Tray mounting

[DanielFelsTrees]

I am getting a flatbed steel tray made with a hardwood timber floor for a slide on camper, so will be getting pretty close to the GVM... read a fair few of the old posts about mounts and chassis cracking but none of the pictures worked, just wondering if there is any new information or advice out there...???
Got the basics of putting rubber/ polyeurathene bushes between the mounts and the chassis....

[austastar]

Hi,
On my 130 the front mounts did shear the small bolts, so I beefed up the mounts a bit.
There is no flex in my tray, and the slide on is fibreglass, so is also quite rigid. Also the camper ties down to points on the chassis, adding more rigidity.
My spare tyre sits under the tray at the front of the left side, recommend you do similar, so leave room.
Perhaps leave a hatch in the tray for access to the fuel pump?
I wired my tray with a trailer plug for easy removal, also hinged the wheel arch to make it easier to drive out from under it.
There is a huge space under the tray, I should have allowed for drawers under there. Still planning to do it some time by realigning the mounting rails.
Cheers

[MLD]

the mounts for my 130 are very diffident to the usual set up so i can't assist much. But in respect of your comment of using a bush between the 2 metal surfaces i have also seen the use of a high tensile spring but it is fitted below the 2 metal surfaces. Visualise this: tray mount plate - chassis mount - spring - washer - nut (for bolt). In theory the spring allows the 2 metal surfaces to move against each other without all the energy being transferred only to the bolt or mounts. A mate runs that set up in a LCruiser and has done so for years of service. Anyway just a different way to view a common issue for most trayed 4wd's.

[dromader driver]

having seen a few cracked chassis the most important thing is to NOT make it stiffer than the chassis. The mounting system for tanks should be a guide with pins and retaining springs allowing movement. An ally tray allows more sympathetic movement between the tray and chassis.

If the retaining bolts broke it's a message.

Yes I own a rigid steel tray that moves around on its mounts with mentioned nylock nuts on rubber bushed mounts and I still don't like it !!!!!

[Mark130]

Good thread to follow on from the 'cracked chassis' thread.
Once I get my 'soundproofing and fix leaks' project done I'll be pulling my back off.
Back in the day I had a 'you beaut' back built, that was undoubtedly stronger than the truck.
Although basic logic prevailed, we never considered building any 'give' into it.
I never thought about it or any chassis issues till I joined AULRO.
Thanks again for the insight. I'll revisit thread once I pull it down.

[roverrescue]

From Summits experience it is important to tie the front two chassis points
Together. Then build in some flexibility.

Pictures a bit out of order but I have a steel 75x75x5mm angle joint front chassis mounts with some bracing and capacity for the tray rails to then be mounted on RV8 engine mounts up front At the rear M16 stud welded to The rear crossmember. So four mount points.
Using Al beam (200mm) for the tray rails creates space for
75L water ,75L Dieso , spare wheel and a slide out tool drawer
All inside an 1800mm long tray.



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For a slide on I’d look to using Ally tray to save weight and using space beneath if the height is not an issue????

Steve

[austastar]

Hi,
found some old photos of the tray mounting on my single cab.

I inherited a second hand tray which was fitted for me, so I had little choice on how it was mounted. I had to remove it to get access to be able to put in some where to hold the spare tyre.

https://www.aulro.com/afvb/images/imported/2017/12/430.jpg
Bare chassis as I started.


https://www.aulro.com/afvb/images/imported/2017/12/431.jpg
The mounting frame I made up.


https://www.aulro.com/afvb/images/imported/2017/12/432.jpg
The wheel held with the screw thread and mounting disk.


A year or so later I could hear the tray mounts squeaking and investigated.



https://www.aulro.com/afvb/images/imported/2017/12/433.jpg
I replaced the broken bolt. You can see the old bits lying on the rail and the rust showing movement in the joint.

https://www.aulro.com/afvb/images/imported/2017/12/434.jpg
I retapped the holes for the bolts and went up a size. Also tacked a support on to take the shear load on the bolt.


This is just the way I did it, it is not necessarily correct engineering, but nothing has broken since.

As mentioned in my previous post, flex is some what compromised by the chassis mountings used to lock the camper on to the tray. This does take some of the stress off the tray mounts by sharing the load I suppose.

Cheers

[dromader driver]

Found it. Extract from National code of practice for heavy vehicles133592133593

[SSmith]

I am getting a flatbed steel tray made with a hardwood timber floor for a slide on camper, so will be getting pretty close to the GVM... read a fair few of the old posts about mounts and chassis cracking but none of the pictures worked, just wondering if there is any new information or advice out there...???
Got the basics of putting rubber/ polyeurathene bushes between the mounts and the chassis....Land rover have published a converters manual with directions on how and where to mount to the chassis.

