need an answer from those that wheel hard

this is for people that wheel hard only. how many of your frames have a slight bend/bubble behind the rear bump stop plate on the topside of frame, also known as frame wrinkle? mine has it. here is an example. this is not my truck tho.

 

I have that bulge...
even with 3/16" frame plating done.

Boxing the frame's rear "C" rails is the only way to stop that.

Prior to the rear plate/reinforcement cheap trick...
frame rails could crack on either the upper or lower "C" channel.

additional weight behind the beds fender wells...
isn't going to make matters better.
^ (ie: tire carriers welded to the rear bumper)

dead weight and leverage aft is the enemy...
boxing the frame is the only real fix.

 

I have the same thing, but I don't wheel my truck to terribly hard. Are people noticing theirs getting worse? Mines been the same for the last 60k miles, was thinking it was just something that happened as part of that forming process for the frame

 

Mine has it to a small degree and has since day one. It is the same on both sides and has not changed. Every Taco I have seen has it. I was aware of the frame bending issue when I bought my truck new in 99 and kept an eye on it.
The amount is the key issue. Someone might have some pics and/or try some side by side comparisons with other rigs. Also look at the vertical edge of the front of the bed and rear of the cab. They should be parallel.
The cantilevered loads from heavy swing out bumpers and high tongue weight towing tended to crack/stretch the top and buckle/crack the bottom. Hard landings and of course rear end crashes have been known to bend things every which way.

 

I wheel the hell out of mine and I have it a little on both sides. I don't have boxing or frame plates and I have the plate rear bumper and a bed rack. Mine isn't bad enough for me to worry about and looking at your picture, it doesn't look much worse than mine.

Your truck is a 2nd gen so it is going to be different.

 

thanks for all the replies. i have even bulges on both sides of my frame. about to the same degree as the picture i posted. im starting to think that they all have them. my truck is new to me and the person that owned it before me used it for highway use. i wheeled it hard last weekend for the first time and now i notice the bulges in the frame so im thinking they have always been their. the thing that is strange to me is if their is a bulge in the top that means the frame has been forced up. which in theory should pull the bottom part of the c channeling up as well stretching it and making a bubble or bend and in most of the pictures i see the bottom part of the frame has no defects. could it be that they all come this way from the factory?

 

I got my truck with 45k and the po mainly commuted with the truck in the city, at least that's what he told me...

But my rear c-channel looks the same.

 

good to konow, maby their all like that form the factory

 

so I was walking through the city market parking lot and looked at 4 completely stock first gen Tacoma frames and all four had the bulge at the top of the frame right begind the bump stop plate. my guess is that they all have that bend. this has me questioning if the frame reinforcement plate is really needed. I think this is a part of Toyotas design with these frames. and come to think about it I have yet to read a post or article about a Tacoma frame failing.