Tacoma Bed Stiffener Essential

I have a feeling that most people don't know what a gusset is or why it's important.

 

For those of you who are dyi’ers I’ll leave you this. It’s in Spanish but there’s an image will all the sizes that you need to know (to include hardware) to get yours done.

https://youtu.be/BEP1VB3FbPk

 

Well damn! Thanks for doing the research. My extensive knowledge of patent law aka "watching Shark Tank" tells me that it would have to be a utility patent to patent it's efficacy? Overall I think any stiffener will pretty much do the job. I suspect welding rock sliders on your frame would also stiffen the frame and prevent some of the flexing.

 

I came to comment something similar. The TC design seems to have minimal reinforcement where needed to resist the bed-splitting moment.

 

Call me crazy but I'm pretty sure you'd see the cracked welds in the perpendicular reinforcement if the TC was failing. If you don't, it's probably not failing at that bed-splitting moment.

 

The welds won't crack... the whole thing will simply flex ---> because there is not much resistance to bending there...

 

I'm not totally convinced that the Tacomaworld peanut gallery has as big a grasp on physics and metallurgy as it sometimes pretends to have. Totally not a dig at you, although it does kind of sound that way.

Personally, I don't think they do a lot regardless of the design... But I trust Total Chaos in a way I don't trust someone's Rough Country knock-off.... And all this talk about the legal nature of patents is silly... Total Chaos and other fabricators don't have the resources to test and research their designs to make claims about their performance. They're only gonna patent the obvious crap -- the look and design of the thing. They won't make claims about performance because they don't have the resources to defend a lawsuit

edit: this comes across wrong. Just saying that the TC's look cooler than most, they don't catch on shit when you're loading/unloading the truck.... And if I'm gonna drill 6 holes in my baby, I'm not gonna do it for Joe's Made-In-China crap. You gotta sell me with some math and some science first

 

Also, I've had the Total Chaos stiffeners sitting in the box in my garage for like 3-4 years, and I finally got around to installing them a couple of weekends ago. So I have an irrational need to defend them hah

 

All things equal, except for the gusset, which will resist the moment more? If you want one that does not encumber the bed, 4WP is the solution. There is one other company that sells a low profile option like 4WP, but you have to get it with their tailgate skin.

E: I also don’t see how they couldn’t get real world numbers on the loads. Don’t roof rack manufacturers provide static and live load numbers? If they can do it for racks, they can do it for these.

 

No dig assumed...
I started out doing engineering for structures - including design of floating cranes. I used to design welds on 4" plate structures on heavily loaded (moving) ships.

. Even TC says their widget is for decoration.

We don't need a heavy element there... but normally you want a stiffener to be stiff...

Visually, the TC look 'wrong' even for aesthetics. They don't look stiff and they'll flex. (They use material that is too thin)

That bit of additional material in the cross section and gussett size will do wonders in the right places.

- Still, my primary goal was more tie downs. I drilled 2 more same size holes in the top part and they look / work much better for all purposes.

AND they were a good amount cheaper...

(Pics from the web)

 

Please don't take offense to what I'm about to say, but the thing you call a perpendicular reinforcement has a name. It's called a gusset. And to be perfectly frank, if you don't know that word then you really aren't in a position to talk about the efficacy of a design, or the quality of criticism levied against it.

Metals flex, especially at joints. Gussets are an easy way to help limit that flex. Since most fab shops use one of like 3 different steel alloys that all have somewhat similar material properties and most of these bed stiffeners are of the same basic design, you can pretty much fully judge a bed stiffener by the size of its gusset.

 

I installed the TC stiffeners. What are they designed to do on my truck? Since I am not loading tons on my bed and going off-road but just want the weight of the camper shell on the bed walls supported, TC works just fine. The low profile is plenty for my use, would like to see who can bend that steel while driving (I guess even off-road).

 

yep, the ford raptor bed reinforcement is the best design, but least useful for the bed

 

Have any of you noticed an improvement to the truck's feel on the road with the bed stiffeners?
I've seen some people say the rear of the truck feels less squirrelly after putting them on. I understand the benefits for loads and off-roading but curious if it helps in other ways.

 

they won’t improve road manners.

 

Those are basically just the end game of gussets

 

I didn't think so. Seemed like it would be a placebo effect if anything.

 

What’s interesting about this design is once one of those rods is deformed (ie bent from rolling a 100lb 37” tire over it) it becomes substantially less effective. Throw some metal plates in that triangle and your bedsides aren’t going anywhere.

 

to be clear, i own the tc's, so this isn't an 'i bought 'x', i'm gonna bash 'y'. i'm not ashamed about discussing it, my goal was specifically additional tiedown points, and the tc's fit that bill without obstructing the bed usage as much as other potentially better reinforced versions.

the 4wp version came out about 6 months after i got my tc's. i hadn't installed the tc's at that point, and did seriously consider the 4wp version, as the perpendicular steel angle would naturally resist more force than the tc's design. j i choose to keep the tc's specifically because they've got more usable anchor points IMO than the 4wp version. if i had chosen the 4wp, i would've added a triangular gusset on the corner of the angle as well to further ensure less issues.

really, any amount of metal around a corner adds strength to the corner. so while i would never vote the tc's to be the strongest, and the real reason i started digging into the blind pandering of "they're patented, they've got to be da best!", they're going to be better than no bed stiffener at all. but i'd still argue that 60-80% of tacoma's (mine included) don't actually need any type of bed stiffener anyways.