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I'm looking to get a full set of ARB summit armor, where did you end up getting yours from?

 

I can second this, was doing 80 mph today without hardly any notice.

 

Ouch

 

I took it today and honestly tried to destroy it. Truck took hits way harder than I normally would. Ran the accompanying rack system without the side armor, with three of the seven load bars. Just wanted to see how this held together, if it made any racket, how many people stared at it at stop lights....all the usual R&D.

Torqued all the bolts last night. Ran it to death today. Checked all the bolts when I got home. Found two of 24 that were different before and after.

Will be making two minor changes to the design and one of those changes will be switching from m6 assembly hardware to m8 assembly hardware to allow for Nord-Lock washers to be in the production trusses. If you are familiar with them, awesome. If not......think snapping turtle, thunder.

The other change has to do with visibility...and I think it’s going to be really cool.

I haven’t attached any gear because I’ve got to disassemble in the morning for powder BUT in the effort of full disclosure this is what I like and don’t like:

1.) DISLIKE My attempt to reach through the openings on the gear plates on the side. I haven’t had a bed rack in two years. I’ve gotten used to reaching over the bed sides at any given time to grab whatever I need. I think that once gear (in my case maxtrax on one side, extra fuel on the other) I won’t be able to see through the holes and I’ll stop trying to reach through the plates to access the bed. Today I felt like the bird that flies into the window in the windex commercials.

2.) LIKE The structural design of this is STRONG. Almost freakishly strong. The attachment points to the OEM installed bed rails on our end is 1.00” thick once everything is bolted in.
My thought process is that I’m installing my RTT on this and I really go hard at rocks and puddles. The tire deserves no mercy. I wanted to make sure that it was beyond rigid. Today confirmed that this is what we got. I’d put anything related to overland or off-roading and I wouldn’t think twice about it. Today I climbed rocks. I hit water at 40-50mph. I tried to jump (276 hp.....we aren’t getting any air to be proud of), I got stuck in the snow, snatched out by a 4Runner, dragged backwards up a hill, and my tacoma hit another tacoma in the most graceful, subtle, articulated manner possible, and I parked at Taco Bell.

3.) GOOD IDEA Back to the load plates.....with the rack portion assembled and installed across the trusses you will not need the load plates. Their structural aspects aren’t needed when the trusses are joined with a rack. Because of this we will offer them as an optional piece to keep the cost down and not force feed pieces to guys that don’t need or want them.

4.) REALLY LIKE I completed the initial design with three trusses. I think In my mind it was strictly an aesthetics choice but the rack I had on my other truck had three and maybe that’s what I just thought was normal. You won’t need three. Two (one in front and one in rear) would sufficiently secure the things we are all going to use. So the production kits will ship with two. Again, it’s .250” aluminum and it’s expensive so I want to keep the retail cost down and make this something that just about anyone can afford. Additional trusses will be available (3 total recommended for iKamper, and comparable clam shell tents, as well as any 4 season, 4+person soft shell) in case you like the look, feel safer, or god forbid you have a long bed ( ).

5.) LOVE One of my complaints (I have 3) about my Tacoma is the composite bed. The lack of weight over my rear end has been an issue since my first 3rd Gen. I have the Icon suspension and it’s dialed. I love the performance I get off-road but I’ve always been annoyed by the “bounce” I felt in the rear at highway speeds on Colorado Roads (do not get me started). Three trusses added an additional 38 pounds over my axle today. The additional three load (actual rack system has 7) bars and the side armor tacked on another 13.6. Today I felt a noticeable difference in the ride of the truck on the interstate. It actually worked out that we went to a trail today that we went to just three weekends ago and we took the same route to get there. The truck was smoother today than on the previous trip. The only change we had was the weight of the bedrack, whatever I ate for breakfast and the difference between the girl I took the first time and the girl I took today. Call it 20 pounds because we are all gentlemen.

I cannot wait to throw the additional 130-150 pounds of the RTT and fuel on here and see how much better it gets.

6.) LIKE Height of trusses. 12.65” from plastic bed caps at top dead center. I don’t think it would matter if we made them 13.00”, 14.50” or anything in between. It most likely wouldn’t be the “perfect” height, if there is such a thing, for everyone. I chose the height based on the distance from the plastic bed caps to the top of my pelican cases. When I put the rack system and the RTT UpTOP* the RTT will be dead even (+/- .375”) to the top of my pelican cases. That is going to net 126” from front of cab to rear of stowed tent and that’s where I am going to bungee my kayaks.

