What Have You Done To Your 3rd Gen Today?

I drove it for the first time in 3 months (wife was driving due to lease miles). Now I have it back and will be buying out the lease. Let the mods begin.

 

How does the bed flex so much when running a bed cover ? I would think the my bak flip would keep the bed from spreading or flexing beyond whats normal.

 

Tonneau has zero effect on bed rigidity

 

how do you like that 285/75 size? im real torn on 295/70 duratracs or 285/75 rt trails

 

The side rails may provide some rigidity lengthwise, but the cover floats a bit between the rails. The rubber hinges would give up any side-to-side rigidity if flexed. I've decided not to worry about it since I don't carry a big load above my bed and my off-road driving is moderate. Only time will tell if I'm right.

 

I had the same question a couple months back and the conclusion I came to from all the input was they are cheap insurance if you carry a lot of weight above your bed or pressure on the sidewalls. I'm certain folks on the forum fuss about our trucks way more than the average Tacoma driver and all have been known to do cool but maybe unnecessary mods. For my use, I don't think I need them. But maybe I'm wrong, or maybe I'll get bored some day and buy some. TBH, the main thing that stopped me is I didn't want to drill any metal.

Or some day we might use that kinetic energy to charge a battery to get the car rolling again. We could call it, "Prius". But mag lev sounds cooler.

 

So Happy, Longest 9 weeks ever. A.R.E. Overland

 

It didn't. My out of square came before I ever had the truck.
It wasn't out of square enough to visually notice without the stiffeners in place, but once I got them installed prior to tightening them, I noticed the bed was off 90 deg square by over a quarter inch on the driver's side.

 

I've mounted mic's in that location in previous vehicles and it was hard for the people on the other end to hear me. I've had much better luck hiding them behind the rear view mirror, which is where I put mine in the truck.

In short, yes. The bed is a composite material and the bedsides are pretty much panels that are just stuck onto it. There is a little bit of metal but really no rigidity back there. If you put anything above the bedsides there is nothing to really keep it together and the sides can splay out over time. If you offroad or articulate the suspension often/hard/at all the bed flexes pretty significantly as well. The stiffeners keep everything where it should be and add rigidity to the rear end. If you just drive your truck with an empty bed on the highway all day you probably don't need them.

 

I should be getting my 11” Alpine next week. I’ll probably do the install myself and I can take pics. My only concern is running the mic wire up the driver A pillar since I have the KTJO driver side grab handle and getting that bolt aligned isn’t easy. I may run it up the passenger A pillar.

 

I wonder if wrapping the backside of the mic with some Tesa tape, like they do in this video, would help sound quality: https://youtu.be/_GO2Zyr7Ecg?si=u-0jJqFV0O3k9Cp8

 

That is a good idea. I've tried a few fixes, but moving the mic was the ultimate solution for me. The Tacoma has a much quieter cab stock than the other cars I've tried it in so might be less of an issue. In the past it was an issue with both sound getting to the mic and the other person also getting some feedback.

 

looks good, Does the bed lined material cover the front of the topper? What about the top? I have an AG with a leer and I'm trying to decide if I want to break up all that green with some bed liner similar to the overland series. Thanks

 

Thank you for that explanation. I do mostly use my truck as a commuter but haul stuff with it on occasion so I’ll look into ordering some to help the little guy out

 

Think about it from this aspect. The typical pick-up truck bed has been of double wall steel for decades. Since the 2nd gen, Toyota has opted for a heavy composite bed which won't rust, combined with a steel shell (the outer fender). Which combination do you think is going to withstand stresses from loads pressing out against the bed walls, or being loaded up along the rails?
Every design makes choices, and being as how the Tacoma is marketed as a light truck, they chose the long term no rust option. The beds are fine for light use, but the extras that a lot of us choose to add or do with our Yotas mean that it's cheap insurance to use bed stiffeners to keep things square, and, incidentally, maintain the value of our investments.

 

I am an engineer, and have designed and built furniture I need, not just the designs others came up with that are "compromises". Truck bedsides are panels that are secured only the bottom where they meet the truck bed bottom and at the cab, when you think about it. You can cut up some cardboard and make a mock-up of the truckbed, then flex the most remote and unsecured parts of that mockup, then tape in some triangles at the far end to stabilize those flexing remote portions.

I give you this long explanation and suggestion so you can learn the engineering of braces, as anything you do in the truckbed will be subject to these same rules. As an example, here is a picture of reinforcement I put on the legs of a table because I wanted an open front of the table BUT the front legs would be subject to breaking off (well, under enough pressure).

I hope the picture and the experiment you try will show how a tine bit of creative bracing saves the day.

 

No just the stripe you see, It stops at the track on top.

 

Excellent.

 

If you have weight on the bed, equipment, RTT, racks, bikes, Kayaks and or anything else the truck was not specifically designed to support they are in fact a great idea.
My truck has less than 7k in it when I got it, and the bed was definitely out of square.
I also have a large rack on the bed (actually two) a full hard side aluminum tanaue cover, a shovel, axe, 4 gallons of extra gas, two gallons of extra water, two kayaks and two cargo containers full of recovery gear.
If you don't have anything on the bed or never go off road then it probably doesn't make as much difference.

 

The more I think about it, the more I think I should just do it. I plan to keep the truck well into the age that accumulated stresses on the truckbed will matter, even if just light stress for those years.