Be careful deer hunter... hole in my bed.

I was hauling deer stands to the woods this weekend getting ready for archery season. Today I was washing my truck and noticed a hole in the wheel well area of my bed. I am pretty sure that one of the deer stands slid into the side of the bed and knocked a hole in it. I don't remember hearing any "bangs" and there were 3 stands in the back so there wasn't a bunch of room for anything to slide around. I am disappointed in the composite bed.

What can I do to fix it? I was thinking about filling it with epoxy and maybe riveting a metal backing plate under the wheel well.

 

Take it to your dealer , maybe they will help you out , it is brand new and you were not abusing it .

 

Dang that's pretty impressive! x2 on bringing it back to the dealer.

 

I thought about taking to the dealer and telling them a cooler of beer did it.

 

Having a bed full of beer when you go in couldn't hurt

 

or give them a couple

 

That's what I meant , haha

 

I don't think the warranty would cover this due to the fact the stands caused this. But by all means I would recommend taking it in and see what they can do for ya. They may just fix it to fix it. Or who knows, maybe the bed material is defective.

If they don't fix it, I would recommend getting some Epoxy resin and Fiberglass cloth to repair it. And after that you could paint it.


Hope that helps.

 

Very true that they may not do anything for him , but at what point is putting something in the bed of a truck abusing it ? I agree that they should make some effort to address it .

 

I guess my rub is that even a thin steel bed would have held up better than this. I was loving the composite bed idea until I punched a hole in it.

I am going to get a bed mat to keep things from sliding around though. Hopefully that will prevent it from happening again.

 

Go with the epoxy and forget about it and enjoy hunting. I have to get some more D Rings. I have been using the back ones and the rail with lots of bungee cords but some things (like my tree stand) would be secured better tied down low. Thanks for the warning.

 

Well, that all depends on how you put it in, wouldn't it? I would imagine if you throw something hard, that's heavy and has pointy ends on it, it could easily puncture a hole or split open?
Or dropping a thousand pound pallet load of bricks into it, from 4 feet up?
Or if you don't tie it down and it slides into it, certainly wouldn't be good for the bed.
The OP did say he didn't tie it down, may have went around the corner fast?


I don't like these beds, I really think they should go back to metal. Yeah it will rust and make the truck heavier, but I don't think you would see or hear about these type of situations happening anymore.
In my opinion you should be able to let it slide around without the bed cracking or breaking open. But I guess you can only go so far with these beds.

Absolutely, I have one from the Factory and it works great!

 

Bako , I agree with all you've said above , and I have one of the Toyota bed mats and they are awesome

 

I don't think you do. lol
Let's argue some more, damnnit!

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=teMlv3ripSM

 

X (insert number)

 

You ahd to have taken a corner fast or something. My 08 had one nick in the bed (didn't go all the way through but 'dented' it). That was caused from a 700r4 transmission (about 250lbs) being slammed into the side and hitting it at the tail housing (sharpest narrowest point) from taking a corner really really fast and hard. Honestly, I would have thought it'd do more damage.

 

Well if you can imagine a cooler, a two man ladder stand with 3 ladder sections, a large ol'man climbing stand, a lock-on stand with climbing sticks and various other items crammed in the back of a DC bed, there wasn't room for it to slide around even if I had been power sliding around curves. I actually believe I did it when loading everything. I must have slid a stand over the side and let it hit the bed too hard.

Even if I had one deer stand sliding around in the back of my truck, I would not expect a 20 pound deer stand would carry enough momentum to punch through the bed.

 

OP, I'd take it back to the dealer. If the dealer doesn't help you, try customer service for Toyota USA. They might be more inclined to do something about it. Also, I don't see the harm in telling them it was a tree stand. Putting things in the bed is far from abuse, they're trucks and should hold up.

I put 3 - 90lb steel tractor weights in the bed of the truck in the winter, the first time I did this I didn't secure them and they crashed into the front of the bed (very hard) and no damage. Those things are heavy, steel, pointed and carry a lot of momentum. The composite beds scare me and I'm actually surprised I haven't broken mine yet.

 

crap..i have a shovel sliding about in the back of mine. i need to get it out ASAP. sucks a truck cant handle stuff in the bed.

a deer stand is light..well relatively light. i cant imagine much momentum building up. crazy.