Best Truck Bed Storage Systems

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There is a specific moment when you realize your truck bed is a mess. You are off, two hours in, and the only thing you packed to stay put was the stuff you lashed down. Everything else is wherever the road decided to send it. The first-aid kit is under a rolled-up sleeping pad, the shackle is somewhere you do not want to look for in the rain, and the box of straps you swore was bolted down has rolled to the back corner.

Truck bed storage fixes that. It gives each thing a home and keeps the home from moving. The options range from cross-bed aluminum boxes and lockable bins to wheel-well boxes and cheap collapsible bins. The good ones are worth it. Two of the four picks below sit loose in the bed and need a strap. The other two mount to the truck itself, and I start with those. If you want the tools to actually stay put, that is the right call.

All four are in stock right now. Prices are live as of this morning and they move.

Quick picks

VEVOR Aluminum Tool Box, 39

This is the box I would buy first if I had to pick one for a working bed. It is aluminum, diamond plate on the top, and it runs 39 inches long, 13 inches deep, and 10 inches tall. That length slides across the floor of most beds without eating the whole thing. There is a handle on the side and it comes with lock keys, so you can shut it and actually lock it, which is more than I can say for most bins.

Mounting is where it earns its keep. You do not bolt anything. It sits on the bed floor in the center and you secure it with a strap or two, or you push it against the cab where it is far less likely to slide. For the tools and the things you grab mid-trip, that is exactly where you want it. The aluminum means it holds its shape when you dump it on the tailgate, but it is lighter than steel, so you can carry it in and out when you need the bed for lumber or a boat.

View the VEVOR aluminum tool box ($108.99) at Amazon

Rubbermaid Action Packer, 48 gallon

The Action Packer is the old reliable. Forty-eight gallons is a lot of space, enough to swallow a full first-aid kit, a tool pouch, and a couple of dry bags without a fight. It has a lockable latch on the front, which is the whole reason to keep one in the truck. Nobody opens it, nothing spills, and it does not care that it is sitting in the rain overnight.

The quirk to know about: it sits loose. It has no mounting hardware and no straps that come with it, so a 48-gallon bin rolling around a truck bed at 65 mph on washboard is not a sound you want to hear. Strap it down or tuck it in front of a box that is fixed in place. Do that and it is the best value bin in the group, and the $150 price is for the size and the lock. If you carry general camp gear that is not tools, this is the one.

View the Rubbermaid Action Packer ($150.00) at Amazon

VEVOR Wheel Well Box, Silverado and Sierra 1500

This one only fits specific trucks, which is why it is not a one-size pick. It is made for the 2019 to 2020 Silverado 1500 and Sierra 1500, it goes on the passenger side wheel well, and it is a 6.6-gallon, 25-liter box with a lockable lid. If you drive one of those trucks, it is the right answer for the small stuff. It plugs into the space the factory left there and it never moves, which is the point.

The tradeoff is size. Twenty-five liters does not hold a whole tool kit. It holds the things you actually reach for, a flashlight, the small sockets, the strap, the first-aid pouch, the stuff that ends up loose in every other box. For that, a fixed wheel-well box is better than a big bin in the center, because you are not digging through four feet of gear to get the small stuff. I will not argue with a wheel-well box that stays where you put it every single time.

If you do not run a 2019 to 2020 Chevy or GMC, this is not for you and the aluminum box above is the equivalent idea for your truck. And if you are still deciding between a dedicated tool box and just a good bin, our truck tool box guide goes through the mounting options in depth.

View the VEVOR wheel well box ($109.90) at Amazon

MIKKUPPA Collapsible Organizer, 65 L

This is the budget pick, and I am not going to pretend it is built for the worst day on a trail. It is a 65-liter collapsible organizer with a lid, and when you are done with it it folds flat and stashes under a chair or in the cab. For $25.99 that is the whole pitch. It sorts the bed on a trip where you want to pay nothing and you are mostly paved road.

The real-world quirk is the material. It is flexible plastic, not hard-walled, so if you stack a cool water jug over the lid it dents, and rough gravel will eventually show. Use it for the dry goods and the small gear, not the water and not the tools. If your truck bed is a kitchen counter and you want things sorted without spending, this does the job. If you run real offroad every weekend, spend the extra on aluminum above.

It is also the cheapest way to keep the recovery and tire gear off the floor until you upgrade. If you are new to this, our off-road jack guide and recovery kit guide cover what should live in the bed in the first place, and the hitch cargo carrier guide shows where to put the heavy stuff a bed bin was never meant to carry.

View the MIKKUPPA organizer ($25.99) at Amazon

If the bed doubles as a bedroom, our truck bed tent guide covers tents that need a cleared floor.

Bottom line

Buy what matches how you run the truck. If you want the tools fixed in place and out of the way, take the wheel well box if your truck fits it, or the VEVOR aluminum box if it does not. If you carry general gear that should lock shut, the Action Packer is the bin. If all of that lives in a bed tool box, keep the lid dry with the setup in the waterproof truck bed toolbox guide. If you would rather move the whole load up off the bed, our overland bed rack guide is the next step.

The prices above were live this morning and they will not all be live this afternoon. We track current discounts on truck bed storage and the rest of the gear we cover and refresh them every morning, so check the deals page before you order.

See today's live deals on truck bed storage →

Related guides

• Truck bed and camping guide: the full cluster in one place
• Truck tool boxes
• Waterproof truck bed toolboxes
• Overland bed racks