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9
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RAY
?
UTE TUB
The age old question –
how do you set the back of your ute up?
Here’s the age old question – is
a tub or a tray setup better for a
ute? This is of course a highly
personal question, and will
depend on a few things – in
particular, your budget you’ve
got for your buildup. However,
there are a few areas where you
can objectively compare tubs
and trays against each other, so
let’s take a look at the relative
pros and cons of each setup.
UTE TUBS
PROS:
Affordability: Almost all
dual-cab utes on the market
already come with a tub, so it’s
easy to use your existing tub as
a basis for your ute buildup.
Looks: Unless your ute has
been retro-fitted with a tub, it’ll
almost always naturally have a
matching colour and shape to
the cabin, which suits the ute’s
looks well.
Security: Add a hard tonneau
cover or a fiberglass canopy to
your ute tub and you’ll have a
secure setup to store camping
gear, tools and the like.
Aftermarket accessories
availability: Drawers, rear bars,
water tanks and the like are
available from a number of
aftermarket manufacturers to
specifically deck most common
ute tubs out, making use of the
available space cleverly.
CONS:
Cost of add-ons: FIbreglass
canopies start around the
$2,000 mark and easily work
upwards from there, depending
on supplier. That’s a big chunk
of the way towards an
aluminium tray.
Prone to damage: There’s lots
of nicely painted sheetmetal
real estate to damage on a ute
tub, particularly if you’re into
driving the tougher tracks.
Possibility of chassis damage:
Some tubs, particularly Navara
and Triton, extend way back
from the cabin, with a large
rear overhang. The further back
heavy accessories like rear
bars and spare tyres are
placed, the more prone to
bending chassis rails the ute
becomes.
Less adjustability: Tubs aren’t
designed to be easily
removable, so once you deck
yours out with all the goodies,
you lose the ability to use the
ute as, you know, a ute.
TRAYS/CANOPIES
PROS:
Customisation: With an alloy
canopy, you can choose the
setup that’s right for you – a
short ‘dogbox’, a half-length
canopy with half an exposed
tray, or a full-length enclosed
canopy.
Space: you’ll get heaps more
usable space in an alloy canopy,
because you can stack the
insides right to the brim.
Flexibility: Add a set of jack-off
legs and you’ll have the ability
to remove your canopy off your
tray to regain your tray space
when you need to cart bulky
items around.
Cost: Alloy canopies can
actually be extremely cost-
effective, especially when
they’re chassis-mounted – i.e.
no steel tray exists underneath.
CONS:
Ability to overload: It’s actually
scarily easy to overload an alloy
canopy, as there’s so much space
inside them. Particularly so if
you mount the spare wheel(s) off
the rear wall of the canopy.
Cost of customisation: While
what we said above about alloy
canopies being cost-effective is
true, that’s generally speaking
about off-the-shelf options.
Customisation means custom
fabrication, so be prepared to
pay to play if custom is what you
want.
Remote-area damage:
Particularly at the entry level
end of the market, we’ve seen a
lot of alloy canopies that
develop cracks when loaded up
and are subjected to endless
corrugations.
Work involved in fitting one:
It’s considerably easier to fit a
fibreglass canopy to a ute tub,
than it is to remove a ute tub
and replace it with an alloy
canopy/steel tray. Definitely a
job that’s worth paying
someone to do, unless you’ve
got access to a hoist/forklift/
block and tackle.