AdventureTaco - turbodb's build and adventures

Tacoma Bed Rack v2 - Stopping the Bed Cracks
May 10, 2019.

When I originally built my bed rack back in 2016, I was sure that the rack was going to be something that was only installed when we were out on an adventure. The rest of the time, I'd remove it using the pulley system in the garage so that the Tacoma could be it's natural self.

Oh how naive I was.

Turns out, there's no reason to stop adventuring in the winter, and quite frankly, the rear suspension on the truck is much more comfortable with the couple hundred extra pounds from the tent. Plus, I don't really have any changes I'd like to the design, so I don't ever really remove it - or at least I try not to.

But over the winter I did remove it at one point - I forget why now, one of the freebies that comes with middle age - and you can imagine my surprise when I noticed that the bed had cracked under the rack.

Ahh, I remember now - I was removing the bed to fix my rear suspension.

​

Well, I wasn't happy about that and tried to puzzle out exactly what was happening - clearly, there were stresses on that part of the bed from the weight of the tent, and after chatting with a bunch of folks, the best we could come up with was that it was a combination of factors:

1. Like any rack system, when you've got 200 lbs on the rack and you travel over bumpy terrain at high rates of speed, you get some flex. And that flex is transferred down to the bed rails.
2. The holes I'd drilled to attach the bed rack were essentially the same size as the bolts that secured it. That mean that any time there was any flex, the bolt put stress on the sheet metal because it would push/pull on the edges of the hole, rather than slide around in the hole.
3. To protect the paint on the bed rails, I'd used some HDPE rubber between the bed rack on both the top and inside of the bed rail. This rubber would compress and expand over each bump, exacerbating #2.

So, it was just a matter of fatigue of the metal. I ground off a bit of paint and rust around the crack, pulled out the welder, and put it on its "barely warm" setting to tack it up.

Let me tell you - welding body panels sucks! Kudos to the guys who do this for a living.

Anyway, I got it buttoned up and re-installed the rack without the HDPE on the inside edges, to reduce horizontal movement. But as I was re-installing it, I noticed another crack - this one in the front passenger corner.

Dang. It was time to change things up to keep the truck from falling apart into one billion pieces.

I started by removing the tent and bed liner so I could access the front corner of the bed for a bit more body-panel welding. The joy.

​

​

Really, it was good though, because getting under the bed liner to rinse off the bed and make sure that it's still in reasonably good condition is a good practice IMO. And luckily for me, everything under there still seems to be doing just fine.

Well, I mean except for this crack.

​

With the liner removed, I ground down the corner crack like I had the bed rail and got to work with the welder, again. And again, I hated it - though I seemed to mostly fix it before hitting it with a bit of paint.

​

​

But now, I had to figure out how to keep this from happening again. Since the rack design in general has been superb, I decided on three changes to the setup. First, I'd extend the feet of the rack to the front of the bed, and add another piece of steel angle to the front of the rack that would - hopefully - keep the corners of the bed from flexing so much.

I hoped this would stop any corner cracks.

​

I should note - modifying the bed rack in this way also required me to modify the bed liner. From the factory, the bed liner sits over the front rail of the bed, which would now have a piece of angle spanning the same place. So that part of the liner had to be relieved of duty.

​

​

Second, I'd forget about the HDPE between the rack and bed rails altogether. A bit of metal-on-metal rubbing is better than cracking in my opinion. Plus, I'd never seen anyone else use HDPE, and despite my urge to yell "you're all wrong," I figured I should try without first.

Third, I fabbed up some beefy brackets to sit behind the bed rail - sandwiching the rail between the rack and the brackets - to distribute the stresses away from the holes as much as possible.

​

I hoped those three things would mean that the bed will be a bit happier now.

Time will tell - I suppose I could be back next year, looking for a new bed.

But let's hope not. ​

 

I guess if we have similar bed racks, we might be wise to follow suit on the cross bracing??

 

Honestly, I'd say that most probably don't need it. None of the "big vendors" have cross-braces, with many of them having only simple bars that cross the bed (not even the full-length feet) - and most folks are just fine with that.

I was out for ~80 dirt days per year the last couple years, getting harder and harder on it from a driving style perspective.

Plus, who knows if the new version will fare any better - might end up in exactly the same situation.

Edit: I would however skip the HDPE rubber between the rack and the bed rails that I talk about above - I think that might have actually been my biggest mistake. And make sure the holes for the bolts are slightly larger than the bolts themselves, so that the bolts aren't putting undue stress on the rails.

 

Disagree.

The weight is similar and the construction on the bed is the same. The only difference will be when. Not if it spreads and splits.

I think it helps a lot and I'd do it to any bed rack.

 

What do you disagree with? Are you saying that you think most people running bed racks are going to see splitting?

