[claytox]

Just after opinions and ideas on building a tray for my nt lwb ute.
The plan so far is 75×40×4mm C Channel for the frame and mounts, 3mm alu. Checker plate top, with a 40×40×2mm head board.

1, mounting the checker plate, would countersunk/pan head nut and bolts be sufficient? Metal glue will also be used most likely

2, weight. I personally live light cars, hence why i bought a zook. What is a good target weight for the tray?

3, can anyone send me some pictures of the mounts on their tray? It'd be nice to have some rough ideas.

Cheers

[Angus Martin]

I'd drop the 4mm box section down to 3mm, will be plenty strong enough and raise the 2mm to 3mm, could add speed holes if you're worried about weight

[Joshyboy26]

Id use 40x 40x 2 box for frame and mounts with 3mm plate for feet etc.

Something like a 100x 50 x 2mm head board ( i feel would look a bit better and have more fore aft strength.

Go nuts

[Gwagensteve]

Think light.

The chassis of the car is only 2.0mm thick. The heavier the tray the less weight you can put on it.

[claytox]

Cheers guys, 3mm all round i think will be the go. If not, i will sure at shit utilise speed holes

[Joshyboy26]

Lighter!!

[sideways]

Just out of interest I went and measured a factory LJ81 tray (which I can't see being any different to a factory Sierra tray, same payload anyway).

The main mounting rails are 50x50x2.5, these have legs on the bottom that are also 2.5mm (LJ81s don't have the mounting posts on the chassis like Sierras do).

On top of that are Z shaped sections/crossmembers which are 1.8mm thick. The whole rest of the tray (including deck, headboard, sides, tail light panel ect) is made up of 1.5mm thick pressings welded together.

This tray is bent to shit but the mounting rails and most of the crossmembers are fine. It was a farmers fencing rig so it would have copped more abuse than any of us would dish out and have been well over GVM.

I have another one of these trays which is 100% straight but very rusted out.

For an offroad rig I'd want to go thicker for the edges of the tray, the 1.5mm pressings bend quite easily. The rest I don't have an issue with. I was going to go 50x50x2.5 edges speed holed on the inside and bottom edges (doubles as tie downs) and same for the frame, 2mm ally checker floor. I've got some 40x40x2 which I'll probably use for crossmembers but I might go lighter. I've got some alloy drop sides to go on it too.

Also Sierra chassis are 2.5mm thick, as are LJs. I'll measure the jimny later on out of interest.

[claytox]

Sort of have the sam scenario here sideways. Have an example tray, all 2mm stuff and was abused hard as a farm ute (chassis cracked) but tray is fine.

[claytox]

THREAD REVIVAL

How have people gone about mounting trays on the factory mounts? Or does anyone possibly have a photo of a stock tray underside? I've noticed that the chassis posts for the tray are all caddy-whompus, with upty-downs and uneven spacing.