Trayback 110 Defenders

I bought my Defender 110 cab/chas with all steel tray fitted from ULR Melbourne, new in Jan 2011. It was invoiced as a cab/chas

The tray was made in Melb by Top Deck and was separately invoiced.
My understanding is that Defender utes - known as HCPUs were a factory supplied product and that trays were not a factory supplied option.

Interesting, my 110 was built Sept 2009, is labelled MY2010 and I bought it brand new (29 km ) January 2011 but warranty was back dated to 29 September 2010 on the basis it was a Demonstrator. I only became aware of this in late 2010 when I claimed for some warranty work and was knocked back. But that is another story.


Keith


2016 Range Rover Sport HSE SDV6
2013 Range Rover Sport SDV6 gone. Storm write off
1999 Discovery II V8 gone sadly
1984 RR V8 gone sadly
Series III HCPU gone
Series III Table top gone

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Originally Posted by JDNSW

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Trayback four wheel drives have always been a niche product except in Australia, as far as I am aware.

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Indeed. When I sent a photo of my Series III to mike of Britannica Restorations fame he was over the moon. He'd not seen one in the UK or North America but had built one himself based on a Telstra unit he'd seen here.

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Originally Posted by Tote

There are many yards in rural NSW filled with Ranger and Hilux tubs where people have bought an upspec vehicle and pulled the tub off to fit a tray because only lower spec vehicles have a cab chassis option available.

Regrds,
Tote

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That turns into a racket, in much the same way upgrading wheels to aftermarket ones does. The dealer charges full whack for the new bits and then keeps the other bits, which the buyer has paid for. and then sells them on. Course, wheels are easier to shift than ute tubs.

Just as a followup on this thread, my memory suggests that here the changeover from utes to traybacks started in the mid sixties, and within a decade had become the norm for working utilities, including four wheel drives.

My theory is that it was the result of the spread of forklifts in use by hardware and rural supply retailers, so that the tradesman or farmer could get a pallet of supplies instead of having to load packages small enough to handle by one or two workers. It is a lot easier to load and unload a flat tray with forklift than it is a ute.

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Originally Posted by JDNSW

It is a lot easier to load and unload a flat tray with forklift than it is a ute.

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It certainly is, and without the intrusion of the wheel arches the tray can hold considerably more.

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Originally Posted by Tins

It certainly is, and without the intrusion of the wheel arches the tray can hold considerably more.

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Depends on how you look at it. A trayback can hold more if the load is to a set footprint like a pallet and cannot fit between the wheel arches. However, I went the other way. I went from a trayback to a 110 HCPU so I could reduce the centre of gravity of my load. This in turn allowed me to carry more firewood in the rough with a lower centre of gravity. I also happily carry a 1000 litre tank of water in the HCPU between the wheels in the rough whereas I would not put such a load on a trayback and go where I go with that much water sitting above the wheels of a trayback configuration. It is very much a Horses for courses thing.

I think the biggest advantage I see of a trayback (having had one previously) is all around 270 degree access to the load so if you are a tradie and carry different things at the same time you don't have to lift anything heavy over anything else to get to it. This is the only drawback I have using the HCPU fitted. Heavy or awkward stuff I have to stack at the tailgate end of the deck to get ready access. A minor point in my case. If I am carrying a lot of heavy stuff a lot of the time I also have a truck crane I have adapted to fit into the HCPU. I made the centre spinning pedestal and supporting framework and then use the top part of my garage engine crane onto this to lift big stuff on and off.