bed exteneder or bed divider? pros and cons

hey guys I am trying to decied between the bed extender and the bed divider which one is better in the opinon of the people who have them?

 

.

I had a "bed extender" on my 2007 Tundra and loved it. I am looking for one for my 2009 Tacoma now.

A "bed extender" can be used as a "bed divider" (when folded in) ... but a "bed divider" canNOT be used as a "bed extender". ...

 

I have the bed divider and think it looks and works great. I had heard that it can be a pain to lift cargo above the bed extender and personally wasn't too crazy about how the bed extender looked. Having said that, I do have a DC LB, and would have given the bed extender additional consideration if I was purchasing a SB.

 

Bed extender works better with tonneau cover, because it's not mounted at the top.

Bed divider goes straight across, so holds things like coolers better. Can be repositioned anywhere in the bed (assuming you haven't mounted a Truxedo LoPro like I have )

Mostly it just depends on what you're carrying back there.

 

I too have a long bed and a bed divider. It's easy to slide against the cab if I need the full bed, or if I want to divide it to hold groceries and such. If I had a SB I would look at a bed extender, although a good strap can take the place of a bed extender in many cases.

 

hey bjmoose

how does your tonneau cover attach? does it cover the factory rail system making it useless? do you have any pictures showing the tonneau's position on the bed rail?

 

do you have the Toyota bed divider? i have a dc short bed and my tools for work slide around even with a bed mat. so i"m definitly thinking of getting one

 

Not sure if you have seen these Redz but they work best for me.



These are the factory Toyota "cargo bars" and you can see how they mount to the cleats so they are easily moved back and forth. (I took this pic with a cleat installed to illustrate that the bars are the exact dimension of the rail system). I now have a cap but I used these with my tonneau cover and it worked perfectly. My thing is that I needed something to secure my snowblower to but still needed space for long storage underneath like hockey bags, sticks etc. Another thing is that they can be intalled on the cleat upside down if you wish and that drops the bar in the bed by about three inches. They come as a set of two and it seems to me that they were sub-$200.

 

I have a bed extender with an Access soft tonneau cover. I can still use the bed rails for anything I need to tie down. I can roll up the tonneau to wherever I need it to be located. The extender is always atttached to the bed sides with a bed mat under it.

 

http://www.tacomaworld.com/forum/product-reviews/19168-review-versa-gate.html

Here's the link to a review done on a 2 in 1 bed extender and divider. Best of both worlds.

 

squad314

what king of tonneau cover do you have from your pic it looks like an above the bedrail kind what is the make and model?

 

I've got an over-rail tonneau from Lund. Pretty cheap on autoanything. Squad's is a tri-fold. Just letting you know of your options.

 

Yep, the tonneau I was running was an Extang Trifecta. Seems to me it was around 400 bones CAD.

 

Yeah, I got the Toyota bed divider. Very sturdy unit. Only complaint I would have about it is that it you have to either get in the truck and move it around with two hands, or it takes one person on each side to moe. Reason is that it will tend to get stuck easily when one side gets moved more than the other side. It's a quality item. I add a little security by using a cable lock between my D-Rings and bed divider. That also allows me to lock down a tool or ice chest if I need by threading the cable lock through a handle, etc.

I'm surprised your tools slide around so much. I have the Toyota bed mat and cargo seems to stick like glue to my bed

 

they slide around mainly because of all the bumpy roads i drive on. a lot of dirt roads with potholes then come spring i deal with frost heaves

 

It DOES cover the rails - it doesn't render them USELESS, but it does render them INCONVENIENT. They're hard to get to, and theres a tonneau mounted to them right in the middle, so you need to pick where you want any bed rail mount stuff - front half or back half, and leave it there.

And I do have pics:



Closeup of rail on the other side:



As you can see, I CAN use the rails - the bed divider is mounted to them.

That being said, it is a real pain to do so. So if convenient access to your rails is a big consideration, I'd go with a different tonneau (Access LE??) that has you reposition your rails INSIDE the tonneau mount preserving full rail access.

If you go this path, I recommend swapping out any of the rubber knurled knobs on your bed mounting rails with plain old wing nuts. Makes it easier.

 

thanks bjmoose that is the best explination ive gotten.

 

I have a short bed and the bed extender has come in handy... I don't keep it in the truck all the time though.