at camp. It is literally my dream setup, so I've already started saving my pennies!

 

Hahaha awesome. Yeah working on the slide isn’t easy with such limited space. Good call on the effort to extend the unit for your wife and son. Again clean build!

 

Very nice. I've been thinking of doing something similar for a while since reaching in under the Diamondback gets old some days

 

looks great! might have to make something like this.. even if just for a standard cooler

 

@JFanaselle So how is it holding up a year later?

Thinking about building something almost exactly the same, just longer as a cargo slide for my longbed.

For cost reasons I was hoping to use 2.5"x1.5" 1/8" 6061 Angle Aluminum, with a few cross braces and an angle at the rear to mount it to the back of the bed. Mine would use 60" slides and 70-72" overall length. I am not a welder so I was going to epoxy it together then add rivets to further insure it held together.

 

It's just as strong and functional as the day I installed it. The sliders could probably use a fresh lube, but it still works fine (just not quite as smooth as it was when it was new).

It is definitely very overbuilt, and I still wish I'd used thinner material - both to lower the original cost, and to make it lighter weight. I recently took it out of the bed to haul something, and was reminded how heavy it is. I've learned that the strength and function really comes from the heavy duty slides themselves, so the frame only needs to be strong enough to firmly secure the slides to the bed and keep them parallel to one another. The tray does need to be strong enough to hold whatever kind of weight you intend to put in it, but for my purpose (the fridge and some other camping gear), the 3/16" material is way overkill. 1/8" material would have been plenty strong enough.

I'm not sure the epoxy would really be necessary. I am also not a welder, and I only used rivets for my setup - 2 rivets at every joint. It's incredibly strong. None of them have loosened up at all.

 

awesome that is great to hear!

Weight is a concern… per onlinemetals.com using 1/8” aluminum puts me about 15lbs for the frame, plus another 15 or so for the slides it sounds like. Then what ever I use for the panel- either plywood or maybe pvc trim board…

the epoxy was more to get everything together square and then let it set. Then drill everything for the rivets- probably overkill…

 

I finally made a similar half Bedslide for my tundra. Overbuilt is nice in my opinion. Plus having it come out easily is nice. I added a crossmember between the locks so I could operate it one handed, grab the handle and unlock in one motion with one hand.

Build thread with lots of photos

https://www.tundras.com/threads/‘22-off-road-build-with-diy-and-production-mods.105476/page-3#post-2774001

 

That looks amazing! I see that it shares a lot of the mounting/removal design aspects as your Pull Kitchen.

I know you were toying around with a slide design for the Tacoma at one point. I assume it never came to fruition? (otherwise, you surely would have mentioned it!)

The short height inside these Tacoma beds with a cover on them is really tough to work around.

 

Thanks! Yeah I had my “anchored slide” which was a slide that had C channels to anchor the rear. It just slid on the composite bed, no slides. It worked but yeah a little hard to slide it but it only lost about 1/4” of vertical height. The slide above loses about 1.25” of height and can hold 250 lbs.

The Tacoma bed isn’t very wide and my restriction was I wanted the Dometic 75 next to the PullKitchen which meant that a slider based bed slide would be too wide. Not a problem in the Tundra though.

 

looks awesome!

Did you use 1/4” for the angle?

What did you use for the “floor” of the slide? Looks like aluminum sheet?

Might just have to see if there is a local metal supplier I can go to to see what they have. Still hoping to use 1/8” aluminum…

 

Hmmm thinking 1/4” might be the way to go…

Was just out in the garage and saw a piece of Home Depot angle on my shelf about 2’ long - I know the cheap stuff… - and it was on 3/4”x3/4” angle… but it bent really easily. But I guess the slides will really help to beef that up and carry a lot of the downward bending load…

Hmmmm….

Buy once cry once might be the way to go.

And as @Papadave418 said - overbuilt isn’t a bad thing…


Edit: some more digging makes it look like DFG is maybe using 1/8” based on some photos from this thread
https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/dfg-off-road-yeti-65-cooler-slide.702773/

 

I used two 2” angles for the long sides, 3/8” thick. I used 2.5” angles for the short sides of the basket, and 2 bolts through each corner. I don’t weld so this kept it rugged. The different heights allow the 2” angles to nest into the 2.5” angle and almost be flush on the top. I ground out the rounded inside corners of the angle so they sat closer. DFG makes a fine product for a fridge slide but I knew my slide would be hauling a fridge and other random crap I could throw on it. So I went thicker