“We don’t have enough space to fit everything in!” If that sounds like a common catch-cry in your driveway or garage when it comes time to pack your gear to go away camping, then don’t feel too bad – because you’re not alone. As we all take advantage of the amazing array of camping gear on offer these days, the next logical step is how do you transport everything to and from your campsite? When people ask about the best ways to transport their camping gear, my answer is always a resounding ‘Fit a set of rear storage drawers’.

I’m a massive fan of adding rear drawers to your vehicle as a way of increasing your storage space. Actually – let me qualify that last statement. Okay, sure, technically a set of Titan storage drawers doesn’t increase your storage space – like a roofrack does. What Titan drawers do, instead, is let you make much better and efficient use of your existing storage space. Think about it for a minute. Last time you or the family complained that you couldn’t fit anything else into your vehicle, was it that the vehicle was genuinely completely full, or was it more the case that you couldn’t practically fit anything else in, because the back of your car was full of gear?

Instead, fitting a set of Titan rear drawers give you this amazing, easy-to-access space within your vehicle, as well as a whole new area on top of the drawers to allow you to continue to stack more stuff. All the smaller, easier-to-lose stuff goes inside the drawers or down underneath the rear wings, leaving the top of the drawers for the fridge, the sleeping bags, the pillows, the camp chairs, that sort of stuff!

Okay, so now that we know why a set of rear 4×4 drawers is such a good idea, let’s talk about one of the biggest misconceptions about Titan rear drawers. One of their most under-rated benefits I believe is the fact they come 90% pre-assembled! There’s no flat-pack nonsense here, no trying to connect Side D to Face F, no pouring over complicated black and white line drawing instruction manuals for days on end.

Installation goes like this. First, you unbox your new rear 4×4 Titan drawers and get rid of the packaging. Carefully laying the drawers out flat on the ground the right way up, remove the drawers from within the frame. Now, while everything is still on the ground, remove the top panels using the supplied allen key – piece of cake! You’re left with the bare frame and can now start assembling them into your vehicle.

Lift the frame into position in the back of your vehicle, taking note of how you’re going to secure it into the vehicle. For most wagons with third row seats, the idea is to move the cross-sections of the underside of the frame so they line up with the captive nuts in the floor that once supported the third row seat brackets, and then you undo the bolts and reposition those cross brackets so they line up. For 1300mm titan ute drawers, you’ll have to drill four holes through the floor of your ute tub (you can go through the tub liner too – no need to remove it) then bolt through the frame and the floor.

Once the frame is bolted in, you’re half way there to installing your new titan storage drawers! If you’re fitting a set of side wings, then go ahead and bolt these into position now. For those fitting into wagons who have purchased a wing kit specific to your vehicle, they simply bolt into place. If you’ve got a DIY wing kit for your ute drawers then allow a bit of extra time to make templates out of cardboard (the box the Titan drawers came in is perfect for this task!), then transfer to the timber, cut and carpet to suit and then bolt all together.

Now, re-fit the drawers one by one, and when they’re in the frame, fit the rubber stoppers to the back of the drawers using the supplied nuts and bolts. These stop the drawers from rattling while closed, and from over-extending and falling out – like if you opened your rear drawers while your car was facing up a hill.

The final step is to then simply re-fit the tops of the 4×4 drawers back on, making sure that you bolt down all the spring-loaded tie-down points and don’t forget the flush-head bolts that go directly through the holes in the carpet.

If you’ve never installed a set of Titan drawers yourself then I’d allow about two or three hours – call it a lazy Sunday afternoon and you’ll be sitting back with a celebratory coldie admiring your handiwork well before it’s dinner time. And don’t sweat if you don’t think you could follow the instructions in this very article – because this isn’t designed to be a step-by-step guide, more an outline of the procedure. You’ll be very happy to know that clear colour instructions come with every set of Titan storage drawers, and we’ve also got detailed how-to videos on our Youtube channel that show you very precisely how to do each step, if that’s how you’d prefer to see the process done. The point is, a set of 4×4 Titan drawers are an incredibly and surprisingly easy modification to make to your rig to dramatically upgrade your storage ability, and it’s my hope that no-one is ever put off because they think the installation is daunting and out of their reach. If you can follow the instructions guide and have a couple of hours up your sleeve, then you can definitely install a set of Titan storage drawers yourself!