fixing that stupid bed rattle finally!

hi all, I'm new the forum here and though i would share how i finally stopped my bed rattle on my 2013 tacoma.
give me a little leeway for the format of this being new but...
i started with fixing the wheel well liners since they were loose and thought they were the problem, two 3/16" wide by 1/2" rivets with 1' washers fixed that problem permanently. its a PITA but you will have to reach up above the liner, find the exact spot where the rivet passes through, and hold a washer there, above the home while you rivet it, otherwise the rivet will not be large enough to stay in place, i also used a few smaller washers to increase the thickness of material on the bottom (outside)

this didn't fix the rattle unfortunately, so the next step was taking the bed off, i recommend doing this with and impact if you have one as the T-55 bolts are shallow and can easily strip.
once the bed was off i took the gas cap off and raised the bed enough to place a 4x4 block of wood between it and the frame on both sides. i then found where the bed rested on the frame, (4 spots total) where the bolts went through, and placed a thick ring of silicone around each contact point, I also placed a dab of silicone on the l-shaped bracket on the frame in front of the front most bolt hole, where the front of the bed rests of the frame.

above: front contact point between bed and frame

frontmost bolt hole


frontmost bolt hole

middle bolt hole, the farthest back one i could access

middle bolt hole



i used generic 100% GE silicone from lower, nothing fancy. also, the two farthest back bolts in the bed were hard to access from the bottom, i think because i have a factory hitch in the way keeping the bed from lifting up very high, so i did noting to these bolts where the bed and frame touch. after letting it cure for 24 hours, i lowered the bed back down. before replacing the bolts i noticed that there are metal grommets in the bed for each bowl to pass through,

to be sure this wasn't the case of the problem i purchased a length of 1/2'' Idx 3/4" OD rubber tubing, (also from lowes) and cut a piece for each bolt about 1" in length.

after the silicone and bolt covers, my ned is rattle free!

hope this helps others with the same problem.