Its the all new, all steel, truck tray......

[ozwinner]

Welcome back viewer.

I want to replace the tub on my f250 with a tray, I have looked for a tray and apart from being far too $:eek: I cant find one.

So, to the drawing board Robin!!

I have drawn one up that I will build over Christmas ( dont worry as I do have a welding ticket ( pressure plate) :cool: ), to the the question Robin.

I want to build it out of 75x50 rhs, what wall thickness should I go for, ( I am thinking 2mm will suffice)?
Should I use a different sized rhs?
If so what size.
The tray will be 2.8M x 1.95M.

Al :)

[echnidna]

Use Aluminium Al, easy to keep clean and NO rust.

[ozwinner]

Use Aluminium Al, easy to keep clean and NO rust.

No thanks, Al dont stand up to the rigures of real life, Ive had an Al tray in the past and I wont be doing it again.

Al :)

[durwood]

I would think that section steel would be more than heavy enough.
Ibuilt a car trailer with smaller and lighter section than that and its fine the chassis of the truck is whats going to take the weight.

The original tray would not be anywhere as heavy in section, its just sheet steel welded into box sections. There are a lot of trays on trucks around which use wood which works Ok.

Suss out some of the small trucks around you may want to go with lighter materail.

[Harry72]

No thanks, Al dont stand up to the rigures of real life, Ive had an Al tray in the past and I wont be doing it again.

Al :)

Dont agree with that, but sure they wont take mistreatment!
The tray on my ute has taken a beating, wood(overloading) gravel bricks concrete... just dont be silly and drop 100kg slabs of concrete on it from 10m high!

Dont build a cheapy, build it to the quality of a Gitsham(spelling?).

[Schtoo]

I don't know Al, but I can ask.

A friend of mine is a truck body builder, usually out of ally but occasionally steel too.

If it were me, I'd do ally. But that's just me. ;)

[HappyHammer]

How 'bout one of these Al :D

HH.

[HappyHammer]

Or this....

http://www.5starfordfleet.com/images/F250%20Wood%20Floor.jpg

HH.

[HappyHammer]

Or this.....:eek:

http://a332.g.akamai.net/f/332/936/12h/www.edmunds.com//media/2006/detroit/ford.f250.superchief/ford.f250.superchief.crg.500.jpg

HH

[Schtoo]

To drag up something from the moderate depths...

I had a talk with the truck builder, he said that 2mm should be ok, but something a little thicker would be better.

The scrap collection trucks he builds usually get slightly
smaller sized stuff, but thicker wall, 3.2-4.5mm. Very strong, since they get abused pretty heavily. The 2mm should fine, so long as you are not going to drop big lumps of brick wall on it from a great height. ;)

Just in case you wanted to know. :D

[Bleedin Thumb]

My two bob's worth.
Go timber slat floor as your tools slide around less ( or if they do its less noisy)
Steel sides and frame but hot dip after construction.
My current ute has aluminium .. just a joke, who in their right mind would fix aluminium with steel fittings and not expect to get electrolysis. the bolts rust and you cant tighten them so the tray rattles like an old Queensland Railmotor.:mad:

[ozwinner]

Thanks guys.
Its on my to do list for over Christmas, maybe Santa will bring me one? :D

Al :)