How's your composite bed holding up?

I loaded up about 1/2 yard of crushed stone (the rear suspension did well with the weight!), and understandably the bed is all sorts of scratched up now.

I don't mind, really, it's a freaking truck.

Any of you have any huge dings or scratches? Any idea if a bed can eventually be replaced (years down the road), and how much $$$ it costs?

 

I had one of the original composite beds in my 05. Had it 13 years. Used it for all kinds of projects, when I sold it I gave it a good wipe down, it looked almost just like when I purchased, a few scratches here and there. They're pretty bullet proof under normal uses. I never put any cleaner or protection on it either. The bed on the 18 looks identical to me.

 

Im pretty sure loading and shoveling crushed stone out of a bed is one of the worst offenders for scratches >.<

No worries at least my project looked good in the end

 

A bed mat will cover the floor scratches and prevent new ones.

The only downside to the composite bed is the weight if you're in a snowy climate. You don't get much traction. You end up putting it in 4wd quite a bit more. Not really a problem, just something I've noticed.

 

Make sure you get an OEM Bed Mat, the Tailgate Cap seems to get scraped up easily on my Tacoma's

 

Yes I have scratches, bangs, whacks, oil and other shit, it is a bed of truck, which I drive and use daily.

 

if you do that regularly, cutting some plywood to fit the bed will give protection from the shovel.

For daily use, a bed mat is mucho plenty, and it keeps things from sliding.

You don't even want to think about replacement $.

However, if that was all that was keeping the truck from being 'perfect', you have a couple of budget friendly choices.

1) Clean it and hide it under a tonneau.

2) Have it coated with LineX or monstaliner.

 

Would I have known if I overloaded the rear suspension? I figure 1/2 yard of stone can weight around 1200lbs... and the load capacity for the TRD spot is around 1600lbs?

 

Yup. I lashed two sacks of tube sand back there this winter. It changed the handling slightly for the better and really planted the rear for the couple times that we got snow. We did see a lot of heavy frost / freezing fog and it felt like it helped there also.

 

I've done the sand bags before. I haven't recently because they're kind of a hassle to store. It's also nice when it snows 8-10 inches while you're at work and you grab the bed mat and pull, all the snow stays in the work parking lot, rather than make a swimming pool in my garage.

 

I was pulling the bags in and out also. I just stored them on garage floor under the truck. No problem pulling in over them. I did attempt to run up on one accidentally when moving the truck over for some work (or a mod). No big deal.

I had that with the tonneau. It did better than I thought it would with snow on it when I forgot the scraper / brush.

 

You're nowhere near 1,600lb payload. More like 1,000lbs. You were definitely over. Check spring sag.

 

%&*!....

Truck is driving fine now....

Hope I didn't screw anything up.

 

Even nicer with a Tonneau cover. You just drive away and let the wind take it's course.....

 

Tonneau would he nice, but I've always got mountain bikes in the back of my truck that I strap in like motorcycles. Finding a tonneau that can utilize the entire bed are limited. Seems like everyone I got excited about had negatives to them once I started really diving in. I just decided to rock an empty bed.

 

The truckcovers USA rolling tonneau with integrated rack system is MONEY! Was my first mod and I still love it well over a year later. Yakima tracks welded onto the side rails and they ship with round bars and towers. then I use the Yakima front loader for my mountain bikes so I can keep the bikes (and boats, and paddles) up off the bed and have the bed for lockable, water-tight storage. Works really well and loading/unloading bikes takes seconds

 

Ya, I got the Toyota soft tri-old cover for easy removal and storage. Had to move a couple of couches last weekend and it was super convenient.

 

I'll take a look at this one. Thanks

 

Mountain bikes, there is no easier way to load than just a tailgate mat. And you can typically use the factory tonneau (depending on the size of your bike).

 

2006 tacoma.... ive had 2,020lbs of pavers in it at 1 time.
Its fine.