Ditch mounted tracks on double cabs.

Bumping this thread to see if there have been any more Rhino Rack installs on Gen 3's with any additional tips and tricks learned along the way.

Also, anyone made their own rack system to mount on these ditch channels?

 

Bumping for access cab hopes. From what I can discern it uses some or all of the factory pre drilled holes and two additional rivets each side. Obviously I'd need to drill all the holes.

 

Hah! Found what I needed right here. Rhino Rack has arrived at Rack Attack DITCH MOUNT!!!!!!
Edit-ordered. I'll let you know if they work.

 

The DC ditch tracks arrived today and there will be some modification required since the AC ditch has more curve but I'll document is the process.

 

Does anyone know if these tracks can be installed WITHOUT drilling/ use of rivets? Perhaps simply bolted into the trucks existing factory rack mounting holes? I have no need for massive load gains just an additional support point. Thanks.

 

Can you explain what you are trying to accomplish?

To me, massive load gains and additional support are not too far off from each other in what you are asking the ditch channels to do......depending on what that is.

Adding additional fasteners to the roof ditch area won't up the static weight load bearing capacity, but it may play a bigger role in the dynamic capacity (wind resistance, bounce, lean, etc...) depending on where the load/weight is put along the channel and the leverage it puts on the channel itself.

 

The extra holes are to hold the track down in the middle and keep it from flexing up/down or side/side since the track isn't a snug fit in the channel. Since the curve in the roof isn't even, when you tighten the screws at the front the middle pops up. If you don't want to drill yourself or pay someone else to install it then I'd reccomend using the oem rack or bars that hook the door opening rather than a partial install of the tracks.

 

Thanks fellas. I'm not sure what i'm going to do.

 

Quick question for those that have installed these ditch channels on the Gen 3 doublecabs.

I started install today on mine, and the instructions say to set the 5mm (3/16") drill stop to 5mm (3/16").

Front hole on driver side went free and clear, and looks like there isn't anything below.
The rear hole on the driver's side never punched through at 3/16", nor at 1/4" so I stopped. You can see in the picture that there is a thin separation between some layers of metal, but I don't feel there is enough gap to get the rivet head to seat properly. Which ironically is an instruction to be make sure the rivet seats properly.

Instructions don't have any actual picture to follow, rather they are just drawings, and there is no verbage that describes what the installer should encounter.

What's your thoughts?

 

The ditch channels themselves are comprised of several layers of sheet metal and in places can be possibly 4-5 layers thick. It's not consistent along the length of the ditch channels since one layer has tabs that overlap the area where you drill and the roof has a crossbeam that adds yet another layer at one point.
Not sure how similar they are but on my 2nd gen AC the air bag charge cylinders are in the back roof pillars and the air bags are much closer to the roof channels in the back(almost touching) than they are over the drivers door. I would want to see pics of the area before drilling beyond the recommended depth. Try checking the sound deadening threads for info or pics. I pulled the headliner and partially removed the side curtain airbags so I wouldn't accidentally punch through them and could check it for leaks at the car wash afterwards(air bags bolted back up).

 

Thanks bagleboy.

Never thought to look for dropped headliner pics from the sound deadening folks.

I found a few pics of Gen 2 trucks with their headliners down, and what I am sure I see in the picture is the nuts for the factory roof rack. Following that same line forward where my hole would be, could very well be a cross member. Nothing below it as far as air bag hardware that I can make out, most likely just the headliner. The airbag bits all looks like it's tucked further along the outermost shell of the body. This was a Gen 2 picture I was looking at.

bfeth's pictures 2010 DCLB.







On the Gen 3 trucks, there is some kind of metal channel running forward of the rear factory roof rack nuts. Can't see the center roof rack nut, so I can't tell if this metal channel thingy is under the ditch channel or far enough away to avoid being drilled. Anyone?

This is TSki's Gen 3 picture from doing some deadening.




20Tacoma17's headliner dropped picture.

 

Alrighty. All is good. This write up is to assist anyone else that may find themselves in the same situation I found during my install.

