3rd gen bumper misalignment

I noticed this on my 3rd gen DCSB, it's a pretty small difference but my truck OCD is kicking in. Anyone else notice this on their back bumpers? if so any easy fix perhaps loosening the bumper and shimming up the side that's a little low?

 

Mine is the same. Many people here have the same problem.

 

Common problem unfortunately with the 3rd generation Tacoma’s. My ‘19 is off as well, one side is further out than the other. I’m bringing it to my dealers attention under warranty work when I do my 1,000 mile “engine break in” oil and filter change.

 

Great now when i get home i gotta measure mine.... thanks alot OP

 

Honestly have no clue if mine is aligned or not. Haven’t seen it yet, so no sense in looking and worrying about it. Don’t sweat the small stuff!

 

Mines the same, I noticed when installing bumpershellz. Since my OCD didn’t catch it before, I’m just going to leave it as is until I need to remove the bumper for something.

 

I agree no sense in removing the bumper to adjust something only I see is off anyway. I guess I should stop staring at my truck so much

 

My pro was off by quite a bit, wasnt the bumper tho, the bed was bolted down crooked. They loosened the 4 bed bolts and realigned the bed under warranty. Oh also the bumper is directly mounted to the frame so they said that is not adjustable wothout seeing a body shop. Anyways the bed was put on slightly off.

 

That makes total sense, thanks for the reply.

 

Really, The bumper is bolted to the frame not welded correct? So then I’d assume there is some slop. Maybe that’s why everyone pulls the step pads off and makes adjustments to the hidden bolts rather than the actual bumper mounting location?

 

For those past the warranty period;

• Use an impact driver and a Torx T55 driver bit to loosen the six aluminum-colored bolts that hold the bed to the frame: there are two near the cab, two above the rear axle and then two more near the tailgate.
• Use a Torx T30 bit to loosen the black D-Ring tie-down fixing bolts at the left and right rear corners of the bed.
• At this point, the bed will move around as the bed bolt holes are oversized and allow for a good bit of re-alignment; however, you’re not done yet!
• The fuel filler neck is held in place by a clamp that you need to access from under the bed, ahead of the left wheel well. If you don’t loosen the clamp, you will be preloading the fuel filler neck when you shift your bed’s alignment and that’s not a good thing.
• Finally, you’ll need to address the alignment pin at the left-front underside corner of the cargo bed, just ahead of the left wheel well and fuel filler door /neck.
  • On our long bed Tacoma, the pin is pressed into a flange that’s welded to the truck frame, sitting ahead of and between the front bed mounting bolt and the front bed wall. You can use a pair of vice-grips to bend the flange / move the alignment pin as needed to get the bed centered-up on the cab and truck frame.
  • On the standard / short bed Tacoma trucks, the alignment pin is pressed into a hole in the frame just behind the front bed mounting bolt. You’ll have no choice but to raise the bed high enough to pry the pin out of the frame so you can move the bed freely and get it centered behind the cab and on the frame.

My guess is, this pin is there for production efficiency and has a +/- tolerance that’s not all that tight.

• Regardless, if you don’t bend the flange on the long bed or remove the pin from the frame on the standard/short bed, the cargo bed will still move but it will shift back onto the alignment pin as soon as you take the pressure off the bed; unloaded the bed will only move left or right by more than 1/8th of an inch; there’s just not a lot of play. Again, I needed to shift my bed 3/8″ to the right which is about the max-amount of movement you can achieve with the stock, oversized bed bolt holes.
  • NOTE: I suspect that if you have a helper holding the bed in place as you torque down the bed bolts on the long bed, that might just force the flange to bend. But, that doesn’t address the fuel filler neck pre-loading and it wouldn’t work that way on the standard/short bed.

Adjusting the Flange on the Long Bed: With the fuel filler neck now free to move, you can now bend the flange on the long bed with the vice grips using moderate hand pressure; this is not a structural support it’s just an alignment flange. While it’s tempting to just remove the pin, if you’re trying to move the bed to the right you’ll find you still need to bend flange as the composite bed has a molded-in reinforcing rib that sits right next to the flange. So, do yourself a favor and just bend the flange with the pin still installed. It provides a very precise and firm realignment of the bed that will not shift before you can re-secure the frame bolts. I checked my bed for alignment with the cab, noting there was not a lot of left or right movement at the rear of the frame. But, that’s not a bad thing, as the rear bumper doesn’t move with the bed, and re-aligning the bumper is not an insignificant task.

Adjusting the Flange on the Standard / Short Bed: Again, with the fuel filler neck now free to move and the bed bolts loosened and the left front bolt loosened by at least 3/4’s of it’s length, you can now press the bed up and away from the frame and pop the alignment pin out of the frame with the tip of a flat bladed screw driver or some other type of lever / panel removal tool. Just discard the pin, as it’s no longer of any use and will prevent you from getting your bed centered. once you have the pin out you can freely adjust the alignment of your bed using the cab as your guide, then secure the bed’s fixing bolts and re-check the alignment. Again, note that there’s not a lot of left or right movement at the rear of the frame / rear bumper and it’s just best to leave that along, especially if you have the parking sensors in your bumper.

Both Trucks / Fuel Filler Neck: Once you have the bed repositioned fixed in position with the six bed bolts and the two tie-down ring bolts, tighten back the fuel filler neck clamp bolt and you’re done.

Stand back and admire how your truck bed is now centered on your truck’s cab and ask yourself, why didn’t Toyota put in an alignment step during the bed installation process, it would have added not more than a few second to the overall takt time.

 

Mines off too. Screw doing all of that to make it “perfect.” HA HA EVERYBODY HAS BUMPERS THAT TRIGGER OCD!!!

 

Exactly nobody notices but us

 

Aftermarket rear bumper

/thread

 

X2. I noticed my bumper was off a few weeks ago. This surprised me since I am anal about those things. Thinking back, It probably was aligned properly—but with my mis-aligned bed. No doubt l caused it to be off when I re-aligned my bed!

 

A lot of us are OCD on here and notice details like panel alignment/gaps, bumper alignment, etc.

 

For clarification, this is only if your bed is misaligned and won’t adjust the bumpers up/down

 

My 1992 Toyota Truck had some slight issues with the bed fitment, my 2018 isn't perfect either. I'm guess it's just a loose spec, and doesn't really impact anything other than appearance. But hard to believe not much has changes in 26 years.

 

Many moons ago there was a video of the assembly plant that showed that the bumper is installed on the truck before the bed. They obviously don’t take the time to properly align the bed, cab, bumper as 90% of our trucks have this “condition”. Shame shame for crappy engineering and cost cutting!