Bolting straight to bed?

Hey guys!

I had a custom topper fabbed for my 2nd gen taco and was wondering if anybody had any experience mounting directly to the bed side frame/fiberglass? Ideally we can drill straight through my topper frame and bolt it down under the plastic covers. Would have to be pretty strong to hold the steel frame + rooftop tent.

Also considered making brackets that are welded on and attach to the bed rails.

Any help would be greatly appreciated!

 

"If" I bolted anything directly to the composite bed, I'd use very large backer and face plates to reinforce that connection and distribute the load over a larger area around the holes thru the bed.

 

....and why not use one of the various clamp systems? Just curious?

 

IDK if I'd bolt to the sides. They don't seem very resistant to load..I had a small tree limb (about 5 feet) destroy the bed on mine when it fell

 

Such as this...



and while you're at it add these.

 

There isn’t much to the bedsides and not really much overlap of the composite and tin. Drilling and bolting will only capture the tin and abs caps and the caps are hollow. Look into frame supports for lumber racks that transfer the load down to the frame under the bed. I’m not sure if tailgate brackets alone would be sufficient but it depends on your rig. Some guys fill the voids in the caps and Voodoo makes aftermarket plate caps but the bedsides themselves aren’t super strong. Point loads will kink them.