Total Chaos Bed Stiffeners! One of the best investment so far!

No.
No.
Yes it will go through hell, I know that first hand.
You didn't make a mistake.

 

This is my 5th Toyota truck and I've never run bed stiffeners before. Never had an issue with my bed spreading or cracking either. Of course, I don't have a camper shell or anything like that. Not sure if camp shells really do spread the bed apart or not.

 

Invest that money on beer.

 

Same. I have them on this truck for the tie downs but that C channel is pretty strong so everyone is complaining about it... Well I don't know what to tell you. Maybe take better care of your truck? If you're denting it by loading stuff.... I always cringe of people who just throw things into the bed or load heavy stuff and let it drop.

 

I’m guilty of tossing stuff in my truck bed. I have rocks in my yard for decoration and my sons and I just chunked them in my bed, one by one. Bowling ball sized rocks, bed is chipped and scratched all to hell, but it’s still going strong! I’m a testament to the strength of their composite bed!

 

@TOTAL CHAOS

Anyone know if the 3rd gen bed stiffeners are compatible with a roll-n-lock retractable tonneau cover??

 

With a Retrax cover, yes they are.

 

Look, I've been putting themoff for over a year with a kbvoodoo steel rack and a 4 person 200lbs tent. We sleep 2 people and 2 large dogs in the tent.

Check out my tailgate gaps....

I ordered the victory 4x4 stiffeners due to their low profile.
Spend the $100

 

I've had a GFC camper on my truck for a couple years and I've noticed that the gap was widening at the top of the tailgate. I haven't had any issues closing the tailgate but I got the total chaos bed stiffeners hoping that it would close that gap but it's still there. This picture is with the stiffeners on. Hopefully they prevent future issues from getting worse but I thought I read where others put these on and it pulled the bed sides in square.

 

I'll just chime in here quickly. My viewpoint comes as a structural engineer, so take that as you will.

If you ever carry any sort of weight on the bedrails of your truck (most common example is a soft shell RTT on any rack/bars that mount to the tops of the bedsides), then you most definitely need a set of bed stiffeners.

Loads that terminate at the bottom of the bed, i.e. a heavy load of dirt/mulch/stone, do not stress the area that the bed stiffeners reinforce.

It is not a design flaw by Toyota in any sense of the word. The issue arises out of the fact that some of us use our Tacomas in ways that are outside of the scope of their design, again, by affixing mass to the top of the bedsides. That would be like saying that the drill bit designed for wood is a crappy product because it couldn't even drill a single hole through a piece of 3/16" steel plate. It's being used outside of its capabilities, but that doesn't make it a crappy bit.

Spend enough time around folks who use Tacomas on bumpy roads to haul around RTT's and you will undoubtedly come across uneven tailgate gaps, as the bedsides will move/distort over time.

 

i think it's a combination of having a heavy load like a camper and off-roading which puts a lot of side-to-side forces on the bed versus typical up-and-down load.

 

you have to ratchet straps the sides together BEFORE installing. if you didn't do that then it's never going to be square.

 

Interesting topic...and OP reply #51 was genuine...he was happy about his purchase. It sure ended up "raining' on his parade with the comments...lol. (I'm laughing with you OP not at you)

I suppose it wouldn't hurt having these installed but like I've read...they are usually put off as low priority. Additional tie-down loops are always good.

As for your comments...there are some who installed these bed stiffeners and still experienced bowing. I guess it's all about how owners put their Tacomas through the wilderness of travel...and the design of racks/shells installed on the bed.

Ed

****

 

The issue doesn’t only arise from using the truck outside its scope of design - People have been putting camper shells on pickups for decades, and Toyota is aware of this. Toyota is also aware that people off road in their trucks (I mean, they did name their most popular model the “TRD Off Road”). Toyota could have spent a few bucks putting some steel reinforcements in the bed sides, and they could have even passed that on to the customer… What’s $100 more on a $40K+ truck? I have a camper shell and I installed some bed stiffeners beforehand because I was made aware of this issue only from this forum. But I do think Toyota could have and should have just made their beds a little stronger in the first place, knowing full well what so many people end up doing with these trucks.

 

The other 99.99999% of their owners don't, though.

Manufacturing ends up focusing on weight reduction, fuel economy, and safety.

You want additional capabilities? Aftermarket, my friend.

Can't remember what the forum rules are about calling out vendors, but you can do better than Cali Raised Copyright Infringement parts.

Plenty of companies make bed stiffeners though, plenty of options out there

 

Fixed.

I'm from Cali/SoCal/LA...so I'm just a tad biased...lol.

Thanks for your input.

Ed

 

Haha sorry I was making a self reference/burn

Lol ain't no one here biased

What I've noticed is the TC stiffeners have the angled upper piece and go higher than most of their competitors

 

I noticed the Cali stiflers (lol) were a lot less expensive...$109 compared to TCs which are like $179.

Watching both video installs to see the differences...

It's all good in the neighborhood!

But I live on the east coast and my roots are out in LA...so I get a lot of heartache liking west coast teams living ova here in the Tri-state area. lol

Ed

****

 

I've got gear on my truck from every corner of the continent (and a patch from Japan)

 

I’d say as a conservative estimate, 1 out of every 5 2nd & 3rd gen Tacomas I see out on the road have either a camper shell, rack or other heavy object over the bed, not even counting all the termite companies, pool cleaners, and other work tacos. So you’re estimate of 1 out of 100 million might be a tiny bit off, haha.

A couple bed stiffeners built into the truck from the factory would make about as much difference in fuel weight/economy as eating a breakfast before you drive or not, but they would make the truck stronger and better at handling many tasks that many owners will put their trucks thru.