Drilling into the top of the bed’s sidewall

Yes, I was able to get all three on. Not easy, but it is possible. The rear one was the most difficult as I had to climb under the truck and get the wrench on while I had my wife tighten it.

 

This seems kinda sketchy. That's a lot of weight (assuming a RTT + person(s) or other heavy gear) to be held in with 4 bolts in sheet metal....
But I'm also someone who believes in overbuilding to alleviate my doubts. I'd go as far to say, sandwich a piece of plate between the underside of the bedside and the nut so that it at least has a bit more area of force dispersion.

 

Alright sorry for the delay, here is the outcome of my finished project. I understand some of the concerns that people are having with drilling into the sheet metal and expecting that to hold well enough for a loaded-up bed rack but having done the installation I am not too worried. I do not have the type of build where I am putting hundreds of pounds worth of material on the rack, so maybe that concern is more valid for those types of builds. This should hold just fine for skis, maybe a bike here and there, and a RoofNest.

The primary concern that I had with drilling into the top of the bed rails is that there are already a lot of holes up there and I didn't want to measure everything just to realize that I needed to do it all over again slightly shifted in order to have sheet metal to drill into. I measured the distance between the legs on my bed rack, which will differ for each install based on brand and type. I have the RCI Sport bed rack, which means two legs on each side of the bed. The first thing that I did this time around, thanks to the great pictures and insight from @RyanDCLB, was to take off the side rails of the truck to get an idea of how I can align it without overlapping on a preexisting hole. There are tools that you can use to make removing trim easier, but I didn't want to wait for mr. Bezos to deliver them to my doorstep so I decided to try my hand without them.

I removed the plastic protector covers on the top of the bedside by firstly removing the tail light, reaching up through the opening, and freeing the end of the plastic protector so that I didn't need to pry and hope for the best. They connect to the top of the bed side through plastic inserts, and if you pinch the ends they slide right through. Here are some pics:


Removed tail light and propped it on the tailgate ^


You can see the black plastic tabs in this photo, I pinched the ends of the tabs together, pushed up, and the end of the protector came right out, no tools were needed (other than the socket wrench to take off the tail lights).

Once the end of the protector came up, I went along the remaining attachments and gently pulled them up from the outside. I made sure to keep the pressure points very close to where the tabs were so that I wouldn't bend the protectors too much.

Here is the sidewall without the plastic protector (sorry for the shitty pic, didn't have very much light in the garage I was in)




Once those were removed, I measured the holes that I needed to drill and make a little pilot hole to start the process. I eventually went up from a small drillbit to a 1/2" bit, which is the size of the hole needed to fit the plus nuts (5/16" threading) nice and snug. Unfortunately, my drill bits were dull as shit and I could only do so much with them, so I had to finish up the holes with a cylindrical hand file. If you have nice sharp drill bits it will probably be a lot easier for you to make the 1/2" holes than it was for me.

This is how my 1/2" (roughly) holes turned out. I basically just filed them down until the plus nut fit into the holes well.


There's a little scuffage from the hand file, but it is going to be covered up so I'm not too worried about it.

From here, I sanded down the rough edges with a Dremel bit and then put some paint on the exposed metal to deter rusting. I used rust-oleum spray paint and a janky paper template.

Here are some pics from the process:


Made a hole in this pamphlet and positioned it so that when I used the spray paint the paint would cover the exposed parts with little bleeding into other more visible parts of the truck. It wasn't the cleanest paint finish, but as I said I am not too worried about it because it is already covered back up. To each their own, if I had planned ahead more I probably could've done the paint a lot cleaner than I did.


This is the final paint result. A little sloppy but the important parts got a lining and the rest will be covered.

From here, I placed the plus nut in the hole, put in a 5/16" threaded screw, and torqued down on the nuts. This forced them to expand and take on their characteristic "plus" shape.