I highly doubt that - there are very few who are out as often, and pushing their trucks as hard as we do. For the vast majority, who are headed out to campgrounds, or on FS roads a few times during the summer, a standard bed rack (welded like mine or bolted together like CBI) - or set of bed rails from Relentless or whoever - is going to be totally fine for the life of their truck.

 

That may be true we see a lot of dirt time. That said. My point is it's not a matter of if but when.

Eventually it's going to split. Could be 2 years like your case. Could be 10. Either way it's preventable.

 

But that's the catch - the when is 10+ years for most people - longer than they'll have the truck (much less the RTT/rack). As such, it's generally not worth doing. Same thing with shocks (as an example) - it's not if they need to get rebuilt, but when. Still, for most people, running Billies and buying new ones every 10 years is a better use of their $$$ than going out and buying some racing shocks that are tunable and rebuildable.

I think if bed cracking was a more common thing, we'd see the big vendors adding cross-rails - otherwise you'd have a lot of folks upset with them. As it is, I think we know a handful (at most) of people with the crossrail. And those folks are all reasonably extreme users.

OK, enough out of me.

 

I mean the only reason that didn't happen for 1st gens(IMO) is because the fad sprouted late in 1st gen's life cycle for aftermarket support. 2nd gens were already the new thing and 5 years old by the time Overlanding was "cool".

And they have bed stiffeners for 2nd/3rd gens to combat a similar issue as the beds are composite they tend to squish out and down near the tail gates. TC makes them.

10 years is a general number..Id guess even for the average dude it much less then that especially if they have the bed rack and rtt on there year round like most do.

All things considered, its still super easy to just make it wrap round the full front. Cheap enough that its worth it I think.

 

i got some stiffners made by the local guy and they are better, they do help the bed tail. what i need is a cross plate with struts to the forward bed mounts to the frame, help keep the front of the bed in alignment. dang 2nd Gen plastic beds just don't make sense to me.
on my '98, the bed rails are still ok, its the bed belly sagging with its bowed bed floor supports. i've put a quarter yard of base rock in it several times over twenty years and the Tacoma just ain't made for that kind of abuse.
...So, to my point here, when i look at the design of your bed rack, it looks good and everything seems functional form, but it looks to me, and i could be wrong cuz i don't do numbers, that the downward forces from the RTT push the rack outwards more than downwards, so spreading, or cracking your corners seems like a reasonable expectation, in hindsight that is...
your fix looks good.

 

Rago fab makes 1st gen bed stiffeners. Not sure if I've seen anyone install them or give feeback though.

 

Huh wonder how that works.

 

#bedrack problems.

I've cracked nearly every other part of my truck, but the bed is fine.

 

I have a crack starting in the same spot as Dan's, tho not nearly as bad. Maybe its because its just starting and will only get worse over time.

In fact, it looks like my entire pass side be rail is being pushed outward. At the tailgate, at the top near the latch, the gap between the tailgate and the bedside is about 3/8" now. A 2nd gen style bed stiffener may help in my situation.

 

I think Relentless made a corner bracket that is designed for the 2nd gen bedrails. Someone with a welder could probably easily weld that into place on a 1st gen and really strengthen up those corners.

https://www.relentlessfabrication.com/collections/toyota/products/05-tacoma-bed-tie-down-bracket

 

There's a few different versions floating around out there, same as the rear bedside stiffeners. I got mine, as well as my bumper from @At The Helm and they're great. A riv-nut or drilling a hole for a bolt, or just welding would work fine i'm sure.

 

I solved the splitting problem for myself two ways. My bed bars fit absolutely perfect and actually pulled the bed back to parallel, and the design loaded the brackets from the top, not on an angle or from the side. I also had four 3/8 bolts per bar with thick washers on either side and I honked em down so tight they were hard to remove with an impact.

 

I don't think that solved anything. You didn't own the truck or drive it long enough to find out anyways

The bed bars would still flex and push the bed out. I'm sure of it. Mine where hard to get in on Igor at first too. Not anymore...

 

You can be sure of it all you want, my rinky dink old truck didn't have bed cracks and neither did the first one. Doesn't matter now, I've evolved beyond the need for such trivialities

 

May 18, 2019.

With all the recent work on the 4Runner, I wasn't the only one who wanted to put it all to the test. Upon seeing the storage/sleeping platform, @mini.turbodb had declared, "We need to go camping right away!"

Read all about it, but not here. It was a 4Runner trip! - "Best Day of My Life" - @mini.turbodb's First Trip in the 4Runner

​

 

I think it helps that my bars weren't designed on an already beaten up bed, they were designed off of the ideal inner dimensions. But you can stir the pot all you want, both my trucks were older than yours and plenty broken in by the time I started farting around with em.