Custom Tonneau Cover Bed Rack - Low profile L-Track

Due to some procrastination, i'm claiming this to be a testing period, I had been putting off this guide for quite some time and I've finally decided to do a write up of my custom removable bed rack build. Since everyone has gone with the Rhino-racks or Yakima builds, i figured to try something a bit different. L-Tracks.

Video and photos here



So first off, Some background information:
Running a 2018 TRD offroad with a 5ft bed - Tonneau Cover is a Undercover Ultra Flex, a clone (?) to the BakFlip MX4 (BakFlip and Undercover are sister companies, not sure who made what first) but this is my sudo-guide on the steps i've taken to build this thing.

Just to condense most of my findings and to try and prevent repeating myself, most of my m̶a̶d̶n̶e̶s̶s̶ findings and research can be found here; https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/shveets-build-thread-clementine.619286/#post-22474789

Simply put, what i needed is a removable and cheaper solution to the Yakima builds that a lot of people go with, but due to cost restraints - i wanted to go with something cheaper and possibly stronger than Yakima set. Thanks to @tacoma16's advice and recommendation, i went with L-Tracks

The Parts;
Track of your choice; Settled on SuperClamp's SuperTrac / Airline Track system Had a nicer finish that tapered to the edge of the truck, kept things looking good with the endcaps. Unfortunately the longest piece they sell is 48inches, i ended up buying 2x 48inch lengths, as well as 1x 24inch length that i cut to size for the ends. IF you can find a single longer piece, i recommend doing so. This ran me about ($50x2 42 inch + $30 for the 24 inch) $130 but this also came with stainless hardware.

Tower/Riser; Not a lot of options out there that met with what i was looking for originally for a tower, until i found these

$23 Threaded Double Stud Fitting, L-Track Stud Fitting Kit w/Swivel Plate - 2 Pack

Threaded double studs. Cost me about ($30x2 sets of 2) $60

Crossbar; Can be anything of your choice, i prefered the Stainless steel 1-1/4inch square tubing as it interfaces nicely to the Tower i picked above. You can go with Extruded aluminum square something 80/20 1515-S or the larger 2020-S extruded aluminum t-slot bar, but i found that the bolts i used used for the threaded insert would need to be modified or you would need to do through-holes meaning longer bolts. As well as not liking the deflection of a 250lb point load (sitting in the center of the bar for the worst-case scenario)

Nuts and bolts of various sizes; The stainless hardware that came with my L-tracks and were 1/4-20 in size. Riv-nuts and fender washers are some things i picked up to help hold things down. don't recall the Bolt sizes for the tower but it's 1-3/4 in length.

Tools;
Dropped $80 on a Riv-nut tool with all of the adapters and $10 on a bag of 100 1/4-20 rivnuts. My advice if you do: go and check each nut in the bag as mine had came with a bunch of Metric 6mm nuts, granted i only needed 30 at most.
Corded Drill - because nothing beats a corded drill. C-clamps are recommended.


The Assembly:

Start off with Removing the cover from the bed but leave the drain channels on the side. this will help identify the closest you can to the cover. You can score a line in the plastic cap, but my method changed part way into the build so there will be some space needed for the L-track, I'll bring this up quite soon.

First off find the "center" of where the bed lies, This will help you align the 2 L-tracks to be parallel to eachother. If it's off by 1/4inch and maybe even 1/8inch - the entire system wont work. I had some sewing thread on hand, and once it was stretched out at my center marks, lock the tailgate to prevent myself from opening it and destroying the centerline. Note, i used the square/ rectangular bar that faces the back of the truck cabin as well as the tailgate itself.


Test Fitting:
The above measurement was changed a few times as i didn't account for the Center.


Originally planned to have them something along the above, where they would follow the gutter rail for the tonneau cover.

Peeling back the black plastic cap (i found it easiest to pull up from the tailgate end and just yank it upwards) Revealed that the plastic cap overhangs the metal bed side and that would be the new governing end of the L-track.
As i have mentioned above before we started with the assembly and measurements, I ended up doing some steps ass backwards. Drilled the bolt holes in the black plastic bed end cap first before anything while the track was up against the rail for the tonneau cover. The Red dots along the metal bedside below shows you the location of where i thought was a good idea.
I used these as a guide to figure out the furthest to the right as i could go, so this meant i would need to adjust everything towards the left.