I found the where bit to be quite the opposite of how I found the tray fitted by previous owner/dealer/ I have no idea who did it.

I have a copy, for a puma engined defender tho, that I can email if you like just PM an email address.

[Colmoore]

From Summits experience it is important to tie the front two chassis points
Together. Then build in some flexibility.

Pictures a bit out of order but I have a steel 75x75x5mm angle joint front chassis mounts with some bracing and capacity for the tray rails to then be mounted on RV8 engine mounts up front At the rear M16 stud welded to The rear crossmember. So four mount points.
Using Al beam (200mm) for the tray rails creates space for
75L water ,75L Dieso , spare wheel and a slide out tool drawer
All inside an 1800mm long tray.



133582
133583
133584
133585
133586
133587



For a slide on I’d look to using Ally tray to save weight and using space beneath if the height is not an issue????

Steve

Wowsers, you've put some thought and effort into that - great work!
Want to send me some pics of the rest of the rig, particularly the tray and camper?
Cheers,
Col

[roverrescue]

Col,
No camper on my 130.
A dog box at rear of 1800 tray which perfectly fits an MSA dropslide and 40L engel. Solar on roof of dog box and battery on port rear cross member.
Works well, most of time just the dogs get the rear but when camping with dogs they squish into half box and if camping without dogs can throw light gear into the box

A few pictures below tell the story

Just noticed the last picture was before I mounted the battery on rear cross member. Will update photos but essentially have a 130AH AGM mounted off the tray chassis rail with pickup point to cross member.
Manual switching of solar panels and then 1,2 both off rotary switch so solar/alternator can charge cranker or AGM or both. Fridge can be run off either or both batteries. Gives me total control of 12V with no fuss.
Run a Victron solar controller with BR dongle so have a good idea of whats going on at all times.

Steve

[VladTepes]

The aforementioned cab-chassis conversion manual can be found by scrolling down a bit here:

https://www.aulro.com/afvb/local_links.php?catid=7&sort=N&page=2&pp=10

[roverrescue]

Vlad.
Thanks for linking the doc
Do note however that the doc mentions to attach tray to rear cross member and then two chassis members as far forward as possible with no hard connections in-between
HOWEVER
Summitts' and others experience has been to limit off-road chassis cracking there is value in essentially building a forward cross member (like the rear crossmember)
Then the tray rails are bolted (softly) to front and rear cross members.

My design used 75x75x5 angle with some other angles etc to build up enough height above fuel filter and clearance for spare and tanks - but the front cross member is solid bolted to existing chassis in 6 places.

Tray rails are then softly bolted to the front and rear cross members.

My old tdi 130 had no front cross member and I re-welded both chassis and tray rails on several occasions. The front cross member seems to be a winner even though it is not mentioned in that Landrover PDF.

Steve

[VladTepes]

What do you mean by "softly bolted" ?

[roverrescue]

As in not hard bolted!
Either the spring mount through bolts as mentioned above or engine mounts or other rubber mounts with some give.

I think the lesson is the landy chassis is relatively flexible - if you hard bolt a rigid tray to it the chassis will still want flex - and that flex needs to be accounted for.

IME having it solidly bolted at the rear cross member and flexible mounting at the front cross member gives good long term results.

S

[Tote]

Here's how I ended up doing my 130 DC tray which is very stiff.

Front most mounts are bolted to a tie bar that is welded to the tray, this gives some flex.

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The middle mounts that have a tendency to crack are mounted with some old Inter valve springs to allow some flex.

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The rear of the tray is solidly mounted with a rubber between the tray and the chassis

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And the tray

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It's been on there for 18 months now and seems to be holding up, these pics were on the other thread but photobucket ate them.

Regards,
Tote

[Danjeffery]

I’ve been reading a few posts about this recently. So it’s probably time I also did something about my 130. I’m currently running a Triple M steel tray mounted to the front original mounts for a HCPU tub and the triple m mounts for the rear 2 mounts (simple angle ran across the rear cross member)
There is no rubber or anything between the mounts and the chassis.
What sort of rubber is recommended? I tried Clarke rubber and they could only supple some insertion rubber which seems too soft on my opinion.

Cheers

[Tote]

I just used clarke rubber insertion rubber between the mounts and the tray, seems to do the job of quietening it down, I had to remount mine after the dealer mounted it rigidly when they delivered the vehicle.

Regards,
Tote