Steel or Aluminium - Which toolbox is best for me?

If you are going to be driving primarily in suburbia, on bitumen sealed roads with relatively smooth surfaces, then you can choose either material. Both will provide you with a resilient product that will serve you well over an extended period

However, if you are going to be doing a lot of kilometres off sealed surfaces, such as corrugated dirt roads or tracks, then you well be much better served using the steel product. The reason for this lies in the strength of the welds that hold your toolbox together. You can never make an aluminium weld as strong as a steel weld. With the increased bouncing, shaking and general movement that your toolbox will be subjected to in these conditions, steel welds will withstand this punishment much, much better and provide you with much more resilient toolboxes that offer greater longevity

• How much of my payload can my Toolboxes consume?

Given most standard dual-cab utes have a total payload of only around 650kg, it makes sense to try and limit how much of this is consumed by your tray, toolboxes and canopies - to maximise how much equipment and materials ou can actually have on board. If this is your higher priority decision, then aluminium will be your chice every time. In most situations, your aluminium product could be up to 25% lighter than an equivalent steel item. It may not sound like much, but potentially a couple of aluminium toolboxes could save you up to 50kg on your tray, which is a lot of extra tools or material that you can accomodate

 

• What sort of finish am I looking for

The vast majority of aluminium toolboxes are made from checker plate. This light-weight, dense material is ideal for this purpose, providing a hard-wearing surface that also tends to hide the appearance of many of the small dents and scratches that will appear on your toolboxes over time. However, a lot of people don't find the checker plate appearance very pleasing, and so the smoother, flat plate or powder coated finish of a steel toolbox might be more appealing. It might also allow you to better match the appearance of the toolbox to your vehicle, or allow you an easier to surface to work with for advertising.

 

There will obviously be other things to consider in your selection process, but these are the items that come up most often. Rest assured that whatever your requirements, we will have a toolbox or canopy here at Magnum that will most likely satisfy your needs.

Or give our friendly team a call, and we'll help you with whatever information you need.