Bearing slide DIY...Help?

[jeepdreamer]

In the attempt to begin planing to build my rear slide out I have a question about bearings. Specifically the ones used to make your own super HD drawer slides or fridge slide. Can anyone post some pics of how they did theirs and their thoughts on this kind versus more traditional ball bearing drawer type slides. I can do metal work but for some reason I am drawing a mental blank on how I should lay out the bearings, how it should look/work etc... I searched through the drawer slides thread but just keep getting sidetracked. To much coolness to stay on target. :I

[Woodsman]

I've never made anything with the bearing roller type setup but I do know a bunch about drawer slides.

Plus for bearing rollers is that they are probably less susceptible to dirt and dust. However, I would only consider this an issue if it is an open vehicle.

Plus for ball bearing drawer slides is that they are full extension giving you full access to all the drawer contents.

Plus for ball bearing drawer slides is that they can also be purchased in LILO (lock in/lock out) versions.

Any 250 pound capacity full extension drawer slide could be rated much higher if it had a stop to only open 2/3 or 3/4 of the way like the bearing setups.

[YukonRob]

I used the system 'invented' by Roadtripcrazed and documented in his thread here:

http://www.expeditionportal.com/foru...eping-Platform

I used angle iron in lieu of square tubing to cut down the weight and it seems to be working well.

[KAILUAZ]

I'm in the planning stages of using this method also. Have you started on yours yet? I'm thinking of using angle iron for the "tracks".

[roadtripcrazed]

I was going to offer a link to my build thread, but YukonRob beat me to it. Feel free to send me a message of you have any questions after reading through my build. Have fun!

The huge benefit to this system for me was cost. My drawers are a little longer than 5 feet deep and 60" drawer slides sure aren't cheap especially when you are looking to support the weight of a fully loaded drawer. The bearing slides that I built can easily hold my body weight at near full extension (about 4" shy).

[jeepdreamer]

I'm in the planning stages of using this method also. Have you started on yours yet? I'm thinking of using angle iron for the "tracks".

Nope... Haven't gotten to it yet. I've been pinging off of the myriad of projects I seem to have created all at once and not doing very well at organizing or time management. Haha! Plus I just came down on orders to head back stateside (VA) so this may have to wait a bit. I did get started on my el cheapO roof rack though.