1st Gen Lunchtable Thread - General Discussion

I don’t remember what he has. He has like 4 volvos at his house too. Let me see if i got any pics of the one at my shop

 

I wish our (US) 2nd gen pickups were DC.

 

One of the front corners on my 99 had cracked. It was actually the front panel that bolts to the rest of the bed. I put a reinforcement in there and there was zero chance of it cracking further. That was on the passenger side.

I can't share pics from work but if you look in my build thread for the 99, you can find it. It was when I was working on the shock relocation.

 

One of the reasons I like the tail gate swing out, the frame for it doubles as a bed stiffener.

Wouldn't having a bed rack also work to keep the bed from twisting too much?

 

I figured it would, but there are a lot of posts for 2nd/3rd gens for getting bed stiffeners after they install bed racks and RTTs and what not. So maybe there's more to it that I'm missing, not sure

 

I think the racks put load on the bed sides bowing it out

 

They also have composite beds not metals beds

 

I was just thinking, it probably depends on how the rack mounts to the bed, like only bolting to the inside vs. bolting on top

I don't know, I'm not an engineer

 

Ditto

 

The rack alone will probably stiffen it. But as you put weight on top it has to transfer that load to the bed sides which in return starts to push out the bed. Especially if the rack has any flex to it

 

Beds are also very flimsy. Havnet you seen the twerking tundra

 

Makes sense. I was thinking the frame from the tail gate swing out should help because it mounts to both end sides and across the bottom, like this

driver side --> l_______l <--- passenger side

Sorta like how the bed stiffeners work except it's one big piece rather than two small ones.

But, it's a heavy mf'er too so maybe that works against it

 

https://youtu.be/p1LO6uxy11I

 

There’s been a few people develop cracks around where they bolted racks in

 

Cracks along the bed rails? That wouldn't surprise me because that metal is thin AF, for a long time I kept checking on mine because I had a hard time believing it would actually support the weight of a rack and tent lol. But people put way heavier tents on than mine so

 

Yeah normally your bed is only supported on the top by the very back. Allowing the front (tail gate side) to be less ridged. Because its basically like a box with the top and one side removed. So as you put lateral force on the bed the tail gate side can bow. They your tail gate doesn’t close

 

Now that you bring that up, I remember after I installed my bed rack I couldn't shut my tail gate unless I pulled on the latch while closing it. It was like the bed rack slightly brought the bedsides closer together by a fraction of an inch

But now my tail gate sits on the side of my house, so I don't worry about it

 

Depends on how it mounts I think. Some of those racks look like they just attach to the top of the bed and probably don't have enough gusseting to keep them stiff. So when they're unloaded, they'll stiffen the bed, but I'd be once you slap a RTT and all of the other accessories on it, they'll sag and push out on the bedsides. Their beds are quite different from ours though.

I know my bed has lost something at the front corners, you can grab the bedside and wiggle it independently of the front wall. Maybe a broken weld or something.

 

BAMF makes a quality product so I wouldn't worry much about it, plus you don't have the weight of a tent on top