Non-truck savvy dumbo needs installation help

Hey hello,

Recently bought a 2015 Tacoma as a work truck. Love the little guy, but am extremely not mechanically or otherwise vehicularly inclined.

Eventually would like a folding tonneau cover or cap, but got a (colour matching!) solid fibreglass bed cover for free, and need something to keep my tools safe, so went for it!

it’s a Toyota branded cover, and clearly fits the truck like a glove, but I cannot for the life of me figure out how one is to secure this thing.

The cover has metal rail thingies that slot right down over the bed rails (with the cleats removed), and there are two little holes in the rails at the back that CLEARLY look like the cleats should go through them into the bed rails to secure the cover. But… uhhh.. I can’t get them in? The cleat is too tall when turned to match the metal thingy that sits in the bed rail (technical term) to match the shape of the hole. Clear as mud?

so:

are those holes for the cleats? If so, how does one get them IN!?

also… there are other, similarly shaped holes closer to the tailgate, but they are clearly too small for the cleat, but also… two cleats to hold the entire cover seems like not very many. What am I missing?

pictures included to aid in my less than stellar description.

 

Bump

 

sorry, no clue

 

I believe you need a 'T' block (which fits inside the bedrail and provides the attachment point) and a drop down bracket.

 

You need bolts that go through the holes in your cover frame, into T nuts in the tracks. Your cleats won't be usable anymore, so you may be able to remove the T nuts from them and get the appropriate bolts (8mm diameter I think).

 

Ohhhh thank you all for confirming that using the cleats is a godforsaken fool’s errand.

They really do *almost* work. See photo attached. Hauled the cover off, got the cleats through the holes, hauled the cover back on (an absolute gong show. How much does it weigh? A lot, my friends. More than one human should reasonably try to heft up onto the bed by oneself). Proceeded to spend the last 20 minute buried alive in my truck bed trying in vain to get the cleats to actually then slot back into the bed rail through the rail on the cover. Just shimmied back out to the air, truly furious and also covered in at least 12 spiders and have never been so glad to learn I was wrong about how to do something.

Next stop: T-nuts?

truly, thanks for the help! I was on the verge of insanity.

 

So the t block I think I’ve got covered (this looks right:

$14 5-Pack of T-Slot Nuts - Ideal T Slot Nut for Toyota Tunda & Toyota Tacoma Pick-Up Truck Bed Deck Rails - Cleat/Cleats - by Mission Automotive

https://www.amazon.ca/5-Pack-T-Slot-Nuts-Pick-up-Automotive/dp/B07739WXJB)

But wondering what the drop down bracket would be for? I figured I would align the slots in the rail of the cover with the t blocks in the bed rails and then just use a bolt to secure the two.