7.) DISLIKE It honestly drove me insane today that it was silver. Not for the sake of vanity (maybe a little) but because the sun was BEAMING through the trees and if it caught the chamfered edges just right it would BLIND you. Raw aluminum is pretty....but black is safer.

What you will notice is that you lose the visibility of the top 1.75” of your rear window when you use your rear view mirror. We will be providing a solution for this that uses..........technology......and adds a few bells and whistles that we’d only get in a Raptor. If you’re doing the math we could buy 2.35 2019 Tacoma SR for that price. Seems silly. What would we do with .35 of a truck? Parts? I dunno.

When you purchase a kit for your truck it will come with 2 (two) sets of trusses and all the hardware to assemble and mount it to your truck bed. We will be including a thin piece of poly foam to place between the foot and the plastic bed cap to lessen damage to the cap from natural wear as the bed itself flexes under driving conditions. It’s important to note that while I didn’t hear a peep out of this thing today the plastic bed caps have a tendency to expand and contract in climate swing (Especially for us at elevation. It’s not uncommon for us to experience 60 degree shifts from home to trail in the winter) and that could potentially cause a vibration issue.

It’s better safe than sorry so you’ll get the foam (you will have to place it yourself because we aren’t going to send you adhesive backed nightmare tape that you can’t get off if you remove the rack) during installation.

The system mounts to the slide track cargo rail on the inside of your bed. We will provide the required threaded pieces that will let you clamp this sucker in without drilling any holes.
The factory ratchet strap attachment thingys will still fit in between the trusses and you’ll have 42” (with two trusses) of horizontal movement to place them where you need them. Stainless assembly and mounting hardware will be included. Black wrinkle finish powder will be standard.

There is a rack system coming for the bed trusses. It has the same style, side armor design, grooveTEK bungee attachment points, lighting options and a nifty grab handle on each side located over the center of the tire (tyre for my mates). This is an optional system as you don’t need it to mount a standard 2p-3p RTT. You can just bolt it through the provided attachment points in the tops of the trusses. But for those of you that want them, they will be available for order at the same time that the trusses come online.

We’ve got a mountain of 4Runner racks to install and ship along with our Tacoma stuff this week but I would expect that we can begin taking orders next Monday (4.15.2019) and currently they should fall inside the same 14 business day lead time. So far so good.

With an amazing trip to Utah at the end of this month planned out by our resident Technical Application guru @Doozy4212 we will have some major modifications, enhancements and shiny things to show you guys as we secure the rigs and get everything in order before we hit the road. Matt, Frank and Dave will be in house while we are gone to field any questions and continue the production runs to hit our target ship dates.

As always.....this all started on this forum. Our social media guy is TW. Our web portal guy is TW. The guy that turned this from an idea into something a lot of you like....is TW. I’m just a farmer with a pitchfork that sees the world in binary and happened to have a 3rd Gen Tacoma that needed a.......rack.

Wait until you see the bumpers.

(Side note: Drew it’s 2:38am. Drawings are finished for the side armor, production starts at 0800. I’m dirty. Truck is dirty. I’m tired. I can’t find my deflator. See you tomorrow night.

TW Here you go....

 

The 4Runner rack is 98.25” long. It’s unreal seeing them assembled. The size is just crazy. Drew answered your question but I’ve made a note of this and he and I will discuss it tomorrow night. We can job cost them based on what we’ve learned about production, drop, and hardware without actually having built one so we will have an answer for you sometime tomorrow night. I would t expect a huge jump in cost but there will be some. You guys and your 6’ beds.

Micah

 

If you are willing to drill 4-6 holes in the top of your amazingly badass bedcover that makes me jelly every time I watch a LLOD video.......I am willing to make the flat stock bases with pilot holes in them instead of our flange slotted tab foot and you can mount this straight to it. I’ll even throw in some really tricked out black, spongy (I think that’s a word.....it’s late) foam to put between the foot and the diamond plate to eat up the voids were the diamond plate is raised up so you get a full contact mount.

The holes would be 9mm (or the closest squint and compare imperial counterpart) and you’ll need to apply silicone, caulk, seam sealer or big league chew (used) to the underside once you set the hardware.

I think what we’d do is replicate the foot of the base of the truss +20mm all the way around it so that you could align that under the bed cover lid and basically sandwich the bedcover lid between two pieces of .250” aluminum. That should help distribute the weight and spread the stress across the surface of the diamondback.

Obviously no cool hinge feature BUT....you’d be the first guy on Earth to have it.

Lemme know. I love new shit.

Micah

 

Scrolling through here’re trying to play catch up while these files load.