I used this video for reference: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q21D-gKpUk8&t=126s

Unfortunately, the only 5/16" screws that I had were quite long, so I had to put on a lot of spacers to get the desired effect. It worked out perfectly though, and I did not need any special tools like are required for Rivnuts. In the coming photos, you'll see a lot of nuts on one bolt that is connected to my bed. They are larger bolts than the threading of the screw, which enables them to act simply as spacers to fill the too-long 5/16" screws.


I used a crescent wrench to hold onto the two nuts that do not have a washer between them while using a socket wrench to tighten the bolt into the plus nut. I did not torque to any spec, but I made sure that it was nice and tight.




From here, it was pretty much done. The bolts that fit into this plus nut are 5/16th course threaded, which I picked up at a hardware store near me. I did this after installing the plus nuts because I needed to make sure that a) they fit the plus nuts and b) that they were long enough to thread well but short enough that they didn't bottom out at the second layer of sheet metal about 2 and a half inches below the top of the side walls.

This is the final result of the plus nut:



From here, I spray painted the hardware that I was going to use to screw into the plus nuts so that it would match the rack, reattached the plastic protectors, and then attached the RCI Tonneau Adaptors to the plus nuts. I used a crescent wrench to tighten them down as a socket wrench wouldn't fit inside the tonneau adaptors.


Not completely flush with the bed rail because it wasn't tightened in this photo.


Tightened.


Bedrack and tonneau cover are both installed and I couldn't be happier. The combined pinching of the tonneau cover and the fastening of the bolts leave the rack very snugly attached. Everyone has their comfort levels but having done this install and seeing the final product, I have absolutely no issue throwing a tent on top of there and going wherever the destination is. I really like the RCI rack now that it is installed, but everything else about it has sucked. I got the wrong mounting hardware twice, the first one being hardware for rock sliders, not bed rack or tonneau adaptor, and their lead time was misleading as well. Their instructions also suck, I'm pretty sure my blue heeler could write better instructions in about 15 minutes. Once I jumped through the hoops necessary to get the right parts and went through the pain of figuring out how to attach everything the way it should be though, the quality is great and I love how it functions and looks thus far. If you're on a strict timeline I would not recommend their products, and if you want an easy install then forget it. BUT if you have time to be on the phone and receive your products 2 weeks after their lead time indicates and you enjoy a project when it comes to installation, this might just be the bed rack for you.

Thanks for sticking along, and feel free to ask any questions that come up

 

Would've like to see the underside of the plus nut installed, but the space is for hamster camera.

 

Looks good and secure.

 

Nice job! Did you get any pictures of the holes in the bed rail cap?

 

Haha when I become a surgeon and get access to the tiny cameras on the ends of poles I'll be sure to upload some photos. Tried to get in there with my phone and there was absolutely no shot! This is what it looks like, but this image is obviously not on my own install.

I feel like an idiot but I do not have any pictures of the holes in the bed rail cap . What I can say, though, is that I measured out where the holes needed to be to align with the plus nuts. From there, I used a 5/16" bit, which is the same size as the bolts I used to secure the adaptors. The reason that I made it such a snug fit is so that hopefully that can reduce the amount of water going through the hole from the top. I STRONGLY suggest using a punch to create a template for where you begin drilling, both in the metal itself as well as the plastic bed rail caps! This might seem obvious, but it really is night and day difference.

Sorry for no photos, if/when I remove the rack from my truck I'll be sure to grab some and upload them.

 

One year later, how's this holding up? I just bought the RCI bed bars and Tonneau adapters hoping I can copy your plusnut method

 

I actual started this project but I have the Rci bed rack with 6 legs on my long bed I took it off did the lay out were I wanted marked everything and drilled away and am using carriage bolts on top with washers thru the sheet metal to a washer and a locknut on the bottom . I got the back 2 mounts done . And will take the wheel welds out this weekend and do the next 2 . It’s suck and is a 2 man job but can be done . The two brackets I’ve done are super strong so far . Had to take out the bed power supply box to get to the one side .

 

Hey @LowSlowTaco also curious, how is this all holding up? Any chance you've had an opportunity to remove the bedside rails again and see if there's been any torsion pulling up the sheet metal? Thanks!