So, I called the guys at Rhino Rack in Colorado and chatted with their fine folks. At first the receptionist was going to try and answer my question even after I told her I would like to chat with someone that has installed the

$266 RTS547 RTS Tracks,Medium, Black

RTS547 on the Gen 3 Tacoma DC. Once I described the problem I was encountering, she put me on hold and got a better suited person for the question.

When the person got on the line it went sideways real quick as she described the problem to him as if I couldn't get the drill bit to actually drill the hole. Once he timed out on his speech about using a cobalt drill bit, and the metal is hard, and and using high speed won't help...... I was able to re-describe what the issue was I am seeing.

Bottom line, I am following the instructions to a "T" and nowhere does it say that after setting my drill stop to 5mm (3/16") that there would still be more metal to drill through just to be able to set the rivet properly in the rear rivet location. Once he had that to work with he abruptly told me to "STOP DRILLING", as that next layer of metal is the air bag cover. I softly reminded him that I did stop drilling at that point and that is why we are one the phone together. A quick swap of giggles, and then we chatted about my options for a few minutes. Then he put me on hold to go talk to their head engineer. After a few minutes he returned saying that the engineer said I was fine and that I could continue drilling through carefully as it was just a combo of metal joints right there. Or, I could hit it with a punch and push it down enough for the rivet to have room to mushroom between the two sections I am seeing.

In the end, I decided to pull the drivers side rear folding handle above the door, the door sill, and the door weather stripping to be able to pull the head liner down enough to get a mirror and light in there. Once I had this space available, I was able to locate the factory rear and center roof rack nuts, as well as where my hole should be coming through if I continued drilling it. It turns out that right in that spot in the ditch there are the two layers of roof that are stacked and spot welded, an additional layer running along the same seam, and a then a bracket that holds the yellow air bag wire down away from the roof/ditch area a little more than an inch. It's way thicker than what the instructions lead to believe, and it may be because the instructions could be still referring to a Gen 2 roof?

So, I triple checked what I was looking at, set my drill stop to 1/2" and finished drilling the hole. Once through, I checked from inside again and sure enough I drilled through 4 layers of metal, and was directly above the yellow air bag wire. From the top I stuck a 2mm Allen wrench to a strong magnet and carefully dabbed around inside the hole and down to the yellow wire where the Allen wrench picked up my drilling swarf. Did this a couple of times until I got no more swarf bits and then hit the area again with my shop vac.

For the passengers side, I set my drill stop to 3/16" and again found that I had more layers to drill through. Figuring it was very much the same as the drivers side, I just set the drill stop to 1/2" and committed. No problemo! All is good.

So, now that the holes are drilled and filed to fit the rivets, I went ahead and applied some Rustoleum white paint inside each hole and any areas where the drill stop scraped away any factory paint to bare metal. Today is supposed to be warm and dry all day, so I plan to let that all dry and finish the install another day. It's easy enough to put tape over all the holes tonight and reinstall the factory weather stripping until that day (probably next week).

 

Feels pretty good to see for yourself what's in there.

 

The air bags in the AC are much closer to the tracks.
You can only see the 2 front screws and stop nuts I used, the other 3(1 through the cross beam and 2 more are hidden above the air bag. To access those I had to loosen and lower the air bags and charge cylinder(seen dimly behind/below the jump seat belt)

 

After my not so confident chat with Rhino Racks themselves, the headliner had to be pulled down so I could peek in there.
Well worth the small effort, and large gain on confidence.

You have any final pics of the ditch channels installed on your AC roof?

 

Yup

 

Nice! Whatcha load on it?

 

I'm a carpenter. I used to switch between lumber racks and a cap but I'm past the physial ability to do that easily. Mainly so I can carry long lumber or trim without it slapping the cab roof. I wont be loading 20- 20' 2 x 6's on a couple Thule bars but the spread between the bars is now ~ 8' instead of 5' which makes a huge difference on flimsy stuff like casing or base. I'd like to get some T-slot covers for them.

 

Any update on the middle hole in regards to drill depth?

Front Rivet Hole 3/16" drill stop
Back Rivet Hole 1/2" drill stop

 

Suggest you check out sound deadening threads where they pulled the headliner.