Best Truck Tool Box: The UWS Crossover, Unless You Run a Cover

Pick the kind of storage before you pick the box. A crossover box sits on the bed rails behind the cab. A SwingCase hangs on a hinge behind a wheel well and swings out over the open tailgate. A drawer system turns the bed floor into a locked deck. Each one gives something up, whether that's a bed cover, floor length or bed depth, and the right answer depends on which of those you use.

We've reviewed all three: the UWS low-profile crossover box, the UnderCover SwingCase and the DECKED Drawer System. Weather Guard, the box some owners who cross-shopped UWS chose instead, is in the picks too. We haven't reviewed it, and its listing names no trucks, so treat it as a check-fit option.

Pick by how you use the bed

• Open bed, tools at the cab: the UWS low-profile crossover box. It's dry, it locks, and the standard mount is two J-hooks under the bed rails with no drilling. Buy the width UWS's fit guide lists for your truck (60, 63, 69 or 72 in), and replace the two stock J-hooks before you load it heavy.
• A tonneau cover you want to keep: a pair of SwingCases. They sit below the rails, swing out over the open tailgate so you never climb in, and lift off their hinge pins when you need the whole bed. Each case holds 75 lb and 1.5 cu ft, so this is for straps, a jack and some cordless tools, not a full kit.
• A heavy tool kit, every day: DECKED. Lockable drawers fill the bed floor under a deck DECKED rates at 2,000 lb evenly distributed on full-size trucks, and the drawers roll out to you at the tailgate. It costs far more than a box and takes about a foot of bed depth.
• A box that takes jobsite abuse daily: Weather Guard. Owners who chose it over UWS credit it with thicker aluminum, and the 121-5-04 adds a push-button lock and 11.0 cu ft of space. It costs noticeably more, and you'll need to confirm the fit yourself.
• A few straps and a jump pack: under a locked cover, a plastic tote held in place by a ratcheting bar or a board does the same job for a fraction of the price. Spend the money only when you need the storage to stay put or reach it from the tailgate.

Crossover, swing case or drawers: how they compare

Specs come from UWS's part pages, RealTruck's SwingCase pages, DECKED's technical specs page and each Amazon listing. Where a maker or listing doesn't state a line, the table says so. Two of the warranties have a catch that matters if you plan to move the storage to your next truck: UWS covers the box only on its original installation, and DECKED's ends if the system goes to another vehicle.

The limits that decide it

• RamBox: no crossover box. UWS's guide says it plainly: "If your model is equipped with a Ram Box, a crossover tool box will not fit." The SwingCase's Ram parts won't work with RamBox either, and the DECKED listing we link isn't for RamBox beds. DECKED sells a separate RamBox version, which we haven't linked; check it with DECKED.
• A full-bed tonneau: a crossover box and a tonneau over the whole bed don't go together. You can run a roll-up cover from the box back to the tailgate, but a factory hard-plastic tonneau system that covers the bed rails rules out a crossover box entirely, per UWS.
• Short beds: a standard UWS box is 20 in front to back. On a Gen14 F-150 short bed, which BAK and UnderCover list at 67.1 in, that's about 30% of the bed's length; on the 78.9 in long bed UnderCover lists, about a quarter. A slim box at 12.75 in takes about a fifth of that short bed, but holds 3.5 cu ft instead of 8.4. The floor under the box still takes sheet goods, so long and flat loads survive; tall ones don't.
• Tie-downs: a crossover box crowds the front tie-downs, and on a 5.5 ft bed the lower front cleat is mostly lost. A SwingCase covers the rear tie-down on its side, and RealTruck says modifying the mounting hardware voids the warranty, so don't grind the brackets to keep it. DECKED mounts to the factory tie-downs on full-size trucks and gives you tie-down points on its deck instead.
• Drilling: the UWS standard mount needs none. The SwingCase needs none on the F-150 and self-drilling screws or drilled holes on most other trucks. DECKED needs none on full-size beds except 8 ft beds, and 4-6 holes on some midsize trucks. If you bolt a box through the bed instead of using J-hooks, UWS says to check under the truck for brake and fuel lines, wiring and the fuel tank first, and to seal every hole.
• Liners: a spray-in liner works with all three. A drop-in liner or a BedRug has to be trimmed under SwingCase brackets, and DECKED says drop-in liners and BedRug mats aren't compatible at all.

Two load rules apply to every option. First, no box lid on this list has a published load rating: UWS publishes none and Weather Guard's listing states none, so we wouldn't treat a lid as a step or a bench. The SwingCase's 75 lb is for the case's contents, and DECKED's 2,000 lb is for its deck, evenly distributed; we'd treat it as a static figure. Second, your payload is the limit that governs. It's on the door-jamb sticker, and the storage, the tools and everything else in the bed and cab all count against it.

Keep fuel out of all of it. UWS's install sheet says not to store flammables in the box and names containers of gasoline, solvents and propane tanks. RealTruck warns against storing insect repellent, brake fluid and solvents in a SwingCase. Hardware tightening follows each maker's install sheet, not a number from a forum.

