Crossover Toolboxes
One of the more popular ways to organize or store gear in a truck bed are crossover toolboxes, which represent a fairly inexpensive, simple, and secure way of achieving that goal. Unfortunately, they don’t address accessing what you’ve stored; you’re still crawling up inside the bed or straining to reach in over the side, and ultimately fishing around in a deep box in a way that isn’t making your life much easier than it was pre-toolbox. Furthermore, a toolbox limits hauling capabilities by occupying a sizable chunk of your bed’s footprint, and precludes the use of a topper and other bed accessories. The DECKED system takes that storage capability and turns it into two easy-to-organize, waist height, and weatherproof drawers which roll out - like butter - from under a burly top deck which maintains the footprint and payload rating of your bed. That said, some shallower boxes work well in conjunction with DECKED if you're into, you know, maximizing organizational options.
In-Vehicle Drawers
Yes, there are other truck/van drawer products on the market, but they tend to be some combination of heavier, more costly, and less weatherproof. Unlike our system, the bulk of other drawer products compromise your bed or cargo bay’s footprint by sitting between the wheel wells rather than on top of them, and while the DECKED system is fixed to your bed without drilling into it, most others have installations necessitating varying degrees of permanent alterations to your vehicle. Some do keep water out, but DECKED was designed very specifically to be out in the elements. It’s weatherproof not simply by virtue of its design, but also what it’s made of; the “skeleton” is steel, while the “skin” it supports is HDPE (high density polyethylene), a chemically inert material that easily handles exposure to most solvents and chemicals - not to mention water and sun. That construction also makes it burly; the DECKED system has a 2,000 lb. payload rating, something most drawers can’t claim.
Sliding Beds
Sliding beds aim at a similar ease of access, but lack organization, security, and won’t keep the rain out. They are cool, however, and an extra cool set up - something we’ve done here at HQ and seen elsewhere - is our system with one of the compatible slide systems mounted on top. It’s a little pricy, but if you’re an ergo-organizational nut, gives you the best of both worlds. DECKED generally fares well when it comes to mounting accessories, whether bike racks , sliding beds, or shelving . Different from other vehicle drawer products, where mounting to the top probably requires drilling all the way through the one layer of material that comprises its top, in our system, holes generally need only be drilled through the top side of the steel tubes running laterally beneath the deck. This means that the mounting hardware doesn’t penetrate into the drawer compartment, so if properly done, avoids compromising the system’s ability to keep water out. An exception to this is that when mounting a slide, because of the leverage exerted when extended, mounting points should be drilled clear through the subframe in order to provide a strong anchor.
BEST PRACTICES - CARGOGOLIDE WITH FULL-SIZE DECKED SYSTEMS
BEST PRACTICES - CARGOGOLIDE WITH MIDSIZE DECKED SYSTEMS
DECKED with Weather Guard shelving.
Look, there are lots of great products out there for making the space truck or van more useful, and we’re aren’t trying to knock them. Some products might work better for some people, for one reason or another. Those with long beds or SUVs, for example, are out of luck (we don’t make anything for an 8’ bed or SUV). Still, we’ve got a great product that we think can outperform expectations in most circumstances; whether you’ve got scuffed knees and a mountain of tools you’re tired of sifting through, are a biker looking for a better place to store that smelly post ride gear, or just someone in a single cab with half your possessions in the passenger seat, keep us in mind.
