Toyota Hilux - Aluminium Tray Design & Build

 This section gives a summary of the aluminium tray I designed for the ute.  The goal was to create a flat ute tray that contained a large trundle drawer, internal water tanks and battery storage to keep the centre of mass of the camper design to a minimum and utilise as much space under the tray as possible. 

Basic CAD model of the tray and canopy assembly.

View underneath.  The tray was designed to be made from aluminium extrusions and gusset plates that are pop riveted together using multigrip 4.8mm rivets.  The idea was to minimise the use of welding to keep distorsion down and maintain the base metal strength of the aluminium extrusion (e.g. heat treatment).

The CNC router was used to accurately drill as many of the holes as possible to speed up the assembly process.

Finished gusset plates ready for assembly.

A halving joint technique normal used in timber joinery was used in the aluminium extrusion.  with 50% of the holes able to be pre-drilled with the CNC router.

Test fit of the joint.

Assembly of the extrusion sections.

CNC routing the side / tie rail plates from 3mm checker plate.

Cutting the tray topside and pre-drilling all rivet holes.

Rivet holes where counter bored to allow the rivet head to sit flat on the aluminium sheet.

I was very impressed with the hole surface finish using the CAM "Helical Boring" strategy.

Fitting to the ute and assembling the 1400x1100x220mm trundle drawer (made from CNC routered aluminium honeycomb).

Tie rails, tail lights and steel SHS chassis mounts.