450: Anyone remove underbed drawer in stern cabin 450

[Blackduck]

Hi, Theoretically my 6 new house batteries arrive tomorrow and so I have to first remove the old ones, and then put the new ones in, from under the bed in the starboard stern cabin. I think it would be much easier to do all this with the drawer removed from under the bed (as it has to be slid out to access the batteries and would most likely at some point be accidentally stepped in).
I have looked for levers and such to release it from the rails but can't seem to manage it. Have I missed an easy method or do I have to dismantle the drawer completely?
Cheers

[PaulinOz]

I just unscrewed the track from the bed and slid draw and track out.

The boom with main halyard attached at the connection point of a block and tackle positioned directly over the bedroom hatch can be effectively used as a crane to lift each up from dock and then lower down through the hatch to the bed and remove the old ones. As long as they are non-vented style batteries.

I took the time to make a small sling out of knotted nylon webbing to facilitate the attachment each end of the lift. A lot easier than lugging 6 very heavy objects through the boat each way.

[Bean Counter]

Pull the drawer out all the way, then lift the front of the drawer, it lifts off the rails and slides off. Getting it back is a bit fiddly. Might need a second pair of hands.

[Bean Counter]

So how old and what type of batteries are the existing ones and why are you changing them out? We have 6 Exide Gel batteries of 160AH installed 2011 and still functioning, but thinking they might be coming to end of life.

[Blackduck]

The batteries are like yours the exiide 140 ah . They are three years old but i wanted to go to AGM for various reasons.

[Emerald Sea]

Yes, the drawer will latch off the rails, then you can remove the rails if your not replacing the drawer. Our replacement LiFePO4's are taller than the originals so that drawer is permanently gone now, just the facade front remains.

Its not that hard!

[Blackduck]

Thank you to all who offered advice. It seems (at least to me) that there may be two different installation types when it comes to the under bed drawers: one where the drawer latches off, the other where it requires removal with rails. I searched and pinched and tweaked every latch, trigger, switch and nothing... although I did manage to remove the facia van one set of latches. In the end I undid the 4 screws that held the rails in place and removed it all. (The good news for me is the new batteries arrived (two weeks late but there you are) and they are now fully installed.