Desing of a "Custom Aluminum Plate Tonneau"

Hey Guys:

I was drawing, designing my truck aluminum plate tonneau. Here I just put the cover drawing. reinforcement will be directly made at workshop.


I'm also thinking on doing it on gauge 16 steel plate, and then cover it with carbon fiber vinyl.


Corners are missing, just let the drawing without them.

Please, comment any improvement you should make to it….before I start building it.

 

Going to be heavy making it out of steel.

 

Existing tonneaus on the market like my Extang Solid Fold use aluminum honeycomb sandwich panels. Newer ones use fiberglass skin with aluminum honeycomb core. You won't be able to achieve similar strength and weight with solid sheetmetal.

16 ga steel sheet is only 0.060" thick. Unless you add a lot of ribbing (which will drive up the weight), it won't be strong enough to support the weight of a man standing on top of the tonneau.

 

Go to Diamondback for ideas- mounting ideas, locks, struts for doors, etc. I like your design, they make several options but none like yours.

 

Looks good, props for building it yourself!

 

Well, the decision about material: aluminum diamond plate 16 gauge.
I started today building it. Next weekend I will finish the job.
The biggest problem was finding where to weld it, since aluminum needs to be welded with a high frequency welding machine.

 

Looks awesome. Subbed to see the product.

 

I was going to say the same thing

http://www.diamondbackcovers.com/

 

This is how it is going

 

That looks pretty cool but ill bet the sun reflection will be blinding.