Question for Extreme and Motezuma Toolbox Owners

[komtrax]

I am entertaining the possibility of purchasing either a Extreme or a Montezuma toolbox. During my research, I learned that neither of the toolbox brands have latching drawers, they have indentations. Doesn't pulling or pushing (opening and closing) to overcome the indentation cause tools slide from front to back? I would think this is not as good as griplatch or slide-latching drawers. Since there are no Distributors in my area with these toolboxes, I cannot try for myself. Asking for members opinions on this function (and any other positives or negatives of these brands).

 

[Robert Haas]

Extreme includes the harder detente blocks to make the drawers easier to open, however if you are going to be rolling these boxes around you would probably be better off leaving the standard detentes in place.

They do "break in" after use and I got used to the added effort required pretty quick.

 

[mspecperformance]

awesome boxes from what I saw at my local tool warehouse. (Extreme)

 

[scottmlew]

I am entertaining the possibility of purchasing either a Extreme or a Montezuma toolbox. During my research, I learned that neither of the toolbox brands have latching drawers, they have indentations. Doesn't pulling or pushing (opening and closing) to overcome the indentation cause tools slide from front to back? I would think this is not as good as griplatch or slide-latching drawers.

In a word, "no". I have a Montezuma box that I'm extremely happy with. The high quality drawer liners that come with it keep anything from sliding around when opening and closing drawers. I've even tried to get stuff to move by jerking the drawers unnecessarily, but couldn't get my stuff to slide around. I'm sure you could if you work at it enough, but in day to day use you won't have a problem. I have a latching mechanism on my Kobalt boxes (I know, no comparison to the good brands) and I find that mechanism much more cumbersome to use.

I'm not sure what Montezumas you're looking at, but Strictly Toolboxes lets you customize at least some of their models with the exact drawers you want. I did this and don't regret it in the least...I have exactly the box I want, with lots of shallow drawers.

 

[jfull]

My answer to your question, on if tools shift to the rear, is YES. I have had my 72" montezuma box for almost a year now, and they def slide back over the course of time. It's not too big of a deal, but it is annoying. I think most boxes would have this problem. The thing I don't like about the montezuma is you can see the spot welds all over the place, so it doesn't look near as neat as the ones they sell at HF (that's a pretty big insult! IMO). All that being said, they are much much better boxes that crapsman. If I were to start over I'd buy a used mac or snapon.

Oh and the drawer liners - nothing special about them, IMO, they are thin, there's a posting on here somewhere about that - but I am not planning on replacing mine.