IF you buy one of our racks without the lighting provisions and you would like to add them later..we will provide a template to you with the pods so you can mark them and cut them out to retro the ones you have.

Here are some things to think about:

It’s .250” 60 series aluminum. It isn’t difficult to cut but you do need some things.
1.) Cutting lubricant. Alloys generate a lot of heat under tool.
2.) Non-pilot point drill bits. You’ll need a small one (.1875” would be fine) to take material out in all four corners to start. A second one (.3125” is sufficient) to enlarge those holes for the cutting blade to pass through.
3.) Masking tape. Used to protect the powder coated finish during modification.
4.) Jig Saw (aluminum blade/pn provided with order) or an air body saw with a 24 TPI blade.
4a.) M4 tap and pilot drill bit for m4 tap.
4b.) Cordless drill with chuck (impact drivers are HORRIBLE for drilling alloys) Low gear, low speed. You want chips not twirls.
5.) Safety glasses or a Jedi level safety squint.
6.) Colorado minimum beer requirements for a project this size is one 12 ounce can per side.

The side armor is removable without taking the rack apart and if you’re handy (we have Toyota’s....they rarely break so some guys don’t ratchet a lot) with tools you can remove the armor, mark the holes and make the modifications in about an hour.

 

If you’re okay with drilling your drip rails and installing NutSerts.......you’re gonna turn that frown upside down in about four weeks.

Micah

 

The Alpha still mounts to the cab at the front and rear mount points. The xL gains the middle mounts.

We have a sheer strength calculation that we use to determine how the mounts are placed, the allowable span, distance from edge, etc.....and ultimately how many we need.

Even the xL could have squeaked by with the four mount points BUT.....it was 6.2% over our ratio of allowable weight per load bar as compared to rack attachment points so it got the additional middle brackets.

Something to factor in is that in a single side application according to our design we’d have used all 6 brackets on the Alpha. That would have also carried over to the xL and had you guys drilling and tapping for two additional mounts for a total of 8 on the xL.

One added step that we have is that each mounting bracket in the front and rear is formed and then two gussets are TIG welded into place locking in the required 90 degree angle and fusing the bracket at the hinge points. The midpoint brackets are simply for supporting the rack system at the center and as the stress over this area would be vertical, those smaller brackets don’t require gussets.

The primary concern of the mid-mount is the deflection of the actual rack itself horizontally under a vertical load.

The exterior side armor (armorTEK....the colored panels) serve to stiffen the design and eliminate any horizontal deflection we would have in a single side system. Also a HUGE reason that we stay with 60 series for the sides when 50 series is the industry standard, much less expensive, and machines about 20% faster. Surefire way is to see it bent. 50 bends, 60 likes to tear. I won’t get all metallurgy on it because we’d both fall asleep but we use a lot of both as well as one other type in different parts of the racks and accessories because they all have their areas where they provide the better finished product, albeit not always the cheapest.

If you compare the armorTEK of an xL to that on the Alpha....you’ll notice the Alpha sides are .625” taller. This was the fix for horizontal deflection on the Alpha under vertical load without the need for the mid-mount and allows the Alpha to be assembled and placed on the truck in one piece whereas the xL installs in stages.

The xL adds other complexity with the upARK antenna solution so the need for it to assemble on the ground and go to the truck in one piece like the Alpha wasn’t a concern for us. It is possible to assemble an xL on the ground and put it on the truck but you would have to remove the side armor afterwards to access the through holes for the mounts as well as remove two load bars to gain access to the cab bolts for the mid mounts and two of the cab bolts on the rear mounts.

The trade off of size is a bit of simplicity of the installation process.....but big racks.....are worth it.

 

We’re currently adding CaliRaised to the mix as well. They proved to be the other lighting alternative that performed well, had great reviews, and come way, way closer to fitting in budgets.

Micah

 

CaliRaised 42”

 

But... My cool hinge feature... Let me see if I can come up with anything to keep the hinge feature of the diamondback but keep the strength of the rack.

 

I am picking up a DiamondBack this week, so following this thread closely for the development of the Bed Rack!

 

How about a Baja 40"???

 

We have the cut files, just haven't cut one yet!

 

Absolutely. Anything from Cali or Baja up to 42" and you are golden. You just need to specify when you place your order through Drew which light you have/want/will have/plan to steal....whatever and we will make it happen my friend.

 

Would be awesome if you could create adapters to allow mounting the bed rack on the RetraxPro XR.

 

That is clean

 

What we can do is replace the angled flange footing with flat bottom footing and you can drill/mount to anything you want to.

 

Make some adapters for Diamondback cover and........sold!