The good: it looks almost stock, and feels solid when down. That's it.

The bad: It rattles. The cutting board notch is not doing what it is supposed to be doing, the board is sliding out with lateral accelerations insufficient to disturb the surface of a latte in the cupholder and banging the sides with confidence - it's heavy.

The ugly: Zen: They tell you, and you go "Oh, yeah, sure". And then twenty years later - "Oh, that's what they actually meant...". Also, "the problem with the Internet is that you find what you were looking for". I was looking for a good table, the Internet told me that was the one - and didn't show anything else.

Buckle up.

When Ronin Defender said "cursing and bleeding"... I don't know if I saw his post before and didn't realize what I'm looking at, or after I got the table when I knew what he meant, but yeah, that's basically what you get. The damn thing *demands* blood sacrifices. And more - not only the edges are sharp, that's not dirt that you see on the photos - that's steel spattered on the surface and welded to it. You will really need to work to get it off, and spend some time, abrasives, and elbow grease. Or else, your nice HDPE cutting board will be ripped to shreds in a matter of a few times of sliding out and in. Oh, and that protective film? It's not there to protect the manufactured part, but the raw steel sheet. The fact that it's there is not a symptom of caring for you (like it was claimed somewhere in the reviews), but of manufacturer's laziness (some call it "cost saving measures" these days, others "arrogance"). Look at the photos, you'll see what I mean.

The drop down part looks like it was engineered to lock when slammed shut. Instead, it hits the pin, you have to close it by hand.

The design looks like the four rubber standoffs were supposed to keep the whole thing in tension and a) prevent rattles and b) keep the cutting board from sliding. Neither of that is happening, two bottom standoffs are sticking out, the one on top right is flush, the one on top left is below the surface. My best guess is that the stainless steel part is corkscrewed or just bent downward - this is not easily fixed without taking it off, if at all.

It is also too wide for the cutting board, there's at least 3-4mm gap on the sides. Also, I don't know if it was stamped correctly - even if I try to hold the cutting board up with my hands, the pin still doesn't hold it securely - the sideways motion of the cutting board just lifts the pin and the board keeps going on its merry way.

Bottomline, this design has potential, but the execution absolutely killed it. I am looking at old reviews and see "no rattles" and "good fit" and am being genuinely puzzled - are we talking about the same product? It has the same website URL on it all right, but it absolutely doesn't look like the quality product folks say it was. Or did the manufacturer get complacent and relax their QA? But wait, no, that laser cut steel is a dead giveaway that it was supposed to be like that (along with some things in the Youtube installation video you will only recognize after you saw them in person while installing the table). It is as if they're saying "let's try to see how bad we can make it before they notice and the word gets around". Was it like that in the beginning?

Now, is it salvageable? Sure, if you like the idea of paying someone to have done a horrible job of making it. You might even like the result. But if you get paid by the hour - I think the Plumb table (which I have to admit I never saw) might be a better option despite its astronomical price - you'll end up spending that money in time anyway.

Now, "pics or it didn't happen".

Part 1 - packaging. This was *inside* of the bubble wrap, so all of this happened at the manufacturer's site. Also note the crack in the powder coat; won't rust where I live but will elsewhere.








Part 2 - design. This is how the rivets look like on the bottom; you will never see them once the table is assembled, and that seam doesn't carry much structural load so it's just a telltale sign of cutting corners during design for me. You decide for yourself.




Part 3 - The Bloodwork. Unless you take care of this, your crew will keep getting cuts, and not the clean kind.










Part 4 - the end result.

The table will interfere with the stock privacy screen; no big deal for me - I just fold the flap up, or it is irrelevant because the vehicle is packed full and there are MOLLE plates on the windows that obstruct visibility anyway.


This is a stopgap solution that I use to prevent the table from rattling and sliding sideways. Yeah, I know, I need to get those rubber bumps extended in a high tech sort of a way, but Real Life (TM) gets in the way, so it is what it is.


