How thick is the composite bed material?

Just wondering if anyone has an accurate thickness for the composite material that the bed is made of, specifically the bedsides; not sure if floor is thicker than the sides. I've Googled and searched TW for the past 45min and can't find anything accurate. The best I could find was "maybe 1/4 of a inch".

 

I've drilled plenty of holes in the bed floor and had the rear side bed cubby out and I would say 3/16" to 1/4" is a pretty good guesstimate. Is there a reason you need a more accurate dimension than that?

 

Yeah, I was thinking its probably closer to 3/16". I'm going to put some jacknuts in the sides to secure some tiedowns and the specs on them are pretty specific. I'm thinking the 0.020" to 0.280" thickness ones will work fine.

 

My ‘06 Taco has the little bed cubbies above the wheel wells. 1 of mine is missing so it would be real easy for me to stick the digital calipers in there and measure the thickness. I won’t be able to do it till about mid day tomorrow though.

 

Obviously, it's totally up to you how you do this but if you're putting in tie downs, I would recommend doing it in a location where you can get to the backside and use a few fender washers and regular washers to distribute the load across a larger area. Those rivet nuts work well in steel but I'd be concerned that they might crack the composite material if you put much of a load on them.
I used to work for a company that molded SMC. It's pretty strong stuff but in this application, I'd want a little more surface area retention on the back.

 

I appreciate it. The rivetnuts I'm looking at specify 0.020" to 0.280" material thickness. I'm fairly certain that the bed is within that tolerance.

 

I've installed a few of these 'jack-nuts' and with the thinner, plastic (slippery) contact surface putting a star washer (inside star, not external star, there are different kinds!) UNDER the head of the rivet nut and ONLY using a wrench or screwdriver to install them tends to prevent fracturing the plastic!

 

Nonononono if anything, put a plate, unistrut, something to back and distribute the load.

I know it's a pita. I'm in the process of straighting out the track on the side of the bed and have to nut and bolt in one spot.

 

Side wall thickness varies from .125" to .129". I'm gonna go along with everyone else and say, you need a backup washer on the back side.

 

Took this pic of the bottom of the bed section I cut out of my truck picture is blurry but it's 3/16" in thickness..

 

That's what I'm talking about. Thanks man!

 

Is this off a 1st gen bed? Not sure if that is steel or composite layer in the pic. Confusing us with your ownership of numerous Toyota products.

 

It's off a 2nd gen a 1st gen is probably 1/16" since it's steel have yet to cut into one of those yet...

 

For future reference:

2021 model

 

Sweet. Thanks, I'm sure someone will need that info at some point. Whether or not they can find this thread is another thing, haa.

For anyone wanting to put tiedowns on the bedsides, the 0.020" to 0.280" rivetnuts that I used are holding up fine after a little under 2 years of use. No cracks or breaks. I used tie down anchors similar to the ones pictured below; I got mine at Lowes. I didn't end up using a washer or anything on the back to further distribute the load. The flange on the rivetnuts is big enough to hold firm enough for my needs. I chose this style tiedown specifically because they require two fasteners apiece, so I didn't think anything further on the backside was necessary.

I use 400lb ratchet straps with these on a fairly regular basis to hold down bikes, camping gear, and yard waste among other things. Of course, I'm never putting even close to 400lbs of load on them, but I get them plenty tight (enough to pull the composite bedsides in 1/2" or so) and they hold strong. If you have the time and patience to put a washer or something on the back side, then by all means do it, just keep in mind that the 0.020" to 0.280" rivetnuts that I used may not be long enough depending on how thick your materials are.

 

What did you cut the hole for? wiring from the engine bay?

 

It was to route the wiring for an antenna.

 

Once you pull the fender liner out, is it relatively easy to reach right up to the top of the bedside? I want to install a pair of these to run some 4awg wire into the bed: https://a.co/d/3jKoDpG
Hoping there’s enough space up there, but hoping for some insight before I take everything off…

 

You don't need to pull liner out or remove anything. There is a straight shot down from where I drilled the bed. I can reach my arm up from the bottom and touch the drilled hole in the bed.

 

Thanks for the pic. Looks a bit different than mine, but definitely gives me an idea of how much space there is back there.