Our top pick: the VEVOR VEVOR Contractor TopSider, 72 x 21 x 13 in, Two Lower Drawers.
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How we know:Spec-verifiedOwner-report-verifiedWhat these mean
Quick picks — Boxes with drawers
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Product
Best for
Drawers
Price
1
VEVOR Contractor TopSider, 72 x 21 x 13 in, Two Lower Drawers
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The argument for drawers is simple and it is about time rather than storage. In a deep box the thing you want is under the things you do not want, every single time, and the cost of that is a couple of minutes per trip to the truck. Over a working week it adds up to something you notice.
The argument against them is also simple: drawer slides are mechanical, they live in a dusty wet environment, and they are the part that wears out. A sealed box has nothing to fail. So the honest framing of this category is a trade between daily convenience and long-term simplicity, and how you should weigh it depends almost entirely on how many times a day the box gets opened.
If the truck is loaded and unloaded daily, buy a proper drawer system with hardware built for it. If you want drawers for fasteners and consumables without spending drawer-system money, this is the page.
Four quite different things get called a box with drawers
Topsider with lower drawers. A long rail box with drawers underneath the main compartment. The most storage of anything here, and the most bed width given up.
Wheel-well drawer cabinet. A narrow five-drawer unit that fits the dead vertical space beside a wheel well. Shallow drawers, excellent for fasteners.
Under-tonneau drawer. A low drawer module designed to live under a closed cover. Only makes sense if the cover is already there.
Full bed drawer system. The real version of this idea, and a different product category — see drawer systems.
If you came here looking for a DECKED-style unit, this is not that page. The comparison between these and the full systems is tool box vs drawer system.
The picks, ranked
No. 1VEVORSpec-verified
VEVOR Contractor TopSider, 72 x 21 x 13 in, Two Lower Drawers
A 72 x 21 x 13 in tread aluminum topsider with two lower drawers and a flip-up door. It is the cheapest way to get drawers into a work bed without committing to a thousand-dollar drawer system.
Who should skip it. The drawer slides are the compromise. If the truck is loaded and unloaded every day, a proper drawer system's hardware will outlast this by years.
Build
7.6
Capacity
9.0
Install
7.0
Day-to-day access
9.0
Value
8.6
What works
+Real drawers at a fraction of drawer-system money
+Flip-up door means you are not reaching down into a well
+Full 72 in of length used
What does not
−Drawer slides are the first wear point
−21 in of width is a lot of bed to give up
−Heavy once loaded — the drawers encourage overfilling
Five shallow drawers in a narrow sidebed cabinet. This is the box that stops you digging through a bucket for the right screw, and it mounts in the wasted space alongside the wheel well.
Who should skip it. Shallow drawers mean small parts only. Nothing bigger than a cordless drill goes in here, so it is a companion box, not the box.
Build
7.4
Capacity
6.6
Install
8.4
Day-to-day access
9.4
Value
8.8
What works
+Five separated drawers end the bucket-of-fasteners problem
+Fits the narrow dead space beside a wheel well
+Lockable as a unit
What does not
−Small-parts capacity only
−Drawers will rattle loose fasteners on rough roads
An 8 in deep aluminum five-drawer chest on slides, keyed as one unit. Same idea as the Ironton with aluminum construction, which matters if the truck sees salt.
Who should skip it. Eight inches of depth is eight inches of depth. Buy it knowing it holds consumables and hand tools and nothing else.
A low drawer unit designed to sit under a tonneau cover rather than fight it. If you have already committed to a cover and still want a drawer, this is the shape that works.
Who should skip it. Without a cover it is an exposed drawer in an open bed, which is the worst of both worlds. Buy a box instead.
Build
7.8
Capacity
7.0
Install
7.4
Day-to-day access
8.8
Value
7.8
What works
+Designed from the outset to clear a cover
+Drawer access beats reaching into a well under a half-open cover
+Dee Zee hardware is widely stocked
What does not
−Only makes sense with a cover already fitted
−Cover clearance must be checked against your specific cover model
Slides: the one specification that decides service life
A drawer slide in a truck bed has a hard job. It carries weight, it sees vibration on every mile, and it runs in grit. The slides on a budget drawer box are usually ball-bearing units with no particular sealing, and they will get sticky before anything else fails.
