Eurobox System: The Ultimate in Lightweight and Space-Saving Solutions for your Van

We haven’t seen this Eurobox system anywhere else, so we’d like to introduce it to you here.

In the first 4 months of our journey, a rear drawer with heavy-duty slides accompanied us. To be precise, it was also the only modification we made to our T4 Multivan before we embarked on our 7-month sabbatical. However, it quickly became clear to us that this rear drawer was not only super heavy but also impractical for the rest of our journey. When we started the actual conversion in August 2021, it quickly became clear that the heavy rear drawer had to make way for a better system, and here are the reasons why:

1. Practicality: A single rear drawer means you have to move a heavy drawer for even the smallest item. Even for a pair of socks, especially when you’re parked on a slope!
2. Load Capacity: A heavy-duty slide might make sense, but it’s not the solution. Although heavy loads can be packed into one drawer, several smaller drawers can carry just as much weight as a heavy-duty drawer.
3. Cost: A heavy-duty slide is much more expensive than standard slides. So, think carefully about whether you really need a heavy-duty slide.

Our Idea

Once it was clear that we didn’t want a single drawer anymore, we started researching, measuring, and planning. During this process, two things stood out. Firstly, many vans had individual drawers with simple slides, but they weren’t removable and were mostly made of wood. If there’s one thing we’ve always known, it’s that a van always gets dirty. Sand, a broken bag of flour, or spilled orange juice. It’s much more practical if the drawers can be easily removed and cleaned. So, we came up with the idea of using Euroboxes, which may not look as chic as wooden drawers but are lightweight and easy to clean. On the internet, we frequently saw drawers with Euroboxes. However, these are usually placed on a heavy-duty slide with a plywood base underneath.

Our idea was to install multiple drawers in the van that allow the Euroboxes to be easily removed without the need for a baseplate!

Our Eurobox System

You will need:

• Drawer slides (we chose slides with magnetic stops, even though they aren’t sufficient to properly secure the drawers)
• Euroboxes (depending on the space, you need to measure how many and which sizes of Euroboxes you can use)
• Wooden frame (We built this ourselves using 1 cm and 1.5 cm thick spruce plywood)
• Aluminum L-profiles
• Rivets and rivet nails
• Drill

1. Step: Measure the aluminum profiles to the correct length and cut them. Remember that the corners need to overlap.
2. Step: Drill holes in the corners of the aluminum profiles so that they align when the aluminum corner profiles are placed on top of each other.
3. Step: Rivet the aluminum corner profiles together through the holes. From 4 aluminum L-profiles, you’ll get a frame. Pay attention to the direction of the aluminum L-profile!
4. Attach the long sides of the aluminum frame with rivets to the part of the slide that pulls out.
5. Screw the other parts of the slide into the wooden frame. Make sure to measure everything precisely.
6. Assemble the slides.

Done!

You can place the Euroboxes in the frames without needing an additional baseplate. If there’s no Eurobox in the frame, the drawers can shift like a parallelogram. That’s not a problem!

Our Eurobox System with Dimensions and Instructions:

Every build is different. To give you a better overview of how we built our Eurobox system, here are the dimensions of the individual parts. In our rear garage, there’s space for 4 large (40 cm x 60 cm) and 2 small drawers (30 cm x 60 cm).

Outer dimensions of the shelf (WHD): 122.5 cm x 50 cm x 62 cm 1.5 cm plywood as the base and top 1 cm plywood for the sides, dividers, and back panel

Used Eurobox dimensions (WHD): 40 cm x 21 cm x 60 cm 30 cm x 21 cm x 40 cm 20 cm x 21 cm x 30 cm

1. It All Comes Down to the Basic Measurements

Ultimately, you can vary the dimensions of the Euroboxes for each drawer. For example, our wardrobe consists of a large 40 cm x 60 cm Eurobox that occupies an entire drawer. But it can be done differently. Our TTT and the dog food box also fit in one drawer. For this, we placed two Euroboxes of size 30 cm x 40 cm one behind the other. 2x 30 cm x 40 cm = 1 drawer of 40 cm x 60 cm. Our travel pharmacy and another box fit in one of the small drawers (basic size 30 cm x 60 cm). We chose a 20 cm x 30 cm and a 30 cm x 40 cm box for this.

Of course, you can organize the shelf completely differently. But keep the exact size in mind, so everything fits together in the end!

As you can see, you have plenty of options.

2. Slides and Frames

To hang the Euroboxes in the slides, we built 6 frames out of the aluminum L-profiles.

6x2 slides: 1.2 cm x 4.5 cm x 60 cm

Aluminum corner profiles: 4 aluminum profiles per drawer! 4 large drawers: 40 cm x 60 cm 2 small drawers: 30 cm x 60 cm

We drilled holes in the corners of the aluminum L-profiles to rivet the 4 parts together into a frame. Fortunately, the inner slides already had holes, so we didn’t have to drill there. We aligned with these holes and drilled holes in the long sides of the aluminum L-profiles to connect them with rivets.

3. Assembly

Finally, you just need to mount the slides themselves. Make sure to pay attention to the correct height! You’ve already attached the frame to the respective two slides, and now you push the inner slides into the outer ones. This can be a bit tricky, but with two people it’s quite manageable. You can now easily place the Euroboxes in the frames.

This entire system not only saves you the weight of baseplates but also allows you to easily remove the drawers. We can unload the van within minutes (e.g., if we’re checking into an AirBnB or need to lighten the van when stuck). You can read about how we secure our Euroboxes in this article.