Placing the beveled edge of the L-track against the edge of the metal bedside, i took some measurements and found that both sides of the truck were almost parallel. enough that it would need minor corrections, but good enough for me. Used that as a limit as when the Track is bolted down, the extended edge would be directly above that, preventing the track from twisting.



C-clamp, Center punch, and drill 1 hole at the end. i found a step-bit was a good way to get an approximate location.

Drilling the holes in the plastic; holes on the right side was my original guess at where i wanted the L-Track to lay - this is what the red Sharpie dots i mentioned above where made from. I severely botched this bed edge cap by the end of the project, i'm just luck that none of it actually went past the limit of the track. Holes ended up being almost an inch thick because i gave up trying to align the holes correctly part way through.


Mounting Hardware;
So as much as i wanted to use Riv-nuts, the square clip holes in the bed sides brought to light a bit of an issue for me - where i placed the holes above, a hand full of them fell into these square clip holes. Instead of only riv-nutting have of them, i went with the bright idea of using fender washers and nuts and snake them through the wheel well (DAMN WHOMEVER DESIGNED THOSE CLIPS FOR THE WHEEL WELL. THE MOST INFURIATING THING ABOUT THIS PROJECT WAS TAKING THE INNER FENDER/ WHEEL WELL OFF.)

Changed my mind part way through the above because it was a PITA to locate both the fender washer and nut onto the bolt.

Introducing, The Riv-washer or the Fender-nut. not sure what sounds better.


Part Riv-nut, part fender washer. But together - absolutely fantastic nut. Nothing more to explain. It worked great.
this is what they look like on the inside of the wheel well looking up. It's a tight fit, but it worked out somehow. My recommendation, take a Caliber and measure down for the max length you need. The hardware i have has about a 1/8inch separation from the plastic bed.

The 2016-2018 Tacomas have the larger storage box on the driver side of the bed, that will require a longer smaller arm to snake past it to add in the Fender-nuts by the tailgate end.

Dont have photos of it, but the end cap screws that came in the kit from SuperTrac;
Placed the cap into where it will lay finally, Start to screw in, back out after marking the center, use a cut-off wheel to trim down the screw, screw it back into place. You need to do this since the included screw is too long and will bump into the metal of the bed side.


Rinse and repeat the other side.

Rip off plastic, align it with the metal bedside - 2 holes, 1 at either end to allow you to add a bolt or c-clamp to hold things down, made them slightly large that way i could adjust the L-track to be parallel with the track on the driver side.

Find your parallels


Close enough for now, bumped it later with a hammer after things were tightened down snuggly to have a more finalized placement.
Oversize the holes in the bedside plastics to not need to dick around with if you're balls center over the bolt locations or not. Not worth the hassle in guess work.

2 Sides completed.

 

Cross bars;

So the towers i used were the Threaded double stud mounts from Amzaoom.
dont recall the thread size or pitch of them, but i am currently using 1-3/4 length bolts to go through the 1-1/4 Stainless square tube.
ended up putting a thin rubber washer between everything to separate the steel from the stainless cross bar mentioned in the next section in hopes to avoid corrsion of sorts.


just using a piece of 3-1/4 inch oak to give me an idea of how much room i have between the tonneau cover and the bottom of the cross bar.


Cross bars:
Unconventional choice of a stainless steel cross bar, but i had figured it'd be worth using it as it can hold up well against rusting (not so much galvanic corrosion, but that can be argued into infinity. However the more unconventional part about it is that i rammed the same white oak from the above photo into the steel.
Anyways, The stainless square measures 1-1/4 by 1-1/4, which ran me about $35 for an off-cut 10-1/2ft piece from the scrap section. cut in half, for 2 bars.

Hard to describe this bit, but line it up in the center between the 2 towers - where it is 2 equal ends over the bed of the truck. Mark you centers, line things up - and drill your holes on both ends.
as mentioned above, White oak in-fill. White-oak since i have a bunch of it laying around, it's decently weather proof, bugs won't bore into it, and it's quite strong. cut to size, and sledge that thing into place.
trim things up at either end, drill through the marks before with drill press or your choice of method.

drop the bolts down into it, and snug everything up.
Add a few end caps with some rubber and concrete screws and you're laughing.


MODDIFICATIONS;
Just doing a crash course on mods that i have done to keep things working.
1. Lockable threaded doub studs.
Pros; Lockable!
cons: lock needs to be in place at all times otherwise the pin system will bounce around and you'll lose the crossbar since the inner spring will need to be removed to allow for the lock to fit.

I found marking the limits of how high and how low the thumb pin can sit, and measuring the distance inbetween gives you the maximum size of lock diameter that can fit.

