2013 Land Cruiser Outback Drawer Installation

When traveling I pack a standard load out which mainly consists of tools, filters, fluids, and recovery gear.  Rather than have all of this gear rolling around the back of my truck I started to look into secure storage options.  How to best store gear is often debated among off-road travel enthusiasts and solutions vary from thousand dollar custom vehicle setups to no solution at all.

I ended up going with the Outback Drawers by ARB based on the excellent reviews from other owners and because ARB makes a trim kit specifically designed for the 200 Series Land Cruiser.

Here’s what I Bought:

ARB Standard Drawer – RD945
ARB Drawer with Roller Top – RDRF945
Side Trim Fit Kit – 200fkj

The Install:

Before starting the drawer install I highly recommend you give yourself a few hours to complete the job if you’ve never attempted it before. The included instructions were terrible to say the least, and you’ll have to use some judgement and common sense to get the job done.  It took us 5 hours to do the install start to finish.

In order to begin the install in the Land Cruiser you’ll have to remove the third row seats and all of the associated trim:

• To remove the rear seats you just have to pop off 2 plastic trim pieces and remove 4 bolts. The total time to do this is about 5 to 10 minutes per seat your first time around. Be careful to take your time with the trim pieces as the tabs that hold them in are fragile.
• Make sure to reinsert the bolts into the correct holes or they will remain opened, although you will not need any of the existing hardware for the install.
• You can remove the rear seat belts if you like but this is an additional step that I didn’t feel like taking just in case I need to put the third row back in again in the future.

Prepping the Drawers:

• The drawers come fully assembled from ARB.  Mine shipped on a pallet directly to the shop.
• You’ll need to unpack and completely disassemble the drawers to install them. It’ll seem counter intuitive as it would be easier for ARB to ship them disassembled.
• First remove the tops of both the drawers: the standard drawer is removed via 8 allen head screws. The roller top drawer requires you to remove the two plastic stops via 4 phillips head screws, 2 on each side.
• After you remove the drawer tops you will need to remove the stops for the drawers which use 4 10mm bolts per drawer (2 on each side).  Removing the stops will allow you to pull the drawers completely out of the drawer frame.
• Once you’ve completed these steps you can go ahead and install the drawer frame in the truck.

Prepping the Frame for Install:

• I ordered the ARB side trim fit kit for the Land Cruiser , which includes support brackets that you need to bolt to the outsides of the drawer frames before you bolt them into the truck.
• Since I ordered the 37” drawers so we had to cut down portions of the fit kit as the kit is designed to work with the longer 41” drawers.
• We simply cut down the sides of the fit kit to make them sit flush with the drawers.
• You should also note that the standard drawer does not have holes for one of the fit kit supports to be installed, so you will have to drill the holes yourself for the fit kit to work properly.
• The drawer lids do not sit flush with the top of the drawer, so to cover up the steel trim to give it a cleaner look Peter from Main Line applied some adhesive and headliner to clean up the look. It now has a finished look and turned out great.

Installing the Frame:
(Warning, this is where this install begins to suck.  Don’t have any pictures of this portion because we were busy trying to get the drawers in)

• Installing the frame was a bear, after mocking it up we had to drill out additional holes in order to get the bolts to line up.
• ARB has you bolt the frame to the third row seat mounting points which you would think would be easier than drilling through the floor. You sir would be wrong. None of the holes in the frame line up to where they are supposed to, and you are forced to drill and file in order to get them to line up correctly
• After drilling the additional holes and using washers not provided by ARB (by the way they give you every spacer but one that will work) you bolt down one of the frames.
• Line up the other drawer, connect them together and then proceed to bolt them down.

Final Drawer Install:

• Once the frame has been installed you can reverse the drawer dis-assembly instructions and put it back together.
• Also at this point you can install the rest of the side fit kit to clean up the look.

Final Product:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Thoughts on the Drawers:

These drawers are tough.  They are built very well and I have no doubt they will last the life of the vehicle, but some of the cheap plastic trim can leave something to be desired especially considering the high price tag of the setup. Also the fact that they come in an “unfinished state” leaves a lot to be desired, but you can remedy it with your own solutions. In the end though these drawers feel bank vault tight, roll smoothly with minimal effort, and I really like the marine grade carpet the tops are covered in.

On a side note though it’s clear to me that ARB must hire a drunken illiterate monkey to write their instructions. I can’t really express how bad their install instructions were.   They might have well said dump everything on the floor and figure it out. While they do definitely supply a plethora of mounting spacers, brackets, and bolts, none of the spacers or brackets could be used for our install, even the ones they actually referenced in the directions. If you do go ahead with purchasing these drawers make sure you’re resourceful enough to make some of your own tweaks.

Afterthoughts:

I purchased the 37” drawers because I was concerned that the 41” drawers would be too long and would interfere with the travel of the rear seat. At this point I think that the 41” drawers would be a better fit but I think I would have lost some of the reclining ability of the second row. Also the 41” drawers are slightly wider so the fit kit which seems to have been designed for the larger drawers would fit better with the interior. Right now there is about a ½ inch gap around all the edges but I’m not bothered by it.

After having the drawers in stalled in the truck for about a year now, I am still really happy with them. Not only do they keep my gear organized, but they provide with me a secure location to secure valuables and keep them out of sight. The only problem that I’ve had is some of the plastic trim has come apart, and anytime I load up about 100-150 pounds of gear on top of one of the drawers they can require a little force to open. Still, the Outback Drawers are probably the best off the shelf solution for the 200 Series, and if you have any questions about the install or my experience feel free to reach out to me.