How to Remove Truck Bed 3rd Gen Walk Through

How To Remove the Truck Bed on a 3rd Gen Tacoma


Tools:

- T30 Torx Bit
- T55 Torx Bit
- Breaker Bar
- Phillips screw driver
- plastic rivet remover
- 10mm
- A Few friends or a hoist


Preliminary statement:

Okay, this is not that involved of a job but since I didn’t see a write-up on how it is done I figured id pitch in and throw one out there for anyone else who needs to remove the truck bed. In this case, I punctured the fuel filler hose when I was drilling out an evacuation hole for my tonneau cover, it was a pinprick but enough to throw an EVAP code (P0456 – Small Leak). So rather than dropping the fuel tank I went ahead and took the bed off


Step 1: Remove Mud Flaps

If you have these go ahead and remove them and set them aside. Use a Phillips head to take them off. Note that one of the screws is longer than the rest and has a bushing behind it. Note that screw and its placement.


Steps 2: Remove Tailgate

This is way easier than it should be...With a T30 Torx bit remove your plastic screws holding the panel on. They are different sizes so note where each goes. Remove the tailgate cover revealing the guts of your tailgate. You have two options with the rear-view camera, you can disconnect it from below the truck or inside the tailgate. Since I have a Pop n Lock, I decided to disconnect it from the tailgate inside. When you bought the truck you would have received a little package with two plastic connectors in it which you probably threw away, well… those were for this rearview camera, they were covers so you could disconnect the rearview camera and cover them up from the dirt. Meh, use Ziplock bags now and tape it up! Once you disconnect the connector fish the wire down and pull it out of the bottom of the tailgate, you will have a plastic piece holding the wires in on the bottom of the tailgate, gently pry that out so the wires will fish through, or buy a new one as I did .

Once the wires are fished through and out of the tailgate, we need to remove the tailgate now. You may want some help here if you can get it. Lift the tailgate about halfway up, on the right side you will see an opening in the hinge, raise the tailgate up to about a 45-degree angle once you are at that angle pull the right side of the tailgate out, when it's free pull the left side away laterally, and voila! Tailgate is free! DON’T DROP IT! Place it aside.


Step 3 take-off taillights

Using a 10mm remove the two bolts securing the taillight housings, when you remove the two bolts, pull the housing away and out (on the left side pull the housing left and back towards you, on the right side pull the housing rightwards and towards you) you may encounter some resistance, no worries, that’s normal. Remove the 3 connectors to the housing on each side and set the taillights aside. Fish the wiring lights through the opening and down. There is a clip holding the wiring up, mine was broken but go ahead and disconnect it.


Step 4: Unclip wiring from the bed

Following the taillight wiring under the bed. There should be two or three more spots to disconnect from the bed of the truck. There are some plastic connectors attached to the frame, you can leave those alone


Step 5: Disconnect Power Outlet

undo the four bolts holding the housing on, pull it out and disconnect the clip in the back. Fish the wire through the bed down to the floor


Step 6: Take off the fuel filler shroud

There are four 10mm bolts holding the shroud on. Remove them and set them aside


Step 7: Remove Bed

Okay here is the hard part. You will need to remove the 6 T55 Torx bolts holding the bed onto the frame. You will most likely need a breaker bar here as I did. Once removed, the bed is now free from the frame you will need some friends to lift it. It took 3 of us to lift this bed off the frame. I would say it weighs a bit north of 300 lbs if I had to guess. The trickiest part is finagling the filler neck around your wheel well shroud. You could remove this but that looked like a pain in the butt, so I didn’t. lift high up to clear and set it aside. Congrats you just removed the truck bed, enjoy your work, totally take the time to coat your frame with a rust inhibitor, and protect your baby!

 

If i wasn't such a noob id have taken better photos. I, unfortunately, thought about taking pics after I was about finished. Let me know if you have any questions, happy to answer them