Best choices for bed stiffeners

You have a 3rd gen and I’m guessing those are for a 2nd gen.

 

That’s awesome of your girlfriend to buy you that. But yeah she bought the stiffener for the second gen, hence the bad fitment.

You could always drill another hole. I mean you already drilled 6

 

I just gotta say it. Sorry in advance. So... your GF bought you some stiffeners, and you came up 2” short?

 

Still gets the job done

 

I have the trifold OEM tonneau cover. Will @TOTAL CHAOS bed stiffeners work with that cover or am I limited to a shorter design?

 

Maybe have someone push on the bedside or attach a ratchet strap to the bed cleats and ratchet till the sides come in.

 

unscrew the other side bolts first.

 

although now that you've already drilled the holes those might be off once you get the top one in properly.

 

Do you even need bed stiffeners if you have a tonneau cover? Jw

 

I assume so, given where the stiffeners brace?

 

Do any of these bed stiffeners have actual engineered specs? Like how much flexion they can actually resist? Or are they really just for strapping down cargo?

Total Chaos are mentioned a lot, but looking at them, they seem to have a smaller amount of steel gusset at the 90° corner than others. They go up higher and contour, but that doesn't really help stiffen the bed much if the angle isn't reinforced well, right?

Leitner look like they don't extend far enough along the bed horizontally much, although decent amount of steel gusset.

Rago and Cali both seem to have a decent amount of steel at the angle. I'd guess they'd be stronger at resisting flexion.

Obviously, some are thicker steel than others too which is also a factor. Exposure to the elements, like the sun and hauling heavy loads also are some other variables. A camper top doesn't necessarily add or reduce flexion. If it added to it, then it would also probably crack over time. The force required to shear or crack a bed would have to be pretty good.

So.... Curious if any of these companies have any actual math that backs these flexion claims. I mean how do you know these actually work?

If not then common sense would be to go with heaviest steel, longest horizontal and vertical span with largest gusset, right? Or maybe just call them cargo tie downs?

 

You’re over thinking it.

Pick the ones you like and go for it. It’s only money.

 

You're probably right. But I'm about to drop a camper shell on top and would like to make sure I buy something that actually does something. Even if it's only $100-150. Plus I could see snagging or scraping a ton of stuff on these while loading and unloading from the bed.

 

I’ve been running TC stiffeners for 2 years with my setup. I’d guess I have 300#-400# on the bed rails and have had no issues. I prefer the TC ones because they fit the contour of the bedside really well and don’t block too much of the tailgate opening. That was important for my drawer setup. They are super burley. I’d be really, really surprised and probably a bit scared if they ever failed.

 

ended up going with TC after checking out the other options adn the fact that TC goes all the way up the bed

 

https://www.lilbscustomfab.com/product-page/2016-current-bed-stiffeners

ended up going with these

 

Probably should just skip’em.

 

I wish they went all the way up...

 

I don’t recall which it was, but there’s one that’s fairly low profile and the oem bedmat doesn’t need to be trimmed. That would be my choice if I opted to get a set. It’s one of the big names if I recall correctly.

 

Bottle openers are a nice touch.