Bed rack for 2017 short bed Tacoma

Hello,

I’m looking to get a good quality bed rack for a rooftop tent for my 2017 short bed Tacoma. I’ve been looking at the RCI 12”. Any suggestions?

Thanks
Hunter

 

RCI makes a great product. I liked the fact that I can have the RTT on the rack and still pull into my garage. It’s plenty strong and easy to assemble. I bought an extra top plate for it and attached the plates directly to the RTT instead of using the rails that came with the RTT saving another 1” of total height, less wind drag.

 

Wow, I love how that looks. Yeah, from what I’ve read RCI is a great choice. Is that the 12” you have on yours?

Thanks
Hunter

 

Yes it’s the 12”

https://rcimetalworks.com/product/05-19-tacoma-bed-rack/

 

Yeah that’s exactly what I’ve been looking at. I think I’m going to be pulling the trigger soon. Thanks for the info!

Hunter

 

Love my @RelentlessFab bed rack. Easy to assemble with tons of options for mounting items to it. Sits at the same height at 12" above the bed rails. They come with side rails, I just don't have them installed right now. Nothing against the RCI bed rack, just don't have any experience with it.

https://www.relentlessfabrication.com/collections/toyota/products/2005-current-tacoma-bed-rack

 

I believe we do have a couple of powder coated modular racks in stock right now too so shipping should be pretty quick, would just take a few days for us to get packaged up.

 

A word of warning about RCI Bed Racks: Their powder-coating is terrible, as is there customer service team's ability to stand by their products. I ordered mine in April of last year, arrived and installed in May of 2018. By February of 2019 (<10mo) There was significant rusting of the underlying material and peeling of the powdercoat. When I first called them on the issue, they sent me a new panel because at first I only saw it on one panel, which was a nice gesture, but within days, the rest of the rack started showing the signs of rust/peeling I had seen on the first panel. When I contacted them and told them that the whole rack needed to be re-powder coated, they blamed their powder-coater and gave me a $75 check. $75 isnt a lot when you consider to have their shit powder-coat job removed and reapplied by someone competent, I was out $400.00 for the new coat. My local powder-coater in the Twin Cities tore them apart and showed me all the corners that had been cut when coating the rack originally. No powder Primer(Not necessary but recommended), bad cleaning/pre-treatment, super thin ("not to spec" in the local guys words) powder application, etc. that was wrong with the RCI job.

So in short, if you order an RCI rack, be prepared to spend another $400 for a quality Powdercoat job. I have no doubts that the local guys job will last many, many years, not just several months like RCI's. The rack, itself, in terms of sheet metal, is good and useful. The headaches of re-powdercoating would cause me to never consider RCI again unless it came with a substantial warranty on the powdercoat of some kind.

 

Sucks to hear. Especially when you're paying somebody for a quality paint job over rattle can. But, this is why I buy everything bare metal. I'll spend the extra time coating it myself and can do touch-ups as needed.

 

I like my KB Voodoo rack. Powdercoat is great.

 

Had absolutely zero complaints with my victory rack! Very modular too!

 

We would love to earn your business!

Back in early 2018 we had out sourced all our powder coating to a local company. After using them for a period of time we did see some poor quality coating on some of our products after 6-10 months. Which we tried to handle any issues the best we could. Replacing parts and refunding powder coating cost after the powder coating companies warranty has expired we feel like is more than fair. Thus this has led us to spending hundreds of thousands of dollars investing in our own powder coating equipment. We now use a Parker Ionics Powder coat system here in house. This has allowed us to over see better quality control and take care of any such situations that maybe warranty-able. Our process includes a much more thorough pre wash treatment, we do use a heavy duty epoxy primer prior to the uv-resistant powder coat to provide a much more durable and longer lasting finish. Not to mention the that parts now go directly from fabrication to powder coating in a controlled environment. Products don't get transported by trailer and sit around another shop collecting moisture etc. in an environment that we can't control.

.......

We stand behind our products, are happy to take care of our customers and address any issues that happen. Please give us a call or email us if you have any specific questions about our bed racks or other products!

 

Another vote for KBvoodoo here.

 

I'll throw a second vote in for RCI. Perfect height for MPGs and it's rock solid. Only real issue I have is that the add-on maxtrax brackets seriously need to be redesigned and the slots aren't long enough on the sides to just make a bracket with some straight bar... it's stupid that they sit so high on the rack that I can't have a tent open to that side just for the sake of manufacturing identical brackets - they need to be designed with an offset to lower them.

I know the poster above had issues with powder but that's not something I've seen come up frequently around here like it has with KBVoodoo... I will say that the powder isn't particularly thick though and I've scratched mine in a few places that needed a quick hit with a rattle can.

 

I vote for @victory4x4, just installed their rack this weekend and looking to put it to use soon. Plus they were super nice and got it out within two weeks. Military discount too!

 

Did you end up pulling the trigger?

 

i like the cbi overland rack.

 

Hey! Sorry for the late response. I haven’t got one yet, I’m still deciding. There are so many good suggestions on here! And I’m doing a little bit of saving to be able to order one.

 

would anyone be able to point me in the direction of the rear bumper in this picture?