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Some of you may know i am building a Rangie UTE tray back Atm (under projects) I going to buy the materials for the tray tomorrow and I was wondering what size i should use for the outer edges of the tray and supports....
I was thinking 50mm x 75 ish x 3 or 2mm for the frame of the tray. This has to be able to take a beating off road but not be to heavy and of course look right. I am not going a tube style tray cause a rangie is a brick and a square or rectangle frame would flow better....
This will be the basic shape of the the tray. I will use the side of the tray to cover my road tyres (33") and i like the dove tail for the back which will be determined by the size of the spare tyre. So do you think the size of the steel will be ok? Do you think i an use 2mm rather then 3mm??
The next question is what should i use for the guts of the tray? 50mm x 50mm? or 40mm x 40mm? Or the same as the frame? I haven't worked out exactly how it's going to be mounted but I want it bolted on and off. I can weld to the rear outriggers but not the chassis so i will be making a mounting system off the rear out rigger and using the far rear body mounts and some U bolts to hold the tray down.
I'll take photo's of how mine is mounted tomorow if you want.
The rear outrigger was used and the two body supports were extended up, the engineer wants the tray to be "floating" ie: mounted using original body mounts.
look at bubs hilux thread in members, easily one of the nicest looking tray's and is going to be one of the most imitated trays around.
lux kids tray in his members thread is a good base too.
mine is made of 50x20mm box and with two people is a stuggle to lift off it will be strong enough to bounce off tree's but wont fair too well in a roll I dont think
the 50x75 looks the goods and will be nice and strong but weight wise will be an absolute killer!!!
I would have thought the wood wouldn't add much weight. Maybe even lighter then checkerplate.
The (about) 1/4" steel plate on my tray is HEAVY stuff. Mine's in 2 sections and I can just lift each section by myself (I'm no strongman but I'm not tiny).
But I wouldn't have it any other way. I have enough trouble reversing up slopes without doing burnouts as it is. Any lighter wouldn't be doing me any favours.
The frame around my tray is 100x75x3 RHS and 2 people can lift it up onto my ute reasonably easily. I couldn't get any 75x50 but now I'm glad I used the 100x75. Looks much chunkier and definitely aren't worried about damaging the tray offroad.
Still haven't made the roll bar and headboard. Another thing on the 'to do' list.
If you can decifer those photo's, my digi cam died so it's phone cam all the way at the moment!
the Previous owner done a terrible job on it and both the front mounts need to be redone, but a fair chunk of the rear of the chassis is coming off and the whole tray is being scrapped for something a lil more rollover friendly in a few months after its on the road so I'm not too fussed.
