Bed Rack and Tonneau Cover

Hey all, at some point on this forum, I had come across some photos that someone posted showing how they had a tonneau cover along with a bed rack (like an Allpro Pack Rack). I've tried to search and find that photo again, but haven't been able to find it. Anyways, wanted to see who here has done something like this and how they did it.

I have a custom bed rack that mounts similar to the Allpro rack and I want to add a tonneau cover. I've had my eye on the Access covers because the rails appear to work with how the bedrack mounts on the bed. Would love to see if others have done this and what/how they did it.

thanks!

 

This ring a bell? that is an SOS concepts Bedrack with what i believe is an Access/Agri-cover tonneau

 

Yes!!! That's exactly what I want to do. Is that yours? Or, do you know who that belongs to?

 

Sadly its not.. however, Eddy is a vendor on TW and probably can make another one that mounts the same, im looking into one when i get my bed cover to carry a few things that i dont want inside the nice dry bed, IE muddy shovels and the like

Heres his vendor thread, go shoot him a PM

http://www.tacomaworld.com/forum/sos-offroad-concepts/

 

Ah, thanks. I already have a bed rack, it is similar to the SOS and Allpro racks. They all seem to be very similar in how they mount. Just looking for more details around how that person (and anyone else who's done it) mounted the tonneau along with their bed rack.

 

gah, i wish i could remember the username.... id really send eddy a PM with a link to this, he may remember the username, im looking into a height like the picture, but two hoops instead of three so that i still have good visibility, as i don't plan to stack things on top of the rack.

 

no worries. appreciate the heads up on the photo. I just shot Eddy a PM, too.

Anyways, for anyone reading, here's some more background on some of the things that I'm thinking.

I currently have a bed rack that sits on the bed rails. They mount to the utility tracks in a similar fashion as the SOS and Allpro bedracks, where the rack rails are squared into the bed, covering the utility tracks. The rails on my bed rack go from the front of the bed and stop about 8" from the tailgate. There is flexibility in that I can slide the bed rack a little further away from the front of the bed, if necessary. My bed rack rails each have 3 holes drilled through them and screw into t-slot nuts in the utility tracks.

I landed on the Access rollup line of tonneaus as probably being able to work with this type of bed rack because the tonneau rails do not cover or sit on the truck bed rails. They look like they could be mounted flush against the bed rack rail. I might have to do something like drill 3 matching holes in the tonneau rails, lining up with the existing holes in the bed rack rails, so that they can both mount to the bed using the same bolt and t-slot nut.

In this setup, the bed rack rail will be between the tonneau rack rail and the side of the truck bed. Now, what I'm unsure of is if the tonneau rack rails mounted this way will be a little narrower together than if mounted as intended. The bed rack rail sitting between the tonneau rail and the truck bed would probably add .125" to .25" per side, making the overall width .25" to .5" narrower. So, wondering if there is enough tolerance in the width of the tonneau cover to mount it like this. Also, not sure if the different Access models make a difference from this perspective, too.

 

here you go.http://www.tacomaworld.com/forum/member.php?u=123901 hope he dont mind

 

My Access Roll-up + ladder/canoe rack thread. This might not qualify as a 'bed' rack, but here it is anyways.

http://www.tacomaworld.com/forum/2n...darac-access-cover-2014-tacoma-pic-heavy.html

 

Had the same requirements when I built my rack. Needed a locking tonneau and a bed rack. You, or anyone else trying to do the same thing, might be able to tweak your rack to mount in a similar fashion if interested. Would be happy to answer any questions, but after 6-8 months of planning/procrastination I'm happy with the results.

Tonneau - Bak rollx
Rear bumper - CBI expedition
Bed rack - custom built
Tube clamps (all 4 corners) - allows removal of bedrack - ballistic fab

rack


Front tubing to tonneau


Fully loaded

 

Updating this thread because I finally got a working setup. I waited all summer, trying to keep an eye out for a used Access cover to pop up locally. That was a no-go, so I finally pulled the trigger on an Access Literider from Truck Alterations.

I landed on the Access line of rollup covers because from what I could see, the mounting rails all should work with my bed rack. I just would need to drill new mounting holes in the Access mounting rails to align with my bed rack's mounting holes. My bed rack mounts to the bed through three holes on each side, leading to the utility track. I'm using T-slot nuts in the utility tracks to keep everything bolted down.

So, I got a new Access Literider and went at it today. It took a little longer than I expected, I battled with it all day, but with some persistence, a little muscling and creativity, i got it on. And, I have to say, it seems to fit perfectly, once on.

As expected, I measured and drilled out 3 new holes in the Access mounting rails, matching up to the mounting holes in my bedrack. Once I got those mounted, I test fit the cover. The big unknown for me going into this is if the way i'm mounting the Access rails, which causes them to be a little narrower in width than if mounting the rails normally. I wasn't sure exactly how much narrower this would be and what the tolerance of the cover would be on this. Anyways, once I test fit things, I did see a problem in width. The very front aluminum support bar, which mounts at the front (closest to the cab) was about 1/4-1/2" wider than the width of the mounted rails! I looked closer at the aluminum support and saw that there was an end cap screwed into each end. I removed those, making the total width of the aluminum support rod about 1/4" less, but it still didn't quite fit. The support rod needs to sit in the angled channel that stand up from the mounting rails So, this is where a little muscle came in, using a vice grip and some spare aluminum sheet, i was able to grasp on the angled channel area up front on the driver side and bend it slightly out, just enough to let the support rod slip in. Once that went in, the rest was cake. I did have to slightly bend out the angled channel at the tailgate end, to again let the end support rod sit in the channel. That wasn't as bad as the front one. The other support rods, in between the front and back ones, all were narrow enough to snugly sit in the channel without any muscling.

All in all, very glad I did this and very happy with how it came out.

 

Looking good

 

Looks nice

 

Looks good. Any pictures of the mounts themselves? I'd like to see exactly how you modified the cover to fit.

 

Heading out of town for work today. I'll try and take some more detailed shots this weekend.

 

OK, was able to take a few more shots before I leave today.

This first shot shows the driver side rear (tailgate) mounting rail. You can see how I had to bend the end of it outwards a little, to let the rearmost aluminum bar fit in the channel. I did not need to bend the passenger side at all.



Here, you can see how the middle support rods all fit very snugly in the channel. No bending needed.



Here is a shot of the driver's side front (cab) aluminum support bar. This is the one that i had to take the end caps off of and needed to bend the driver's side mounting rail outwards, too. I had to bend this end more than the rear. The front support bar is the widest of them all.



No bending of the mounting rail needed on the passenger side, but you can see just how snug the fit is here.



Here's a shot of the cover all rolled up. When rolling it up, i do have to maneuver the cover a little between the sides of the bed cage that come down on the bed rails. It's definitely manageable, though. Notice the now stealth fuel pack, too?



Here's a shot of the passenger side rear portion of the mounting rail. You can see how I drilled out a new (bigger) hole, which is exactly where by bed rack mounting hole sits. Instead of the 4 bolts per side that comes with the cover, I'm using 3 larger holes that I drilled, along with grade 8 bolts into t-slot nuts.



Full shots of both sides so you can see where I'm mounting each rail to the bed.

 

thanks, now i know what im getting into with this.

 

Man, if anyone can custom make a bed rack for a G4 Elite, I'd buy it in a heartbeat!

 

Who's fuel can?

 

That's a Kolpin fuel pack. They don't make them anymore... Very similar to Rotopax.