To help you guys out a little more this box will be sitting inside the front drive side compartment a Knapheide KSS series box. I listed the dimensions above.
A lot of people are going to laugh, craftsman. I own a SO road chest but it will not fit in the side compartment of my service truck, misses every measurement by an inch. I have a company provided craftsman 26" wide combo. Top and middle in the side compartment and the rollaway is in the box. The box is 4 years old now and has not failed. It is the standard red with black drawer friction slide. No slide failure, no case failures. I don't lock it, so no lock failures. It may not last a lifetime, but it's only a $300 set new, so if it goes ot hell, its better than a $2000 SO getting damaged.
Just to be clear, is the truck going to have a service body with a box sitting in side compartment or is going to be sitting out. If it is sitting outside, look for a chest with a drop front. Boxes that lock internally will wreck the locking bar behind the drawers and won't lock over time. International makes a road chest that almost everybody rebadges, northern sells them too. Mixed reveiw on that box.
Dan, thanks for bringing Craftsman up. I was really thinking about going the same route, either buying a Craftsman 26" top or multiple 26" intermediate boxes to fill up the space inside the side compartment. I wanted to check here if there was any other options out there. Great suggestions so far, but price is definitely something I have to be mindful of.
Glad to hear about your luck with the Craftsman boxes. I was hesitant to go that route because I am really not overly impressed with the Craftsman 52" bottom and 41" top I currently have. They certainly are fine for a non-professional shop type setting but I didn't know how they would handle being inside a truck. I know the older Craftsman box are built a little sturdier so that might be something I could search for, a used 26" top.
To answer your question in the second response, this box is going inside a compartment. The dimensions are rough, but I do know a Craftsman bottom will be a touch to deep, I was thinking about taking the casters off a bottom but because of the depth, it won't work. So a top or intermediate is something I was going to look for, regardless of brand.
My opinion is I should be looking for friction slides over ball bearings drawers, who else makes a box I should be looking at? I have seen the International boxes in Northern Tool, seems like a good box, I just haven't seen one in person and I can't remember the dimensions off hand to see if it would work.
I was also going to take a look at Harbor Freight and visit the local big box retailers for other 26" options.
Snap-on Road Chests are expensive, but worth it. Regardless, if you want a box that will last for a while in a service truck it is going to cost $$$. If you're a pro, you'll kill anything else after a while. I would look at the Snappy again, or one of the "1-piece" Montezuma boxes.
Love the Snap On Road Chest but the cost and size are definitely a problem. Since this box will be sitting in the service body of the truck, the Montezuma boxes are also going to be somewhat of a pain to use since it takes up a little extra usable space due to the lid design.
Both boxes would be perfect for inside the bed mounting, but I need that space available for other uses.
You need to look into american eagle or similar style boxes made for service trucks. THey are expensive unless you can luck out and find some used on the internet.
Yeah, I had seen those before while searching the web before posting on here. I really think those would be great, but the price point is probably a little too high for a "non" professional setting. Durability is something that is definitely important, but price is probably the trump card in this situation.
.