Which route fits your truck

Here's what each of the three reviewed options offers on each truck we cover, from UWS's crossover fit guide and the Amazon listings we confirmed for the SwingCase and DECKED. Each pick's fitment table carries the part numbers, years and restrictions row by row. Weather Guard isn't in this table because its listing names no trucks.

A few trucks narrow the choice on their own. A DT Ram with RamBox has no crossover box and no SwingCase, which leaves DECKED's separate RamBox version, one we haven't confirmed or linked. A 4th gen Tacoma has no SwingCase and no separate UWS row, so DECKED is the only one of the three we can confirm for it. On a 3rd gen Tacoma, get the angled crossover box: a deeper or non-beveled box can hit the wheel wells, and UWS notes a factory bed-rail system may change how the box mounts. On a T1XX with the MultiPro tailgate, the SwingCase is out, and DECKED says the tailgate's assist handle has to come off before its install.

Crossover box or DECKED?

The numbers settle more of this than the marketing does. A standard 69 in UWS box holds 8.4 cu ft and weighs 47.4 lb. A full-size short bed DECKED system weighs about 208 lb, so it spends about 160 lb more of your payload before you load a single tool. DECKED doesn't publish a storage volume, but in our view a crossover box holds about as much as a DECKED, keeps the bed's full depth and lets long items slide under it, for a lot less money.

DECKED wins on reach and order. Everything rolls out to the tailgate instead of sitting at the bottom of a box you lean over the bed rail to dig through, and it works under a shell or most tonneau covers, which a crossover box doesn't. Reach has a limit, though: on a full-size short bed the system is 65 in long and its drawers extend 43 in, so about 22 in of each drawer stays inside the bed. DECKED's deck figures also disagree with each other. Its FAQ limits the deck to 50 lb per square foot, and the full-size short bed system's 32.3 sq ft works out to about 1,616 lb, not 2,000. We'd plan around the lower number.

We'd buy DECKED for a truck that carries the same tools every day under a cover or shell and rarely needs the full bed depth. For anyone who hauls tall loads, or wants the storage cheap, light and easy to move to the next truck, the crossover box is the better buy.

Keeping your tonneau cover

A crossover box is out the moment you want a cover over the whole bed, so the question becomes what goes under the cover. Owners who trade a box for a cover, most often on short beds, do it for the bed space. The catch is capacity: under a cover, only a drawer system comes close to what a crossover box holds.

• A pair of SwingCases: the under-cover storage we'd buy. They swing out with the cover closed and keep the full bed length. Two cases hold 3 cu ft and 150 lb, about a third of a 69 in crossover box. They're ABS plastic with a 1-year warranty, and the failures that matter (a case that cracks and leaks, a broken hinge, a snapped release lever) tend to show up after that year is gone, so buy them as a part that lasts a few years. RealTruck says they won't work with bed extenders.
• DECKED under the cover: far more storage and the deck stays usable, but the deck raises the floor about a foot, so tall items like gas cans stop fitting under it.
• A BAK Box: it holds more weight than a SwingCase, but you have to open the cover to reach it. BAK's own BAK Box no longer fits the redesigned MX4 rails, RealTruck's page showed it as temporarily unavailable, and the Amazon listings we found were for older trucks only, so it isn't in our picks.
• A crossover box plus a short roll-up: a roll-up cover that runs from the box back to the tailgate gives you both, at the cost of the bed length the box takes.

Weather Guard and the thicker box

Weather Guard is the box UWS gets measured against. Owners who chose it over UWS point to thicker aluminum, and if the box will take daily jobsite abuse, with heavy tools thrown in and loads banged against it, that's the one we'd pay for. The 121-5-04 is a bigger low-profile box, 11.0 cu ft against the 69 in UWS's 8.4, with a push-button lock and a full weather seal per its listing.

It isn't immune to weather: a brand-new one let in handfuls of snow for one owner, while others have run theirs dry for years. Its listing states no lid load rating and names no trucks, only "Full Size Trucks", and we haven't confirmed it on Weather Guard's fit guide, so check fit before you order. For a box that holds tools and recovery gear on a personal truck, UWS keeps water out just as well for less money.

Below UWS sit the hardware-store boxes from Tractor Supply, Kobalt or Husky. Some owners are happy with theirs. The ones we'd avoid are the thin, flexing boxes that dent and leak once someone leans on them.

What we'd put in our own bed

On an open bed that hauls tools and the odd load of lumber, a UWS low-profile crossover box in the width UWS lists for the truck, with the stock J-hooks swapped for sturdier tie-downs on day one. Under a tonneau we already like, a pair of SwingCases for the straps, jack and recovery gear. On a work truck that carries the same heavy kit every day under a cover or shell, DECKED, with the keyed locks added. And if the box is going to get abused on a jobsite, Weather Guard, after we'd confirmed the fit.