Ratchet strap (or rope) attachment points on rear bumper of gen-4?

Can you hook a ratchet strap to the rear bumper, like for securing long boxes/boards in the bed with the tailgate down, to give more pull-down force than bed-mounted D-rings? Can't tell from photos if you can do this, or how much metal skeleton is underneath the outer plastic covers.

 

Do you have the ARB tow hooks bolted to the frame?

 

If you don't have tow hooks, there is also the chain attachment points on the receiver hitch as well

 

I haven't bought yet. I was at Home Depot and saw a guy trying to figure out how he was going to secure what looked like 12 foot 2x6's and it got me wondering how that could be done on the gen-4.

So I guess the short answer is there's no lip or hole at the edges of the under-structure of the rear bumper to hook a strap to and you'd have to use a point more toward the middle of the bumper under-structure but mounted directly to the frame? Roughly $350 for the ARB tow hooks. For just a few hundred more, could replace the entire bumper with a new powder-coated steel bumper like from BodyArmor4x4.com though they apparently don't have one for the gen-4 yet. Edit to add: looks like you can spend significantly more than ~$700, possibly 3x that, to get a high quality rear bumper replacement.

Edit2: Here's a video (starts at 0m58s) showing the rear bumper removed:
https://youtu.be/TB0GKe8QTw8?t=57 and at 1m40 it shows the bumper itself removed.

 

Or a bed rack

 

Can you post an example of what you mean? There are a lot of different configurations called bed racks.

 

There are high lift points on the ends of the frame rails

 

Related question: There are aftermarket mods for (at least on gen-3 and earlier) setting the tailgate angle at something other than horizontal or vertical (either a simple mod to the tailgate cable or a ratcheting mechanism). If you use boards across the indents in the bed, you can set the tailgate angle to be flush with the level of those board (e.g. for carrying sheet goods). See this video at 1m35 for example: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-AOie9-lSww

Can you do that on models with the power tailgate? I guess you'd need to be able to shut off or disable the tailgate lift/drop motor and position it manually.

Or...if you have a model with the power tailgate, from the open position, could you check whether you can push the tail light button to begin to raise it, and then push it again about a third of the way up to stop it in a partially open position?

 

That's a good thought. Here's a snip from a joe raiti video of that:
https://i.postimg.cc/28SVSXXW/2024tacoma-highliftjackpoint.jpg

Seems you could buy a 1/2-in eye bolt and bolt it into that 1/2" hole to the left of the big rectangle hole. Something like this for the eye bolt:

Aiwaiufu 4 Packs 1/2"-13 Eye Bolts, 316 Stainless Steel Marine Grade Shoulder Eye Bolts, UNC Standard Threaded Lifting Ring Bolts

https://www.amazon.com/Aiwaiufu-Sta.../dp/B0DB59VJ75?smid=A3IH2IC010ERG4&gQT=1&th=1

 

No.
What you do is just interrupt it. As soon as it starts to open or close you give it opposing pressure and it'll beep and stop, switching into manual operation mode. Once there you open and close (with resistance). It won't go back to automatic mode until you've funny closed and latched it.

 

What specifically are you trying to carry?

I carry 4x8 sheetgoods in my bed all the time with no issues - plywood, MDF, drywall. I lay two 4x6 boards across the molded-in bed slots. I made two small “Ts” from the 4x6 offcuts that I stand on the open tailgate. These Ts are the same height as the 4x6 horizontal boards. I just lay my sheetgoods across the 4x6 boards and the ends of the sheetgoods are supported by my little Ts. I use a couple of ratchet straps from the tie-towns at the back of the bed - either the bed or rail tie downs - to the back bumper. I’ll just use a set of soft loop tie town straps to loop around my recovery hooks, my tow hook chain points, or the high-lift points. I'll attach my ratchet straps to the soft loops. All of my straps & loops are super heavy duty & have more than 1500lbs load limits so I have no worries.

For longer things I'd rather leave the tailgate up. Example: I recently picked up some 12 foot long 8/4 white oak hardwood boards from the specialty lumber center, or a walnut slab that was about 10 feet long and ~ 2 inches thick. I just run the boards over the closed tailgate strap them down with two ratchet straps to the rear bed tie downs. I use two ratchet straps crossing them over each other and around the boards. This seems to keep the items in place and stop them from sliding along the tailgate.

In either case don't forget to slap a red or orange flag on anything hanging past your brake lights. I don't know what the actual rule is, at least here in Massachusetts, but to me that's a good rule of thumb. I just made a reusable flag our of a piece of bright red fabric and a bungee cord that I keep in the truck. I think you can buy a reusable one on Amazon or at an auto parts store for a few bucks. Cheap insurance to keep the coppers away.

Sorry if I steered the convo a little off topic - hope this is helpful to someone. I mostly learned all of this on youtube. There are a ton of great vids on how to carry in your pickup, especially in shortbeds. IMO there's really no need for a longbed or a fullsize unless you have an absolute need. Taco is just a rockin' truck.

 

Yes. ARB or Toyota fronts replace the transport hooks that are installed. ARB rear bolt through the box frame using two specific reinforced bolt holes. You have to check that you have supported ones (they'll be three holes on the box frame that has the high lift point marks. If two of the three are have sleeves welded into place, you can use the ARB mounts. Otherwise, you can't. Note, that the passenger side is an either-or between the ARB bar and the retractable bed step.