This past week Matt designed and cut a new prototype for our 2023 Chevy Colorado. While many of you are familiar with our Bulkhead Accessory Rail Kits, some of you may not be acquainted with our Cab Wall MOLLE Panel kits... we offer these for Toyota Tacoma, Jeep Gladiator, Chevy/GMC 1500 & HD, and Rivian R1T, and they are an incredibly versatile storage solution perfect for securing Bike Fork Mounts, Packout Mounting Bracket Kits, Pouches and more.
Our Cab Wall MOLLE Panel for 2023+ Mid-Size GM trucks has been on the to-do list for a little while now, so we jumped at the opportunity to develop an initial prototype to be debuted at Overland Expo East this weekend. There are a few off-road/overland essentials that are best mounted up and out of the way, ready to be grabbed just in case you need them... Traction Boards (or Recovery Boards) are one of those items. They're a little awkwardly long, but stack mostly flat and are infrequently grabbed if you're not prone to getting stuck. Because of this and the fact that our Universal Traction Recovery Board Mounts are extremely modular, we decided to create this Cab Wall Panel with Traction Recovery Boards and larger gear in mind.
Using our original 3D scan of the truck bed Matt collected to develop our 2023+ Colorado/Canyon Bedside Racks, Matt matched the contours of the bed and wheel wells perfectly for the Cab Wall Panel and sent the file to our new laser. We opted to cut this first prototype from 11ga. steel and hand bend it. After thoroughly wire-wheeling, grinding and welding the panel, we were ready to test-fit this first prototype in the truck.
While this initial design did bolt to the truck's cab wall flawlessly, there are a few aspects of this panel that we would change before making it a salable part. From adding more standoff on the top portion of the panel so mounting hardware doesn't contact the bed, to making it an assembly of 2 pieces to make packaging and installation easier - a few changes were noted that would make this a much better product. That being said, everything fit on the cab wall as intended, and we have a clear path forward for developing this panel. Next step was to hit the panel with primer and a few coats of rattle-can texture black so that the raw metal prototype isn't fully exposed to the elements.
If you are interested in a Cab Wall MOLLE solution for your 2023+ Chevy Colorado or GMC Canyon, please reach out to us and let us know! Email us at support@builtrightind.com, or click this 'Help' link to let us know that you'd like to be notified once this Cab Wall solution becomes available. From securing your MAXTRAX to a few bikes, yard implements or tool boxes - this will be an awesome solution for everyone who loves to use their 2023+ Mid-Size GM truck.
This finished initial prototype is secured to the truck using the same composite GM bed mounting blocks we use for our other GM Bedside Racks, which makes the jump to being production-ready much smaller. Between three of those GM blocks at the top and three sturdy rivnuts at the bottom, we've ensured there's no movement to the panel. This gives us the perfect blank canvas to build off of and a lot of extra real estate to secure essential overlanding/off-roading equipment.
Mounting our Universal Traction Recovery Board Mounts and a set of MAXTRAX to the Cab Wall Panel couldn't have been easier - we had extra space below them too, so we stashed our axe and a Small MOLLE Pouch at the bottom of the prototype. With a few test smacks and a "That's not goin' anywhere!" we called this project a success and are now ready to bring the truck down to Overland Expo East. What would you mount to this Cab Wall MOLLE Panel? Let us know in a comment down below!
Watch the full Cab Wall MOLLE Panel Prototyping episode below:
What can I keep in my BuiltRight MOLLE Pouches?
BuiltRight at Overland Expo East 2024!