UpTOP Overland's UTE Bed Replacement

UpTOP Overland's UTE Bed Replacement

BED REPLACEMENTS AVALIABLE NOW! CLICK HERE!

Back Story On The UTE!

I've been camping since I was a kid. Like most people, I started in the dirt with a ground tent, and I thought that was the greatest thing ever. The experience of sleeping outside and everything that comes with it, well, almost everything...... 
Why can you almost never roll that tent up and get it back into the bag as tight as it was the day you got it? Why couldn't they make the bag a little bigger? The zipper a little easier to pull? Don't get me started on sleeping bags.  
I'm proud to report that I have not managed even a little bit in adulthood to reel that part of me in. If something doesn't work properly, if it doesn't fit together, if it isn't easy, it will drive me straight jacket, padded room insane. 
Over the last four years I have designed and produced thousands of roof and bed racks for just about every vehicle that can drive off pavement. I've swapped, changed, refined, altered, and modified every part of my personal vehicle trying to dial in the ultimate camping set up. 

 

Here are a couple of things that I learned along the way.... 
Your pickup truck bed will hold a ton of gear. Some of it you need, some of it you don't. But if we are being honest with ourselves, we are all taking it anyway every time we head out on an adventure.
 The second you get to camp and start using your tailgate as a table all the gear in your truck bed is now completely inaccessible. You need a drink out of the cooler? Move the stove. You want to get to that lawn chair so you can finally relax? Take out the storage boxes, slide the cooler out of the way and drag out your chair. 

 

Why is everything covered in dust!!!!!!?????? 
I think you get the idea, and I would be shocked if your experience wasn't nearly identical to my own. I spend more time digging through boxes, moving stuff out of the way, and....... oh man it's starting to rain. Put it all back in the bed. 
Adventuring can be stressful. When I get to camp I want to shut it down, put my feet on the ground, and unplug from everything, and forget I have to go back to work on Monday. 
On our camping trip over the 4th of July holiday, I think I hit my limit. The Jeep was in the shop getting suspension work so we took the trusty Tacoma out for the weekend. It rained. It was cold. I was unorganized. The truck wasn't ready. I spent the entire trip muddy, frustrated, and wet. On the way home I told Kimmy that I wouldn't take another trip until I found a solution. 
The next weekend and the purpose for this blog I began to design the Ute. What is the Ute and why do I even care? They use them in Australia, not Colorado, right? You're not wrong. Ten years ago nobody knew what a roof top tent was and we were all sleeping on the ground. Times are changing.
  This blog will follow along with the design, refinement, and initial production of the Ute truck bed replacement system that will put everything I need exactly where it is supposed to be so I can finally do what I love the most, camp. 

 

What is it?
The Ute flat bed is a complete bed replacement system that requires the removal of the factory bed, tailgate, bumper, and in some cases the receiver hitch mount.

 

Uptop Overland UTE Tacoma Truck Bed Replacement

What trucks will it fit?
We intend to release three available sizes as follows:
Mid Size Truck, Short Bed. This will cover your Toyota Tacoma, Ford Ranger, Colorado/Bison/Canyon, Jeep Gladiator, Toyota HiLux, Nissan FrontierFull-Size Truck, Short bed. By short bed here we mean the 5’5” option found primarily on Toyota, Chevy, Ford, Nissan, and RamFull-Size Truck, Long bed. By long bed here we mean the 6’5” option found primarily on Toyota, Chevy, Ford, Nissan, and Ram.

 

How will the product be sold?
The system will be available as a complete tray (the lower portion with the drawer, fenders, and side storage boxes) along with the canopy (The upper portion with the lift-up doors).

 

Can it be purchased as a stand-alone unit?
It will be possible to purchase the tray as a stand-alone unit (drawers, fenders, and side storage included) with or without the headache rack. This will be most attractive for full-size truck owners who use a 4 Wheel Camper style flat bottom camper. In this configuration, the canopy can always be added later in life as needed.
There's similar Tacoma UTE Tray bed replacements available on our website now! Check it out here!
Once this one releases we will have links to it too! 

 

Other Features:
We will offer a set of bed sides with a removable (non-articulating) tailgate in order to maintain the function of an actual pickup truck bed. Those bed sides will be compatible with our existing TRUSS bed rack systems for even more versatility and configuration options.
All tray units will have DOT-approved tail lights with running, turn, and brake lights built in. Reverse light will be provided. Final location to be determined. These locations will be dependent on towing equipment requirements.

 

What type of metal will it be constructed using?
The major components will be constructed of stainless steel.

 

How much weight will it add to my truck?
The design goal is that a tray replacement would be net-neutral with no major weight increase to the vehicle over the stock configuration of truck bed, tailgate, and factory bumper/receiver hitch.

 

Will my factory trailer hitch still work?
In some cases, you will find that the factory receiver hitch is integrated into the rear bumper, requiring the addition of an aftermarket receiver hitch for towing requirements. These additional parts are not included with any Ute tray/canopy product. More information will be available as final production details are stitched together.

