0210 Crawls Starbucks

I've found other manufactures over the last year with them for the 2016's and up. I'll have to dig through all my links to find the other manufactures who sell them as well. The powder coating, yeah not a fan either.

 

I'm looking around right now, not seeing anything just yet.

I found this post from KB Voodoo: https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads...short-bed-in-stock.353742/page-2#post-9540568 . Says these rails sit a bit lower than the factory ones. I wonder how that will affect the seal of the tonneau I've got coming in. Might not work for me.

Probably best to wait until the tonneau arrives and I get it installed so that I can get an idea of what adjustability I'll have.

 

yup, I'm sure jason would easily be able to make you up a set of these
this may work for you as well. It's finding the tonneau cover that will work with it is the issue.

 

How is the build coming along?

 

Still very much in the conceptual stages! My tonneau has arrived earlier than expected, though. Will see if I can pick it up tomorrow.

 

the prinus bedrocks may meet your requirements as well. Not sure if he builds them for everyone or even markets them, but they looked pretty darn beefy, and well built.

Steve

 

I'm going to stick with the FrontRunner rack I already have. No sense getting another one for the same purpose. Plus, I already have a bunch of little accessories for it, so might as well put them to use.

 

Oh that's right your keeping the rack. I was thinking you were selling that as well. Suppose your attaching that to the top of the bed rack system your building and putting the RTT on top.

Yeah no point in getting another rack when you can repurpose this one.

 

Going to go pick up the tonneau tomorrow.

In the meantime I've pulled off the plastic bedside covers (they're just held on with clips - a gentle pull gets them off) to have a look underneath. First thing I noticed is that they have been rubbing like mad on both sides of the truck, scratching the paint underneath:



I'm going to touch this up with matching DupliColor MGM paint I have on hand.

The second thing I noticed is that each bedside has three groups of two threaded holes (6 holes per bedside) that are unused and hidden by the bed cover. These should be great attachment points for replacement metal bedside covers!



Don't mind all that nasty-looking gunk - I once made the mistake of squirting expanding foam/insulation under these things. It didn't do anything for insulation, but it did leave a mess that's borderline impossible to clean off (luckily it's completely covered by the bedside covers).

 

Nice find- nice thread.

 

Re-painted the entire lengths of the tops of the bedsides. I can't compliment this DupliColor MGM spray paint enough. I've never had such good results from any spray paint, much less a colour-matched one. Application is easy and consistent, and everything from the sparkle, to the colour, to the sheen is a perfect match for my OEM paint. You'd need a magnifying glass to tell the difference, and even then, I'm not sure you could. Best $10 ever spent!





Also re-sealed the gaps in the front corners (had to pull the previous sealing job when I took off the canopy. This will need to be re-done yet again whenever I get the new (metal) bedside caps installed, but without a canopy to get in the way it's a simple 5-minute job.

 

Nice find on the threaded holes back there. I'm eagerly waiting to see what you do here. I'm in the midst of setting up my truck and living vicariously through you. My setup really starts here next month, can't wait to get out and enjoying it this summer.

 

Installed the TruckCoversUSA Roll Cover. This order came in two packages (one containing the main canister, and the other containing the sides), with an unexpected third package containing some free goodies: two very beefy ratcheting straps with a permanent attachment mechanism (allowing you to make an attachment point for the straps on pretty much any surface you can drill into), a tailgate seal, a sponge for washing the truck, and two specialty vehicle drying cloths. Furthermore, the "remote unlock" handle that's normally listed as a separate $30 item (which I didn't order because it was out of stock) came pre-installed. So I received an easy $100 worth of goodies that were totally unexpected. Huge props to TruckCoversUSA for this!

Everything was very thoroughly packaged and arrived without any damage. It also arrived quite a bit faster than AutoAnything promised.

Initial impressions are very favourable. This is the first item that I can honestly say is worth the "made in the USA" premium ($$). Everything fit perfect, aligned easily, and is of excellent quality. Heck, the instructions booklet was higher quality than some books I've bought.