MasterCrap locks with 30mm of space between the curved bit and the lock itself with a 7mm diameter shackle was my absolute minimum. changed out of these master locks to their "weatherproof" versions in the blue rubber. but a 2 pack or a 4 pack if you plan to do this, that was all locks are keyed-alike and is easier to remove the system.

2 Extensions;


Rise and repeat method, though this 6 inch extension is being held down with only 2 bolts across it which is plenty from what i can see.

 

Photo dump of the completed project:

video of installing a cross bar: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f9VXfan_hoo

 

Nice

 

Fantastic write up! I’ll be doing this mod soon. Not sure whether I’ll go with the Yakima/ Thule/ Rhino/ L-Track system. I do like all the other things you can hook into that SuperTrack as well.

 

Thank you kindly!
Would love to see your route with whatever you might go with.
Personally like the L-track system as it is a standardized system, meaning anything that can use; L-track, airline track, o-track, super track etc etc etc can all be used with each other. It's mostly a tie-down system, so anchor points are plentiful and as i don't have access to the OEM bed side rail mounting hardware that came with the Tacoma, this system fills in that gap for the time being.


Not sure how will the Yakima/thule/Rhino systems are like for compatibility - but i believe the current systems all work with each other so you can mix and match, don't take my word on this, please do look into it. However what's nice with the brand systems is that all the parts and accessories (cross bars, cargo boxes, snowboard/ski/bike racks) are available and don't need messing about with custom one-off parts.

 

New addition and another reason that i'm enjoying the L-track system over the RHino or Yakima systems.



Fully adjustable backrack for the truck, back also double as a support brace at the back of the bed to help hold a canoe into place.
Still lets me flip the tonneau cover all the way up.




just need a roof rack that i can level out with the backrack so i don't need to worry about the roof of the cabin.

Other than that, a RTT to mount to the 2 crossbars from the above and my system will be set and done

 

Very nice! I never considered L-Track. It's just what I need to mount on my Diamondback tonneau cover.

 

Yeah the L-track system is more on the commercial/ industrial side so not a lot of people consider it. However i found that in my setup there is a bit of play in it, but I had mitigated it through using 1-2mm thin rubber pads at where the mounts go.
It's meant more as a tie down system than for what i'm using it for - but it seems to be just as good for the time being.

But in regards of the Diamondback since you mentioned it, not sure if you've heard about it but there is a kit is a collaboration between Frontrunner and DimaondBack for bed cross bars. they only just released the kit a few days ago and unsurprisingly, it had sold out...
https://diamondbackcovers.com/colle...oducts/front-runner-x-diamondback-rack-system
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uLGOpdgCMvA

 

Thanks! I'll look into it.

 

I have a DB cover with the frontrunner bars and I love it. Mine was added, not part of the system they just released, but its awesome!

 

Since i'm nearing a year of use with these cross bars, figured to post some use-cases for them;
Great for locking tires into the bed, being i can adjust them i can also "pinch" them in place without needing a strap or anything

For a RTT setup;


with tie downs;



I've scratch the cover trying to place the full RTT on my own, shit happens.
on the way to camp with a load of lumber and the RTT

and the same day taking it off with 2 people and cleaning up trash



also helpful for carrying oversized loads like a new mattress;

 

Damn, I'm sold on the l track with backflip. I may have to give it a try.

Did you have to fab the backrack? how did you do that?

 

The backrack itself is from a Canadian company that makes them. To my understanding, the US call them "headache" racks which might help you find something more to your liking.

there are many versions of the backrack but i found myself a version by the name of "the safetyrack". More information about it can be found here; https://www.backrack.com/safety-rack

Unfortunately there is no direct bolt-on adapters from the company that allow the use of the safety rack and the Bakflip/ Undercover tonneau covers (same company). Thus i had to modify mine to work, the height of the L-tracks was just enough to raise the rack to allow the tonneau cover to work correctly and flip up.

 

Ok and you added the l-track anchor on the bottom of the rack?

 

Essentially yes, i found a set of rail pieces that feed into the L-track itself that i bolted the Backrack onto.

 

how does that get locked into place?

Sorry for all the questions, thank you.

 

this will give you a general idea as to how it works;

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vcos-X1bYiM

 

Where did you find this adapter to mount the Backrack?

 

i picked it up from these guys;
https://superclamp.net/
they don't usually have it listed on their site to buy, but i had emailed one of the fellows there to purchase a set.