bed rails and tie downs weak?

has anyone noticed how easily thoes tie downs bend when strapping down a dirt bike?
i went biking with a buddy yesterday and was suprised how much they bend. they dont look safe to me!
is there any better system out there thats a little more sturdy?
has anyone broke them yet?
they look like plastic but i cant tell.

 

people have broke them, bent them etc. What you need to do is add extra "D" rings in the front, look in the cheap mod's area above, or someone will post you a link. Cheap and easy to do, plus then you will be able to tie down your bikes.

 

THANKS for the link phantom......

 

I had the same problem just this weekend with the bed rails bending and cracking like they were about to snap. Lucky i installed the extra D-rings and just switched to those and no problems. I dont think i will be using those bed rails again after my experiences.

 

The whole plastic bed and rails is stupid on Toyotas part. I know if I had the option to have gotten the truck with a metal bed and no rails I would have.

 

The bed rails suck but why would you want a metal bed?

 

Same here, the plastic is too slippery, reminds me of those cheap poly bedliners.
I'm having a hell of a time designing a decent rack for my canoe that isn't going to take a lot of time putting on and taking off because the rails are too weak to use as attachment points and the bed sides have that worthless plastic cap that won't hold bolts.

 

well i didnt know if i was going to bother posting this, but today i went out loaded my bike and started of thinking of bettwe ways to secure it in the bed.

first let me explain a couple problems i have..
many times ill be hauling 2 bikes in the bed any of you who have done this know that its difficult to prevent the bikes from leaning to the inside of the bed when driving around corners without strapping the hell out of the bike which is bad for the suspention. so i use a fork support. its a plastic peice you stick on top of the wheel and under the frint fender between the forks. this way when you wrench down on the straps it only allows the suspention to collaps about 1 inch and puts all the stress directly on the tire. you can accomplish the same thing with a cut 2x4.

in any case some of the roads we drive on to get to the dire bike place require you drive on almost 4x4 trails to get to the unload point. in addition to that we live in a hill community that has many mountain roads.
the problem is that if your bike should lean inwards in the bed there is a good possibility the hook at the end of your strap can become loose and fall off of the attachment point and then when the bike returns upright it could easily just fall over the side of the bed since nothing is holding it in the bed.

a few years ago i had a honda ridgeline it happend to have a hook at the rear of the bed that lined up perfectly with the foot peg when the bike was loaded. this gave me a good idea i still use today. if you put a ratchet strap from the outboard foot peg of your bike and strap it doen it causes the bike to really really want to lean to the outside of the bed which is a good thing because it also wont lean inwards in a turn. so this way i can actually run 1 bike on 1 side of the bed on the way over to my buddys house to pick him and his bike up without worrying abouyt the bike leaning as i make turns.

now the solution. i was thinking how i might install a d ring on the rear area of the wheel well so i could attach this strap to the foot peg on each side of the bed. what i ended up doing was detaching a hook from the end of a strap i had and feeding the strap through one of the forward holes that the storage covers use so i could get the strap below the bed and after re attaching the strap to its hook i managed to secure the hook to the frame itself. now i can crank down as much as i want on the strao without drilling any holes or any modifications to the bed. i did drill a small hole through one of the ribs underside the bed and attach a zip tie through the eye of the hook in such a way so it will never fall off the frame when not under tention. now i just leave the end of the strap with the other hook and tention stop inside the storage compartment when not in use.
i can even reinstall the cover with the strap holding the bike since it just comes out of the cover hole straight out the top.
i might have to make a video to explain all of this. its pretty cool actually.
anyway the end result is that you dont have to wrench down on the straps at the front of the bike to keep it from falling over, in fact you only need 1 strap that goes from the inner handlebar to the opposite side of the bed and the one on the foot peg to hold the bike in place its genious!
also i found that wrapping the front straps around the adjustable bed rail clamps verses just hooking to it puts the stress on the clamps much closer to the bed rail itself so they dont bend nearly as much when you crank them down.
im going to start a new thread with this info so others with bikes may bennifit from it. if anyone wants pics ill try to post a video soon on youtube

 

I always used a fork support, But i didn't buy that plastic thing. I took two pieces of 2x4 and put them together, and cut them to a decent size that wouldn't allow flex. or movement.

 

I made my own and wouldn't haul without it.




I loaded up yesterday to try various techniques. With an Access Roll-up tonneau, I have to give up the first 3" to clear the cover. In this test run, I used some scrap wood. I will fab something more permanent later - maybe a 4x6 cut right.



Anyway, I strapped it down to the additional D-rings I added to the existing bed bolts. I may also add D-rings to a section of the wheel well. These would be used when loading 2 bikes because it provides wider anchor points.



I also loaded diagonally and used a cleat on the right side. I am adding middle tie down points that would be used in this situation.

A final suggestion is to run a bungee cord from the 2 front tie down points. As long as you have tension on the strap hooks, they will not release when given slack. You could also exchange the hooks for carabiner that cannot come loose.

You can see the bungee going up and over the front tire in this picture:
http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y16/evecchiola/Bike Pics/IMG_1770.jpg

 

My neighbor has an 09 Tacoma TRD Off Road. He was putting a lot of weight (probably too much) on one of his four tie downs, and it came off the rail, poly rope shot towards the cab with tie down attached, and the tie down smashed through his back window. So, apparently they will come out of the rails if they reach a certain max capacity. Tie down was not damaged, and went back into the rail with no problems. Haven't used my tie downs yet, but this issue will make me just a little cautious.