9 minute read
A Pair of Drawers Our D-Max gets gold-standard storage from Gearmate
Vehicle: Isuzu D-Max GO2 Year: 2018 Run by: Alan Kidd Last update: June 2021 On the fleet since: January 2020
Straight out of the top drawer…
A FEW YEARS AGO, we tested a version of the Isuzu D-Max designed with country sports in mind. The Huntsman model was accessorised with practical, hardwearing equipment – and for us, it ticked almost every box.
In particular, we were impressed by the Gearmate drawer system fitted in the back. Plucked from Isuzu’s approved accessories range, this British-made unit attaches into the pick-up bed to provide various opportunities for keeping your kit tidy, secure and readily at hand.
Here’s what we said about it at the time: ‘Beneath the canopy, the Gearmate drawer system is superbly fitted and works a treat. There are two main drawers, one of them sectioned off; we won’t pretend to know what purpose this serves in the world of hunting but if you’re going off-road, it’s perfect for storing your ropes, shackles, snatch blocks and, in the second drawer, a full-length high-lift jack. To either side of these drawers are gun cabinets, which we didn’t manage to find an alternative use for, but the space left on top is still extremely practical – we managed to fit a fridge-freezer in it for the obligatory tip run, which, considering the amount taken out of the loadspace height by the drawers, we found very impressive.’
It’s unlikely to come as a surprise, then, that when we were speccing up our Project D-Max GO2, a set of Gearmate drawers was high on our wish list. Unlike on the Huntsman, ours was slated to be installed beneath a Mountain Top Roll loadspace cover, which in theory means the aforementioned fridge-freezer could be carried upright, but that’s not what this build is about. Mainly, we wanted to steer clear of adding any extra bodywork that could be damaged while out and about on some of Britain’s delightfully narrow green lanes – but, while the Gearmate system is pretty much impregnable even without anything else on top of it, squirreling it away beneath a similarly secure roller cover adds a welcome element of out-of-sightout-of-mind.
What this means is that step one was to remove the over-rail bed liner that’s standard in the D-Max Utah and replace it with an under-rail job. This is necessary as the runners for the roller cover mount on to the top edge of the bodywork alongside the pick-up bed, where the top lip of the over-rail liner would prevent them from locating. The matching liner on the tailgate comes off, too.
Lifting out the old bedliner is definitely a two-man job, as is dropping in its replacement – not so much because of their weight as the awkwardness of manhandling such a big item, especially as it becomes surprisingly flexible as you release it. The new liner doesn’t come pre-drilled with mounting
Above: The old over-rail bedliner is unfastened and lifted away from the back of the vehicle. It’s not too heavy but it certainly is awkward, so bring a buddy Right: Here, the difference between the two bedliners is clear. The old one in the foreground has a taller upper lip designed to fit over the top of the pick-up bed, while the one in the background will slide in behind it Below: The new bedliner is drilled to take the fixings it will shortly be receiving. Then it’s lifted into place – once again, best viewed as a two-man job – and finally bolted up
holes to match the vehicle, so that’s to be done before you lift it into place, then you can do up the fixings – having first ensured that the under-rail lip is sitting comfortably behind the rails themselves.
There’s more drilling to come now as you unbox the Gearmate unit. It comes with all the hardware used to mount it, as you’d expect, including a set of brackets which need to be assembled on to the inside of the vehicle’s pick-up bed. This is just a case of following the instructions – and, as always, checking and double-checking your work – then it’s time to drop the drawer unit into place.
As a quick look at the pictures will illustrate, this is another area in which you’ll need help. This time, it’s not so much a two-man job as a gang lift. You can play a game with yourself here, though, by trying to guess which of your mates will come up with the least original joke about funerals.
At this point, let’s check back in on what we said after spending a week with the old D-Max Huntsman. ‘The Gearmate drawer system is superbly fitted.’ Seeing it nestled in
Main picture: This is the Gearmate drawer unit as fitted in the D-Max Huntsman we tested a few years back. Safe to say we were impressed – when the time came to spec up our Project GO2, they were well up towards the top of our wish list Right: The Gearmate unit comes already assembled and packed on a pallet. You can probably guess what this means in terms of its weight – it’s built to carry 150kg in each drawer and take up to 800kg on top, so it’s not exactly made of thin tin
between the inner arch blisters and making the most of every available inch of space, it’s hard not to find yourself being struck by admiration at how well made it is – and if we thought it was superbly fitted before, watching it slide into place and match up with its brackets was like poetry in motion.
Bolt it up, then fix the top plates on to the lockers at either side of the main drawers, and it’s job done. And talking of poetry in motion, the drawers absolutely glide open and shut. They do have a weight capacity, of course, and the ex-military ground anchor set and high-lift jack we carry in one of
Prior to fitting the drawer unit, on go all the brackets that will secure it in place. The bedliner needs to be drilled further to accommodate the fixings – obviously, this is an area in which to mark up very carefully before getting in there with the noisy stuff Below: Note the number of people carrying the drawer unit here. It’s a proper bit of kit, this, and will do a proper bit of damage if you drop it on your foot
With the drawers in place and secure, the top plates are screwed into place above the side lockers. The drawer unit itself has a wooden top with a stout non-slip rubberised coating; it’s rated to carry up to 400kg or, in the heavy-duty version, 800kg. That’s around nine baby elephants standing on each other’s shoulders… starting to see why it’s so heavy yet?
Finally, the Mountain Top Roll is assembled on the workshop fl oor then installed into place. Again, have an assistant on hand. You can see the marks on the rear bodywork where the old over-rail liner used to sit, which make it pretty clear why it needed to be replaced before the job could begin
them exceeds it by quite some way, but even then it still operates as it’s meant to. It needs a heftier pull and push, but it doesn’t baulk even one bit.
Finally, the Mountain Top Roll came out of its packaging and, having been assembled on the workshop fl oor, went in to place on the top edge of the pick-up bed. Yet another lift you don’t want to be trying to pull off on your own.
With the whole lot done, there’s enough space beneath the roll cover for you to be able to carry a decent amount of fl at cargo. You can get lashing rings for the top of the drawer unit, too, allowing you to carry bigger items with the cover open – again subject to a weight limit, of course, but this goes up as high as 800kg on the heavyduty version of Gearmate’s GM300 twin-drawer system (or 400kg on the standard unit) so it’ll carry most things before any groaning starts.
What we’ve found about the set-up in the back of our D-Max is that it’s tidy, strong and wholly fi t for purpose. The Mountain Top Roll doesn’t keep out the rain, which tends to gather beneath the drawers when the vehicle is parked nose-down then cascade out from beneath the tailgate when we drive off, but one very soggy set of offroading clothes is all it took for us to learn that.
Mainly, the Gearmate system does a fantastic job of keeping our recovery equipment stowed tidily and ready for use. We mocked up a picture of it in the drawers of that Huntsman we tested back in the day – and now that mock-up has become the reality in the back of our own Project D-Max GO2, we’re very happy indeed.
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