Well a few week project turned to a success! Mainly because holidays and learning a new skill, but I built a drawer system… kinda!

A few weeks back I was scrolling through Craigslist (which has been good to me with this truck) and stumbled across a sleeping platform. It was posted for $20!?! Looking further it was even built for the 4th gen platform. Had a nice folding feature so your back seat area was free. It even came with filler plates to fit over the wheel well storage areas.





Well a few messages and days later it was mine. He ended up offering it to me for free as he wanted it to go to a good home.

Got home and test fit it, but no good. I thought it was fold to let the backseats up but no, too long and the seats won’t latch. And the folding feature (while nice) also doesn’t let me keep my subwoofers.



For anyone that’s followed my build for a while, you’ll know I want SPACE. And after watching a few YouTube videos I came across an idea, build a drawer. I’ve never touched woodworking and after more and more research I realized I may be in over my head with building one. But I enjoy a good challenge so I set out.

One of the weird parts of the sleeping platform is the legs themselves fold inward. Presumably to be flat when stored.



And after some planning and measuring, I realized the two parts of the platform would need to be taken apart and shortened. I went to Harbor Freight and picked up a $30 circular saw (which was great) and began cutting.



About 5” had to be removed and remounted on the backseat half. This including shortening legs and remounting them to keep the folding function. But it was a success! It fit in the back perfectly now (check the latches).



And a test fit of the subwoofers showed well. With the platform having 8” of space underneath it is the right amount of shallow in my opinion. Even after finishing the subwoofers are not noticeable in the rear view mirror.



After some MORE careful measuring I began building the drawer. For someone who’s never built one, I watched HOURS of YouTube. Researching woodworking, drawer systems, and gathered the list of things I would want/need.

Settling on wood appears to be a debated topic. Most people use 1/2 for the sides and 3/4 for bottom. But since this drawer was to be just the backseat area I decided 1/2 would be plenty. For someone who knows nothing about wood, I settled on Maple Hardwood as it flexed the least and appeared quality.

For those who didn’t know, a full sheet of wood from Lowe’s cut in half fits perfect in the back area of the 4Runner.

Then began the drawer, I started with the sides knowing the bottom would be one flat sheet.



Once cut and taped together the errors began to show. Again I’ve never touched a circular saw or wood so I wasn’t expecting anything perfect. But it was square. (Errors were fixed later) A test fit showed well!



Through my research I’ve found people creatively come up with solutions to the slides, between ceramic pieces sliding on each other, cut wood slides, and your typical drawer slides. And I knew I wanted to build something to be proud of so I decided on drawer slides.

This is where the situation with the folding legs of the platform became apparent. Most people mount the slides low-middle on the drawer, but I didn’t have a solid piece to mount to except for the lower support on the legs. So it was decided to try them there, if it didn’t work I’d build something new (it worked). I settled on 100lb 22” drawer slides.

The longest part of this build was waiting. Between wood glue, primer, paint, and so on.



One guy I came across on YouTube showed multiple ways of physically getting your box together. I kinda combined everything, between pocket-hole screws, screws, and brackets. These things took practice, but from what I’ve learned is always pre-drill, measure 4x, and have patience.

Luckily I was smart enough to test everything on excess pieces of wood so I didn’t make “that many” mistakes on my drawer.

After everything dried and the drawer slides were mounted, it all worked! The legs being able to move helped with the human error. Now was the fun part.

I didn’t want a big open drawer, things slide and when things slide… things break. Now that I was more comfortable with the circular saw I was able to comfortable do more. The dividers I built were C-notched to fit together (along with more glue).



I measured the dividers to fit my larger camping things instead of quartering the drawer.

I also purchased slam latches to keep the drawer locked when not in use (or it punching me in the stomach when I open the rear hatch).

My wife was interested in the project at this point. And I left the painting up to her! We decided on high durability matte black cabinet paint. We also sealed it with a durable clear coat. I knew I wanted to carpet the front/rear, so we got a pack of carpet tiles in a darker color than the carpet/platform.




After all dried I finally placed it inside. It still fit and looked great! I decided to mount the platform using the factory tie-down points instead of drilling into the sheet metal. Using adjustable turnbuckles and screw hooks it was secure. I also used L-brackets for the subwoofer.






If you know me you know I like stickers and patches, so naturally it got some love.



Overall I love the way it turned out! I’ll eventually build legs for the rest of the sleeping platform to be able to use it for the upcoming camping season. Now just need to clean up the wiring and vacuum the saw dust of off everything!

Also had some other goodies show up. I noticed my HID’s were turning pink, so I needed a change. I found Lasfit Lights, who offered a switchback bulb! Simply switch on and off to go from White to Yellow. I also did some red turn signal bulbs to match the fancy LED’s.





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