Tacoma Loose Bed design Flaw explanation

Second Gen Tacomas that go off road, fetch heavy loads or have campers with heavy racks can suffer from the loose bed issue. The symptom will be a banging noise due to the bed jumping up and down on the FORWARD MOUNTS. You can feel the looseness on the forward mount if you try to lift the bed up.
I will try on this thread to explain the issue and offer a solution.

The Bed sits on the frame on a thick composite gusseted mount with a hole in the Center.
The Sleeve

The gusseted composite mount resting on the metal frame .

On a brand new truck the floor of the bed is in line with the sleeve and is held together with the torx bolt. With frame and bed Flex due to weight or off road use, the bottom of the composite gusseted mount starts to rub on the metal mount wearing it away!!! The more space it gets the quicker it wears out until the floor of the bed drops away from the washer of the securing bolt. The bed is now loose and bangs up and down.
This pic is a severe case. No amount of tightening the bolt can fix this.

If your bed is loose, remove bolt and see if metal sleeve is in line with floor of bed. If it protrudes above the floor it means the composite block mount has eroded. DO NOT GRIND IT FLAT WITH A GRINDER TO MATCH THE LEVEL OF THE FLOOR!!! You will cause misalignment of the bed. The spacer is the height guide.
This is another pic of the wear process starting.

The fix is to reduce friction between the bottom of Composite bed mount and the metal frame. I used thin hd Conveyor belt or the side of an old car tire and installed between frame and bed then tightened bolt until the washer is flat to the floor and is firm against the sleeve.
Here is a YouTube video of the problem and the guys correct diagnosis but WRONG FIX!!!
http://youtu.be/60oQitbr0Zw

 

Yea, I would think putting something in between the mount and the frame would be the correct fix...rather than cutting the sleeve short and giving in to the flaw. Looks like there should be some sort of urethane/rubber buffer sandwiched between the composite mount and the frame.

 

Exactly

 

Well said, i had no idea what the issue was going into this thread, and now i feel i know everything i need to know. You should write user manuals.

 

I have been waiting to tackle this issue for awhile now, thanks for the write up.

 

Interesting. Whenever I drive over a larger speed bump, it sounds like a trailer hitch moving up and down in the receiver hitch. Never thought much of it since I keep some tools stored in the rear cubbies. Might have to do some investigating.

 

Interesting... I had that problem some time ago and ground a bit off the sleeve to fix it. Hasn't been a problem since.

Any theories as to why it always seems to be the front most passenger side bolt that people experience this with?

 

I fixed mine by taking 3/4 of a turn on the front passenger bed bolt. Problem gone.

 

Hmm, something to investigate, went over a series of rail road tracks today, and heard/felt a couple hard bumps, was thinking maybe the rear leaves have sagged enough I'm probably right off the bump stops, but it was a more sharp hit than that. 256K miles has it's own issues I guess.

Have to check this out this weekend.

 

LOL These stupid Tonka Truck plastic beds.....

 

Good to know! Thanks Milo!

 

I've had this issue for a while but after I put my tool box in the bed and filled it up the banging stopped maybe I should look harder into this

 

So is there anything that can be done as a preventative measure for new trucks?

It appears that putting something between the composite gusseted mount and the metal frame while the truck is new, would raise the bed too high.

 

my pro had this issue, passenger side bolt closest to the cab, i removed bolt took grinder, ground it down just below flush, reinstalled bolt , no issue anymore, it was just the one bolt

 

cut out a piece of rubber from the side of a car tire, shape it to size, cut a hole in the middle for the sleeve then install between bed and frame mount. It should be about 2-3 mm thickYou can then install bolt and torque it down. The sleeve moist rest between bed frame and bolt washer...do both sides.

 

The sleeve is your guide for the height alignment of the bed. Remember it's the bed that wore out. You have to replace the wear with a piece of the side of a car tire then torque it all together. You temporary fixed the problem but bed will wear again and it will get loose. If you shorten the sleeve again you will keep lowering and mis aligning the bed.

 

What's that?

 

It's how the frame flexes.

 

Let us know !!!!

 

Let us know!!