Side rails:


Each side rail is attached to the truck's rails in three spots. The cover comes with six white spacers (which are referred to as "shims" in the instructions, but shims they are not). I installed three spacers on each side, under the attachment point closest to the tailgate. This resulted in very tight fitment (as is desired). After I install my bed stiffeners, I may be able to remove a few of these spacers. Some other folks (and the instructions) said that the truck's rails become unusable after installation of the cover; as you can see, that's not the case. You'd need to remove the cover's side piece to slide any other hardware into the rail, but that's easily done and is really not a big deal. As far as I'm concerned, the rails retain their full functionality.


The driver's side rail has velcro attached on the bottom of it, which connects with the velcro on the pull rope. Nice, unexpected touch!


Tight fitment at the far (cab-side) corners, but I'll need to add a bit more of my sealant in the gap. Note that the cover comes with some weatherstripping pre-installed, which is again a nice and unexpected touch.


The rubber flap along the edges makes a decent seal. The "porous" design of the OEM bedrail caps prevents a perfect seal.


These (tailgate-side) gaps will definitely let water in, but I should be able to seal them with a tailgate gasket or weatherstripping.




This is the connection at the tailgate. There is a tiny bit of play under the cover's edge - enough to slide a tool in. If someone wants to get in, I fear they'll be able to wedge a pry bar in here and rip the cover off.


The pull rope and "remote unlock" handle:


Retracted:


Sure looks nice:




Can be locked every 12":


I will hold off on installing the drain hoses until later on - need to decide on a few other moves, first.

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Also got my Total Chaos Fabrication bed stiffeners. Not installed yet, but the quality looks outstanding. Beefy, 1/4"-thick steel, and some of the nicest welds I've ever seen. I wish other manufacturers put in this much effort into making clean welds. Some of the stuff I've recently received looked like it had been welded by a drunk monkey with one hand...

 

Oooooo!, that is a sharp tonneau cover, and it looks like it will work with what i am imaging your plan is.

Eagerly watching

 

I just took the fridge downstairs and put it under the tonneau. From the top-most part of the fridge to the lowest point on the tonneau, I've got 3/4" of room. This is quite a bit less than what I was expecting, and is due to the "lip" at the edge of the cover. There's a good 1/2" more room behind the lip, but the lip is the limiting factor, as it needs to be able to slide past (over) all gear.

So, BedRug is out of the running (it's 3/4" thick on the bottom). This leaves the option of getting the bed Line-X'd. Will consider it...

I planned to take a piece of 1/2" plywood, cut it into the shape of the bed, have that Line-X'd too, and then mount drawer slides to the top of this plywood panel (along with s-tracks on the other half of the bed). I don't think I'll have room to make this happen. Even if the fridge sits on a 1/4"-thick piece of metal, there needs to be room between whatever the fridge sits on, and the plywood.

If I remove the top part of the fridge's cover, that'll net me roughly a 1/4" of room. I may have to compromise this way in order to have things fit without scraping on each other. Will think it through over the next few days.

 

One possibility may be to make the new bedside covers sit a 1/4" higher than the OEM ones, which would lift the tonneau by that height, too. The mounting holes could then be slotted to ensure the original hardware still works.

 

Only concern with lifting the bedside would be getting an adequate seal with the tonneau cover on the tailgate/front railer.etc, unless I am missing something, I am just envisioning a lot of RTV sealant going on the front wall.

Ah the fridge barely fitting would drive me nuts as I would want a slide with it as well. Wonder what the dimensions are on the new ARB fridges? Be interesting to see if them made them less tall. Either way they look pretty darn good and are suppose to be a lot more efficient.

 

I figured some thicker weatherstripping would address the front rail. But yeah, it's going to be a headache.

I'm now leaning towards having Cruisin make me a fridge/chuckbox platform that will attach directly to the bed, rather than a 1/2" piece of plywood (that would be attached to the bed). This will mean drilling a few more holes in the bed than I anticipated, but I don't think it'll be a big deal.

 

This is what I'm envisioning so far...

 

Did you have to do any modifying to get the isolator switch to fit into the stock location in the cab.