The only saving grace is that this table does what it's supposed to do: holds stuff in a way that inspires confidence. Not that I'm going to sit on it, but it feels like I could.

 

Sad to hear this, bought mine over 3 years ago and can not recognise the above mentioned flaws.

Close with a click
No rattles
No sharp edges
No welding abrassives

Did you contact MUD ?

 

I've had mine for two years and it doesn't suffer from any of the deficiencies yours seems to, which sound and look like some pretty serious QA/QC manufacturing flaws, that's for sure. I absolutely love mine and we use it all the time. I have no rattles, and my cutting board stays put. I get what you're saying about the two-step closing procedure, but I actually like this as it discourages slamming the thing shut. I did have to put a little Loc-Tite on the nut that holds the spring-loaded locking pin (and recommend this to others as well if you haven't done it yet).

One pro you failed to mention, which is that it doesn't obscure the cubby panel in the door (when folded down, of course). A lot of competitors' offerings cover up the cubby and make it unusable.

And one con you have yet to experience (and the only one I've experienced to date), which is the plastic corner pieces. They seem to be fond of breaking off about halfway. I met another Defender owner at a show this summer and he had the same trouble. He said he wrote to MUD and they sent him replacements, which also broke in the same manner.

You can see the broken plastic corner piece on the left side of mine in this picture. The right side is cracked but hadn't yet fallen off when I took this picture earlier this summer.

 

No issue with the one on my D90. Yes the assembly was a pain, for the price it should have the protective wrap removed - the cheap plastic end pieces should be more robust and they should have been preinstalled.

no rattles from mine, it also latches correctly.

 

I had the same issue with the table rattling, I ended up putting some metal washers I had lying around behind the screwed in rubber stoppers. That helped push them closer to the table, causing a much tighter fit when closed. This completely eliminated all rattling from the table. Hope this helps.

 

I just installed mine yesterday. Some similar bent corners, scratches and sharp edges. For the price I was expecting touch better quality.
I haven't yet drove anywhere so we will see will it rattle etc. but seems sturdy and rubbers are engaging so I hope those keep the sliding table in place.

 

Send yours back.

I’ve had mine for a year.

Zero rattles. Zero sliding. Zero bends. I completely have had a different experience with this table, it’s an amazing accessory and the best table I’ve found for the L663.

For the $400 or whatever it costs, no reason to tolerate less than perfection. Mine latches properly. When it latches, the notch in the cutting board prevents it from sliding. I absolutely love this table. Mine has also not cut me. My edges seem to be chamfered down.

I’d have been super bummed and disappointed if my experience was similar to yours !

 

Wow, quality control on these seems to have deteriorated quite a bit. I've had mine for about 3 years and have had none of the issues described. The only issue I have had what that one of the screws holding the hinge came undone, but a little lock-tite solved the problem.

I'd suggest calling Mud and letting then know to give them a chance to sort it out.

 

Reporting back from my fresh install, definitely rattles quite a lot if any non-smooth road. First, I thought I had few bolts loose, which I did. But the main rattle seems to come from the closing pin area, where there's metal (pin) on metal (table's pin hole) contact.
I think my rubbers are well engaging and the cutting board is not sliding out or anything, and not sure would more pressure from rubbers fix the pin rattle... maybe?

 

Agree, should send yours back. Having to do that with the towels is absolutely ridiculous.

Their packaging and QC definitely needs work. I bought and returned 2 tables, b/c they both arrived with shipping damage (one of the corners was bent) in the same exact spot! I only agreed to finally take it b/c I got Fedex to reimburse most of the cost.

I thought installation was easy and pretty straight forward, but also took me a bit to properly adjust the hinges to not rattle. Also make sure to check the washer underneath the pin. Mine was loose and was causing a lot of rattle for me, but just tightened it up and shes now finally rattle free.

It wasn't available yet when I purchased mine, but probably would have gotten the GP Factor table instead...