 

When will you be taking orders?
We are shooting for a 2022 Q4 launch date for accepting pre-orders.  We will update you as soon as possible once we have a hard launch date.

 

Ute update - THE airFRAME™

uptop overland tacoma bed replacement airframe

One of the things that we have learned over the years building roof and bed racks is that if you think you have something designed to be stout enough to handle the off road environment, you should go over it again, add some welds, maybe a gusset or five, make the bolts bigger, and use nylon locking hardware.

You would be amazed how many times in testing a product we ripped things to shreds on what we thought was a mild trail. Broken parts. Fractured welds. Bolts sheared right in half. Access to the best design software on earth is no match for the Rocky Mountains at speed. 

Trails show no mercy to your vehicle or the things you have mounted to them. Hit a dirt road with the wrong suspension and 40 Psi in your tires and not only will you jar your soul but you will also shake things loose on your vehicle that you wouldn’t imagine could come loose. All of this experience and knowledge has to come together for the Ute in a final design that can be shipped relatively flat, assembled by someone without a degree in structural engineering, and ready for an adventure before it’s time to readjust your clocks. This should be easy , right?

 Design a system that can shows up at your door in some boxes, assembles into the sinister looking tray and canopy we’ve promised you, and survives every dirt road, mountain pass, sand dune, and river bed you can point your truck at. Oh yeah...we also must figure out how to make parts interchangeable between vehicle platforms to keep the production lead times down. So... how?

You abandon what you are used to and aluminum gives way to materials like stainless steel because it is stronger and more rigid. It’s less likely to scratch when you drag it through the bush. You bring in experts on structural steel and you listen to what they have to say. You research bushings, bearings, latches, and handles to find the right one for the job. You embrace stress analysis, metallurgy, and learn about new types of hardware that can handle the abuse a Ute will have to endure to wear the badge. You acknowledge that simply having an idea doesn’t necessarily mean you know the best way to build it.

 The airFRAME is the first step in that direction. Adaptable to nearly any pickup truck on the market we’ve engineered and re-engineered the most rigid structure for a tray platform ever conceived that doesn’t forget that it is on a vehicle that will be twisting, turning, jumping, and climbing over mother earth and it will do that job while allowing fender adjustment for large tires and long travel suspension.

 It integrates weather-resistant boxes and drawers adding storage in places that not only make sense but expand the amount of gear you can bring and how you organize it. 

 At the end of it all the Ute might be the hardest product we have ever designed. It’s definitely the biggest -  but you know what they say? If you have to eat an elephant, then you do it one bite at a time.

 The airFRAME was the first bite and we cannot wait to show you how It works.

Ute update - How do you know if you got it right?

UTE Tacoma Bed Replacement

I’ve just returned from my fourth trip with the prototype Ute. In seven days we covered a lot of ground exploring Wyoming taking in the Grand Tetons, Yellowstone and so many things in between. Travelling, or more specifically driving, has never been something I thoroughly enjoy. Being trapped in a truck built for trails on countless miles of interstate is not my idea of a great time but windshield time does give you a chance to think.

I thought a lot about where we started in late 2018 compared to where we are today. When we first began this journey it was really out of necessity. I needed a roof rack, so I made one. I needed a bed rack so I built one of those as well. Banging down a trail in Utah with 40 PSI in my tires (I was lazy) I learned a valuable lesson about welded aluminum. My bed rack looked the part. My welds told an entirely different story. I had a lot to learn.

I ratchet strapped what was left of my bed rack to my Tacoma to finish my trip and chalked it up as a learning experience but I’d be lying if I said I didn’t spend the rest of the trip and the entire drive home thinking about what I had gotten wrong. I came to terms with the fact that I was not yet a great welder, or even a good one, but I couldn’t help but think there was more to it than that.

That bed rack failure might have been the best thing that ever happened to me from an engineering standpoint. Was it embarrassing? Sure. Does it stay with me now every time I sit down to start the design of a new product? You can bet your ass that it does.

When you get the opportunity to see the Ute in person and you are reading this blog you will see in real life what that experience did for me. Every piece of the Ute was overbuilt. The stress models for a product like this will only take you so far. It’s difficult to compensate for the additional cargo loads, the twisting and turning, and the vibrations encountered on the trails we love to explore. So how do you know that you’ve got it right? You try and destroy it. You load it with more gear than you need. You’ve got to knowingly exceed the weight specifications. You don’t go slow, you go fast. You don’t avoid obstacles, you seek them out. Basically you hammer the product as hard as you can for as long as you can and you try and break it. It might actually be my favorite part of my job now.

Every night you get your tools out and you check the hardware, inspect welds, and verify your torque specifications. You have to crawl over every inch of your creation and find weak spots. Did the hardware stay tight? How are the door seals? Latches good? What about the factory mounting locations? I’ve got a lot of miles on the Ute and there are no weak spots.

So yeah, I saw mountains, geysers, and a bear but I also saw the Ute do what it was made for.

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