Anyone regret adding a UTE Tray and Canopy on their Truck? Longevity? Looking at Norweld Tray and canopy

[Jon_at_Mule]

I think both brands are great products, and I previously had a Norweld setup on my Tundra. The MITS is a little lighter, it uses vehicle specific mounts, and MITS offers factory powder coating. I also like the sleeker design of the MITS. The price point is a lot better with the MITS as well.

The new EVO2 trays and canopies that will be arriving into the US in the new few weeks have some major design changes that I am excited to see.

 

[scottpatrol]

you won't reg

Anyone regret adding a UTE Tray and Canopy on their Truck? Looking at Norweld Tray and canopy for F350.
Longevity?
I'd run 4 ARB 101 qt fridges two front and two back with solar panels on top of canopy with additional slide out panels on each side.

you wont regret it mate, a very versatile combination. Lift off the box and you have a flat tray for work or play.

 

[rruff]

Anyone regret adding a UTE Tray and Canopy on their Truck? Looking at Norweld Tray and canopy for F350.
Longevity?

What year F350, and if it is newer, is it the pickup version or cab-chassis? The reason I wonder is because...

Zero regrets here for swapping a factory bed to aluminum flatbed on my Tundra.

... when you mount a rigid flatbed on a frame that is designed to flex torsionally, the two kinda fight each other. Tundras are pretty flexy, and open-C F350s (pre 2017 pickup, and all cab-chassis) even more so.

The flexiest part of the Tundra is aft of the forward spring mount, where the frame transitions to thin open-C. But from the photo below you can see that the flatbed and camper are very rigid and square (not twisted) while lots of twist is happening forward of there... check out the misalignment between the headache rack and the cab, and the cab and the bumper.

Although it is common practice to rigid-mount flatbeds even on flexy frames, I wonder if something might eventually break when you are getting crossed-up offroad all the time.

 

[ThePartyWagon]

I think both brands are great products, and I previously had a Norweld setup on my Tundra. The MITS is a little lighter, it uses vehicle specific mounts, and MITS offers factory powder coating. I also like the sleeker design of the MITS. The price point is a lot better with the MITS as well.

The new EVO2 trays and canopies that will be arriving into the US in the new few weeks have some major design changes that I am excited to see.

Thanks for the info. Was your truck the one that had the tree fall across the bed? Was it red at one point?

 

[Jon_at_Mule]

I didn't have a tree fall across my bed luckily, and it's a black truck.

As far as something breaking due to torsional flex (I am not an expert here) I don't think it's typically the tray. If the tray is not designed properly, and is too rigid it could potentially crack the frame, or mounts. This could also happen from overloading the truck, or not properly distributing the weight. The higher quality trays from Australia I feel are all properly engineered, and as long as you are smart about how you are using the truck you should be just fine. That being said I do inspect my truck before and after a trip, and check all the mounting bolts regularly.

 

[rruff]

As far as something breaking due to torsional flex (I am not an expert here) I don't think it's typically the tray. If the tray is not designed properly, and is too rigid it could potentially crack the frame, or mounts. This could also happen from overloading the truck, or not properly distributing the weight. The higher quality trays from Australia I feel are all properly engineered, and as long as you are smart about how you are using the truck you should be just fine. That being said I do inspect my truck before and after a trip, and check all the mounting bolts regularly.

Something is making the rear end of the Tundra shown above stiff... and that's normally the flexiest part. So it has to be the Norweld tray. If the tray flexed easily, then all that stress would get transferred to the camper... which doesn't seem good at all. I've been told it's standard practice to hard mount stiff flatbeds on Tundras, so they probably tolerate it. I've heard that flexy open-C Superduties do not. If I had one of those I'd at least reinforce the frame around the forward mounting point. Even then, the overworked cab mounts would be even more overworked...

I don't think there are any pickups in Australia with open-C frames, so they wouldn't have local experience with this issue.

 

[Jon_at_Mule]

Something is making the rear end of the Tundra shown above stiff... and that's normally the flexiest part. So it has to be the Norweld tray. If the tray flexed easily, then all that stress would get transferred to the camper... which doesn't seem good at all. I've been told it's standard practice to hard mount stiff flatbeds on Tundras, so they probably tolerate it. I've heard that flexy open-C Superduties do not. If I had one of those I'd at least reinforce the frame around the forward mounting point. Even then, the overworked cab mounts would be even more overworked...

I don't think there are any pickups in Australia with open-C frames, so they wouldn't have local experience with this issue.

The Super Duty frame was updated in 2017 so anything older than that may be subject to a flimsy frame? American full size trucks are becoming more common in Australia and most major manufacturers have installed trays and canopies on Ford, Ram, and GM trucks. I would say that the Aussies use their trucks a bit harder than most of us, and if the trays needed an updated mounting system due to cracking we would have seen it by now. This is just my .02, and again I am not an engineer.

 

[rruff]

The Super Duty frame was updated in 2017 so anything older than that may be subject to a flimsy frame?

SuperDuty pickups (with a bed) from 2017+ have a stiff boxed frame. Cab-chassis are still open-C. They use the standard open-C rails on cab-chassis so they are compatible with standard boxes.

GM and Ram both boxed their frames earlier than Ford.

 

[Paddler Ed]

Here's a bit of a read on the story of the Ute - it's why the red Holden (with the Chevy badge on it.... it does have a Chevy V8 in it) is a ute, and my Land Crusier and Daihatsu aren't:

Dismissed by Henry Ford as a 'kangaroo chaser', the ute became an Australian classic

In the early 1930s, a handwritten letter landed on the desk of Hubert French, Ford Australia's general manager. It came from a farmer's wife from Gippsland, with an idea and a plea for new type of vehicle.

www.abc.net.au