Video Transcript for What to Know About the UWS Truck Bed Toolbox

What's up everybody. It's AJ with etrailer.com. Today, we're gonna be checking out this UWS truck bed toolbox. Now it's gonna be a crossover style, full toolbox. So a crossover style, right away, just wanna show you. You got a ladder underneath there.

It's got that gap underneath the toolbox, which leaves space to carry those longer items, so you don't sacrifice your whole bed just to put a toolbox in here. Let's check it out. Now when choosing a toolbox for your truck, everybody has a little bit of different expectations. I've messed with a bunch of 'em. Done a lot of videos on different styles of 'em.

So maybe on the job side you're gonna look for things slightly different than I am. Some of the things I look at right away, is how much of the bed it's gonna take up. I really like the crossover style, that way ladders can be still stored in here and then close the tailgate and not have to worry about trying to wedge it up onto the tailgate or anything. Now that might not matter to you. You might be more worried about the latches.

I have a buddy of mine, that's been a carpenter for a very long time. I asked him about the box. He uses the toolbox every single day. He says he just wants the lever, the latches, to work and the strikers to hit every time, so it's easy to close the box and then it's easy to open it if your hands are full. You can kind of just get one on there, unlock it, it opens, and then unload the tools there.

He actually said he preferred the latches, like the Weather Guard, that had the button on the side, so that he could just hit it with his elbow and the lid would open. The other thing would be the gas struts. I would say where they're located, I like on this one that its got the deeper gap on the side, so it's kind of separated from the rest of the toolbox. I don't have to worry about the gas strut hitting the screwdriver holders. Sometimes when it's a little more inset, it's right in line with those, so when you get to close it, it's gonna hit those. I can still keep all the screwdrivers right here. Will not come in contact with the gas strut, so it's gonna stay working longer because there's no risk of damaging it. And another thing is those are replaceable, so you can find those on our website too. So for whatever reason, the lid starts to wear out on you, maybe it just doesn't open as easily anymore or get stuck somewhere along the line. You can replace those, so it's like new again. This toolbox is gonna have 8.6 cubic feet of space on the inside. Which doesn't mean anything really on its own, but to explain a little bit better, since it is a crossover style, more of the space is gonna be up top. So it sticks up about five and a half inches from the bed with the lid closed. So that's adding quite a bit to the bed rails up here. There's other ones that go a little further down instead and those are gonna be the UWS low profile ones. So they're only gonna sit about three inches, somewhere around there, off the bed, maybe even two, and then come down lower. And that way there's more of the toolbox down in the bed of your truck. That way it's not blocking your headrest. This one comes up to about your headrest here. So a lot of that space is up top rather than down there at the bottom. A visual example of what I was talking about is, we have a four and a half gallon bucket in here right now. You see how close it comes to the top of the lid, but we can still close it just fine. That's because that added space on top. Now, if it was a little bit deeper, it'd be a little bit lower. Now we have a five gallon bucket that we try to put in here. It would not close on that five gallon bucket. Then there's no tools sticking out top. It just came too close up here to the lid. On inside the box let's look at the latches. Now they work in unison, so when you pull on that lever they both move at the same time. I like that there's a guard protecting that rod. That way if you go just throw something heavy in here you're not paying attention doesn't break or bend that rod and, and that connection that would make them not work at the same time. Now with the two latches, the one on the passenger side the one on the driver's side. The one on the driver's side is the one that locks. So you are gonna have to lock it on the driver's side and unlock it over there. But it's nice that it still exists, that way you can lock up the tools when they're in there. And it's not so bad, cuz you know you're usually headed to the driver's seat anyway. So just go ahead and lock it before you hop in the truck. Looking off top here, we can see the strikers. Now you can adjust those, you just loosen these nuts. It can slide side to side. And now we did that on this box because it wasn't closing like I wanted to. It wasn't quite latching as easily as I knew that it should. After working with a bunch of these boxes but it was a quick adjustment, just moving it from side a little bit so that it's struck down here just right. Now let's take a look at the gas strut here on the side. This is what helps the lid open up so easily where you just pull the latch and opens on its own. Like I said before, I like it that it has its own compartment here and gives it clear of anything else it might hit and damage it, like the screwdrivers on the low profile ones, it's moved over just a little bit here and exposed. So if you're loading things in here you can even put a bucket towards the side it could get too close to that. I like that it's far off to the end and kept at its own little zone. Another thing to notice is you can replace the gas strut. So the longer you have the box you can keep that lid open and just easily. Make sure you read the side here. It'll tell you how many force pounds it has. This one has 45 and we measure from the middle of the eyelet to the middle of the eyelet down here. And it's about 10 inches. Just to help you make sure you get the right one for your box. Another nice thing I like is the tray. It's kind a plastic tray that can slide back and forth, so whatever side you need it on you can have there. Just kind of put the things used the most up top. That way don't have to reach too far into the box to grab anything and you can easily see it when you walk up here on the side and get a hammer when you need a hammer or grab a wrench, you need a wrench. The tray could slide from side to side. So we're here, here on passenger side. You can slide it over to the driver's side if there wasn't a bucket in the way, but over there you can still see there's more holes for the screwdrivers. So you can separate what style screwdriver on either side of the truck do you want. Now let's go over some measurements. It's gonna be 56 inches wide. So that's gonna be from screwdriver holder to screwdriver holder. That's usual space then from front to back which is gonna be the shield to this portion back here. It's gonna be about 16 at one quarter of an inch and then it's gonna be 13 and three quarters an inch tall. And that's gonna move from the bottom of the box right here to this lid. Taking a look at the lid here, it's gonna have that foam seal that goes all the way around. It's gonna help keep the elements out. Lid's also full of foam. So it's foam injected that help keep its structure and helps insulate the box. With the keeping it structure, it just helps it be a tougher lid so if you we're to throw something heavy on top it wouldn't dent it or anything like that. Working with the foam seal around the top of the lid, when you go close it, you can see it hangs down a little bit more over the top. So it doesn't just sit on the top of the box like this. It actually goes down further which is gonna help protect it from the elements cuz it's gonna be harder for it to go up and in. The whole box is made out of a black powder coat aluminum with the diamond pattern on top, it's gonna be a glossy black so it is a little shiny but I like that the diamond plates there it's gonna help hide any scratches or anything that you might get when you actually throw something up on top there. Overall, it met my expectations just on how the latches work, it closes real easy opens super easily. I like the crossover design, still use the truck bed it hit all those marks for me. Now some things are pointed out down my buddy, Andy, whose the carpenter. I didn't think about coming up here with you're hands full of gear to put in here and hitting that button with the elbow. That sounds pretty sweet too. So the latches lose a little bit of the appeal but I think these are sturdy, I guess work just fine. It doesn't take away, but that is a preference thing for you to check out and maybe think about how you're gonna use your box and how often you're gonna use it and what you're gonna put in it. Well, I think that does it. Thanks for hanging out. I hope this helped..