Blow them out, do not oil them. Grit plus oil makes grinding paste. Compressed air, then a dry lubricant if anything.
Do not overfill. A drawer rated for hand tools loaded with sockets exceeds what the slide was sized for, and the slide will show it first.
Check the fasteners. Vibration loosens drawer-front screws before it loosens anything else.
None of that is onerous, and it is the difference between slides that last two years and slides that last ten. It is also why a sealed box is genuinely the lower-maintenance choice if you only open it twice a day.
Depth is the thing to check, and it is usually disappointing
Most drawer units in this price bracket are shallow — eight inches is typical for a wheel-well cabinet. That is enough for fasteners, hand tools, tape, blades, consumables and a cordless drill. It is not enough for a cased circular saw, a grinder in its box, or anything that comes in a stacking system.
The practical consequence is that a drawer unit is almost always a second box rather than the box. The setup that works is a sealed box for cased tools plus a drawer unit for everything small, and the drawer unit is the one that saves you the time.
What a drawer unit costs you in bed space
A topsider with lower drawers is 21 inches wide. That is more bed width than a standard crossover box takes in length, and on a mid-size or short bed it is too much. The wheel-well cabinets are the opposite — they use vertical space beside the well that nothing else can use, so their real cost is close to zero.
Format
Space taken
Drawer depth
Fits a short bed?
Topsider with lowers
21 in of bed width along one rail
Main well plus two lower drawers
No
Wheel-well cabinet
Dead vertical space beside the well
About 8 in
Yes
Under-tonneau drawer
Low profile under a closed cover
Shallow by design
Yes, with a cover
Full drawer system
The whole bed floor, raised
Full depth, full length
Yes, in the short version
What we would actually buy
On a full-size truck already running a crossover box: a wheel-well five-drawer cabinet, in aluminum if the truck sees salt. It costs little, uses space nothing else can use, and it is the item that stops the bucket-of-fasteners problem.
On a truck being set up from nothing where the bed is the workshop: the topsider with lower drawers, accepting the 21 inches of width and the fact that a cover is now out of the question. On a truck that already has a tonneau cover and wants drawer access under it: the under-tonneau drawer, measuring the clearance first.
Questions people actually ask
Are truck tool boxes with drawers worth it?
If the box gets opened many times a day, yes — drawers end the excavation problem and the time saved is real. If it gets opened twice a day, a sealed box has nothing to wear out and is the lower-maintenance choice. The honest trade is convenience against mechanical simplicity.
How deep are the drawers on these boxes?
Typically about eight inches on a wheel-well cabinet, which covers fasteners, hand tools, consumables and a cordless drill but not a cased saw or grinder. That is why a drawer unit is almost always a second box rather than the box.
Do drawer slides survive in a truck bed?
They do with minimal care: blow the grit out with compressed air rather than oiling them, do not overfill a drawer beyond what the slide was sized for, and re-check the drawer-front fasteners occasionally. Slides are the first wear point in this category, which is the main argument for a sealed box if convenience is not the priority.
What is the difference between a drawer box and a drawer system?
A drawer box is a tool box with drawers in it, mounted to a rail or sitting beside a wheel well. A drawer system replaces the bed floor with full-length sealed drawers under a load-bearing deck. The system is several times the price and solves a bigger problem. Full comparison.
Can I get drawers under a tonneau cover?
Yes — low-profile under-tonneau drawer modules exist for exactly that case and are the sensible answer if the cover is already fitted. Measure from your bed floor to the underside of the closed cover before ordering, because the clearance varies by cover type and a retractable canister complicates it further.
Last reviewed October 5, 2026. Think a figure here is wrong? Tell us at contact@toolboxandtruck.com and we will check it, fix it and date the correction — see our editorial policy.
