Anyone Mount their canopy by drilling holes through bed rail and canopy using HD nut and bolt?

Anyone drill through the canopy and bed rails to mount with a through nut/bolt set up? I’m not worried about drilling through my canopy or bed rail. I’m more concerned with it being successful.

I’m wanting to stabilize my canopy for rougher overlanding trips coming up this next year.

thanks in advance and Happy New Year!

 

I haven't done it on this truck, but on other trucks I've cut ~4" sections of 3/8" steel, drilled centerholes, tacked nuts on one side, and then inserted them through the top rail holes to hold bolts for a shell or rack.

The easiest way I found was to use longer bolts than you think you need and install the brackets onto the shell with the brackets dangling low, then guide them in place as you lower the shell. It definitely takes an assistant or a hoist to do it that way, but it's far easier than trying to stick the brackets to the underside of the inside of the bed walls with tape or something.

I don't have pictures, but I can draw one if my explanation is lacking.

Depending on your use case, you may also consider something like this, using the bed rails as the fixing point for through-bolts in the shell: https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/campershell-bolts.283123/

 

I don't see any reason to use anything other than the standard mounting system using the bed rails/track system. 20 years with trucks and caps and off-roading (often with canoe loaded on cap rack) and not one instance of the cap moving/shifting. My last cap (Leer 180) had holes on the flat section that rested on the bed rails and attached to the bed rails with bolts and t-nut type devices.