I've been searching the forums and have read a lot of posts on cargo management.

I have a LOT of tools I carry at all times in my Ex...breach tools, towing gear, etc. I'd guess maybe 200 lbs or more.

I currently have a wood 'drawer' using roller bearings with my gear bags on top. It's nice to have my heavy tools in the drawer, but the gear bags are kind of a pain to get to, especially with the higher floor height of the Excursion compared to my Expedition.

I want to make something similar to those 'bed sliders' from WeatherGuard and others - I see the $600 to well over $1000 range and I refuse to believe it can't be made closer to the $100-$200 range in parts. I know they make drawer slides that hold 200lbs easy, but you have to remember that's in a fixed structure mount...mobile slides need to hold closer to double that to account for potholes and rough road conditions that would destroy the bearings.

I was thinking something with roller bearings maybe running inside of superstrut or something similar.

Does anyone have any ideas on how that could work? I'm envisioning something I could use clamps to fasten to the third row seat mounts with a frame that I could line with ply and build a new box/drawer and have the entire unit slide out, making the gear bags much easier to get to.

Ideas?

 

You can buy the slides from WeatherGuard and build around those. This might be overkill ....

 

It all depends what you want to do...I have built drawers before, but it all boils down to how far you want it to slide and at what weight limit.
The prefabbed ones are expensive for a reason. This is the rack on our rescue squads X.





That is the extendo-bed brand, not cheap, but for what it does, more than likely better than most people would be able to build themselves.
From now on, it's simply easier in my case to say go with the pre-built as you know the parts will work for you.

 

I am looking at about 200-300lbs, and it only needs to come out half way, not a full extension or even over extension like what is shown below.

I am sure this item works great, but I KNOW the prices - especially for industries like public safety - are AMAZINGLY over inflated. *When I see things like the LED flare systems that PD and FD agencies are charged over $100 per for yet where I can find for $15 per and they are identical down to the circuit board and battery, I refuse to believe that systems like the one you show above are not actually only a couple of hundred dollars to make but they will charge WELL over $1,000.

I am looking to design something any owner here could get parts for on e-Bay or Lowes/Home Depot and make in their garage.

 

What are these called?

 

They use them on cnc machines, called linear bearings 2pcs SBR16-750mm Linear Bearing Rails + 4pcs SBR16UU | eBay

 

Any idea where I can find out how much weight they can hold?

 

There's usually specs if you look. Bigger diameter track more weight. You probably want something at least 1".