Drawers and a bed cover work well together. The cover keeps everything dry and out of sight, and the drawers mean you are not crawling under a partly open cover to reach the front of the bed. The only real question is height.
Will Drawers Fit Under a Cover?
Yes, if you choose a low profile unit and measure to the right surface. The measurement that matters is from the bed floor to the underside of the closed cover, not from the bed floor to the top of the rail. Those are different numbers, and the second one will let you order a unit that does not fit.
Measure at the Right Points
Take the height at the front of the bed and again near the tailgate, because covers do not sit at a uniform height along their length and neither does the bed floor once a liner is in.
- Bed floor to the underside of the closed cover, front and rear.
- Add the thickness of any bed mat or liner already fitted.
- Leave clearance for the drawer to run out past the tailgate.
- Check the cover's rear seal does not sit lower than its rails.
Hard folding covers need more clearance at the hinge lines than roll-up covers do, so a unit that clears one may not clear the other. Leave an inch of margin rather than working to the exact figure, because a loaded drawer flexes slightly and a cover sags a little in the middle.
What a Shallow Drawer Holds
Low profile compartments suit hand tools, consumables, fittings, straps and anything that lies flat. They will not take power tools in their cases upright, and they will not take anything tall without laying it down.
That is a real constraint, so sort your kit before choosing. If most of what you carry lives in cases, a deeper unit under an open bed will serve you better than a shallow one under a cover.
Compartment Layout
Units are commonly offered with one to four compartments in the same footprint. Fewer, larger compartments suit long items and cases. More compartments suit sorted consumables and trade specific kit. Over-dividing creates spaces nothing fits, so err toward fewer than you think.
Longer floor units in the 60 inch and 72 inch sizes suit full-size beds and give you the length that a shallow unit loses in depth. On a short bed the shorter 48 inch units leave usable floor behind them, which is often the better balance.
Fitting It Under the Cover
Bolt the unit to the bed floor with backing plates, check for fuel and brake lines beneath before drilling, and refit the cover before loading anything so you can confirm the clearance in the real world rather than on paper.
See truck bed drawer units, tonneau covers and low profile tool boxes.