Tacoma truck bed tilting up

Hello,
I have an ‘03 Tacoma TRD. The bed appears to have tilted away from the cab. Please see the photo. The gap is wider at the top and it’s tilted back. Anyone ever seen this? Ideas? Thank you!!! Mark

 

There are a few things it could be, your bed mounts, the bed itself is twisted, or your frame is bent in some way or another.

If you’ve ever replaced the bed, been in an accident, had a body lift then or replaced the mounds then this would cause some misalignment.

 

Has this truck been on a lift recently?

 

I'd guess if you've not done anything abnormal with it (improperly lifted, extreme off roading, etc) it probably has something to do with the bed mounts or bed mount bushings before I'd believe something is up with the frame. Unless of course your frame is crunchier than a bag of chips.

 

A couple months ago I had two rust holes in the frame repaired over both rear tires. So it was on a lift quite a while for that work. Wonder if they did something with the mounts? The truck is pretty cherry fir a 2003 with 81,000 miles. I’m thinking something happened when they fixed the frame. The holes were small but rusted through.

 

I’m afraid the frame may have bent while it was on the lift. Hopefully I’m wrong.
https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/frame-issue-to-repair-or-not.540524/

 

Mine is like that from the pallets loaded on the rear of the truck ans pushed front over the years.

It does not hurt to get under and look for any major failures .

Loose bed mount crushed frame etc.

Good luck!

 

If the frame was bent, can it easily be fixed? Is the garage that did it responsible?

 

If they repaired the rust on the frame more then likely due to heat of welding the frame is tweaked downward in the rear. You can shim the rear of the bed up to correct that misalignment. Honestly, if they used a level when they did the repair between the front bed mount and the middle bed mount you probably wouldnt have this issue.

 

The garage would not be responsible. If the frame bent while it was on the lift, it’s probably because the frame was weak from rust issues. Not because of something the mechanic did incorrectly.

 

Now if you had Noticed the problem when the truck was picked up or maybe the next day you might have a leg to stand on not 2 months later .

Had the shop removed the bed to access the area that needed attention??

I can not see How you could get the frame that Hot to pull things that much maybe Oxy-Fuel Welding maybe if your doing a complete rework and have all the cross members off and are somewhat sloppy in your work.

 

Depending on how the repair was done and how bad the rust was originally, if that rail was dropped even an inch at the most rear point it would cause this gap issue. With as flimsy as the rear of these frames are if they were just burning foot long sections in at a time that's the problem. Hard to really know without having any pictures of the bottom side of the truck.

 

Having done my share you would need to be quite Clueless to pull things that bad .

Then done a normal shop I do tend to forget I have high standards and a few days under my belt .

 

Y'all are so quick to blame a shop or a tech or something....
It's kinda sad really, 95% of shops/technicians do try and honestly fix people's cars, and people can't wait to point a finger.

 

Post a few pictures of the underside/frame of you truck.

 

break out Ur tape measure & levels

the frame prior to repair might have been tweaked/weakened

while up on lift the repair might have overlooked the ‘ square ‘ of frame & bed

 

Have you diagnosed the problem yet?

 

Not sure if this will help but try to distribute a lot of weight at the very top of your bed and the Xtracab seats... this may help reduce the bend if you leave it for long enough like salt bags or even gym weights. Also check to see if the frame right beneath is rotten or really rusted.