The Elephant In The Boot

Learning To Live With A Ute In The Urban Jungle

- Glenn Butler

THE BIGGEST drawcard with utes is the ute bit, right? And so far the BT-50’s tray – 1530mm wide by 1571mm long before the durable plastic liner standard on the GT and the wheel arches are taken into account – has carried five two-metre doors and enough wood to build my big garage cupboard. The cupboard, by the way, has been dubbed the Black Hole because it’s where our possessions will go and never be seen again.

The wheelarches do eat into the width, reducing that measurement to 1110mm at its narrowest, but that was still wide enough for my doors. I did have to lean most of the lumber against the roof – which I protected with a $9 carpet square from Bunnings – and then used the tie-down points in the tray to keep it all safe. It took some effort to get the goods the goods up onto the tray, as it’s 828mm off the ground, but that’s on par with its rivals.