Australian Dopers and other outdoorsy types - help me build a ute!

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
1

My wife and I went to Australia for two weeks at the end of September. Her best friend lives in Broome, on the northwest coast. She and her husband are bush guides there, and they took us on an amazing trip up the Kimberley coast for a camping/crabbing/fishing/exploring trip. It was one of the greatest trips I’ve ever taken. Incredible. We camped on the edge of the Indian Ocean, 13,000 miles from home, with no other human being probably within 200 miles of us in any direction.

Our second day out, I was slogging through the fetid, stinking crocodile mangrove mud, shoulder-deep in the bank, dragging (I’m on the right - what can I say? You don’t look good while crabbing.) mud crabs out for our dinner. Absolutely astounding experience.

Anyway, one of the things that most impressed me about getting out there was the utility vehicle that my wife’s friends had put together for their and their business’s use.

As you can see from the photo, it’s built on the bed of a Toyota Tacoma (4WD), which has been highly modified. It has the spotlights on the front, the snorkel, and a tricked-out utility tray on the back. They’ve further modified it to contain a water tank under the rear end for wash water, a retractable camp shade, and an entire field kitchen built into the side of the truck. The field kitchen basically contains a well-organized shelf system for food storage, pots/pans, dutch ovens, etc. There’s no oven or source of heat - they do their cooking on fires.

It’s a neat system, and with as much camping and outdoor field work as I do Stateside, I’m frankly jealous.

Problem is, this appears to be an almost exclusively Australian thing. Utes are very common there - every other vehicle in Broome was a ute, and they were quite common even in Sydney as well. There appears to be no shortage of suppliers of the basic trays and custom builders - in Australia. But I can’t find much of anything in the US.

It’s just so damn practical. I don’t really need a snorkel. I could do without the brushguard or the spotlights - but I simply must have the basic camping utilities mounted on a 4WD. Now that I’ve lived out of the back of one for several days, I just won’t be able to see car camping or fieldwork the same way again.

So, does anybody have any ideas? Assume I have the truck. I just need ways to kit it out.

2

i have always been a little envious of the ute also …

sounds like a fun project …good luck~

3

Thanks! To clear things up for the smartasses, no, I’m not talking about the El Camino-esque Holden Ute. :stuck_out_tongue:

4

That makes more sense, I thought it was a defendant in a murder trial.

5

Well thanks for dropping in and saying hello. I was only a thousand miles away.

To be honest, I would not have referred to that vehicle as a ute- a ute is the Holden type one.

No matter what you call it, I still can’t help you build one.

6

Yeah- just asked my partner- she would not have used the term ute either. it is a 4 WD slightly modified. There are so many around. Your firends sound as though it has been well done up.

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That sounds like brilliant fun Ogre, and you didn’t get killed by a creature which is always a plus in Australia.

Also, I was rather tickled by the tag you used for the picture of the MASSIVE MUD CRAB CLAW…it simply say “claw”…well thanks for that Ogre, that helpful description clarified what it was I was looking at! I hope it was tasty you lucky bugger.

Can’t help you with the ute either. I now live in rural Kent where the most off-roading I do is to fetch cucumbers from the bottom of the garden.

But even so, Of course I want one of those as well. I’m a man and it speaks to my inner bush ranger.

8

There’s utes and there’s utes. Anything with a bed tends to get called a ute around here, when this Southern American transplant would have just called it a pickup truck (which is a term not in evidence.)

You can have all you can catch in my inner city suburb, they’re too big to park on my street and they annoy me.

9

Lookee! The crappiest website ever, even if it was still 1996.

10

Ogre, my only suggestions (based on no knowledge of anything) is to get the specs for the modifications you want from your Broome friends, and have your current vehicle customised locally.

Because this seems so simple a solution, I’m ready for my ignorance to be fought. (Actually, it won’t fight; it’ll just lay down rather apologetically.)

11

Most of the those accessories are more commonly mounted on a “camper trailer” or “tent trailer” in the US or Africa and towed behind RV, particularly as you move to the southern parts of Australia. I’m sure if you locate a tent trailer supplier he’ll have all the parts you need .
Regard Charles

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Have your friend provide photos and then look in your area for a place that does custom truck bodies.

Do you already have a truck to modify? That would be the first step. Two door or four?

Don’t forget your checkbook!

13

What can I tell ya? The guy’s as native as they come, and his name for it is “the ute.”

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Sadly I had to drink all the cold beers I put aside for you.

And of course, “the ute” can be a nick name or local lingo. If I owned something like that i would probably call it “The Hurricane”.

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Sorry about that. :slight_smile: Yeah, that beastie was a mud crab, and man oh man, was he (always male. Never killed the females) delicious.

Done!

Yeah, there are a number of Australian sites online (most which seem to be as primitive as that one) for custom builders. But here’s one thing I noticed while in Australia: stuff is really, really expensive. I can’t imagine what it would take to have a tray custom built in Australia and then have it sent to the US. shudder

Yeah, but I don’t really know where to go with the specs. What kind of builder?

16

Funny thing: everybody I ran into in Broome (who was drinking beer) drank Corona. What’s up with that? Is Corona extremely popular in Straya, or was that an isolated local phenomenon?

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Thanks! That’s an angle I had not thought of.

18

I dunno - a sheet metal mechanic?

19

Don’t forget the roo bar.

20

It would’ve fed a family of four!

Actually that would’ve been a perfect opportunity for your host to pull a proper Crocodile Dundee moment

“that’s not a crab-claw…that’s a crab-claw”