My bed mounting channels are bending. Anyone else experience this? Any fix?

^^^This! Looks to me like the mounting brackets are bending the rail up.

 

i just watched the install video for the ibex and those 2 bolts attach the mount to the rack. there is another bolt that goes down from the top that connects the rack mount to the bed rail mount. the video says tighten to 30 Newton meters. maybe he does need to move those closer to where the bed rail screws into the bed side

 

Wow, glad you came here for advice. Here are a few suggestions:

1. Move the clamps so they line up with the bolts that hold the rails on. Note those are only 6mm bolts, but it will still be stronger than the way you have it now.
2. Don't overtighten the clamps. It's interesting that the rails are bent UPWARD.
3. Add more mounting clamps if possible.
4. Reduce the weight on the rack if you don't need everything for daily driving.
5. Get bed stiffeners to strengthen the bedsides, which are carrying the load of the rack.

I was just thinking that I should offer a bed rail upgrade the other day. Now I'm convinced we need it. If you look at the Jeep Gladiator / Ram TrailRail system it is an aluminum extrusion and WAY beefier than the sheetmetal rails that come on Tacomas and Tundras. I'll be working on this after seeing your post.

Here are a couple pictures of the TrailRail on a Gladiator.

 

To be clear, when I say bed stiffeners.
I mean all 4 corners. It’s not just the tail gate corners that crack.
Racks with weight and bed flex crack the cab corners too.

 

is that from a gfc?

did you have any stiffeners before it cracked?

 

In a former life I had a lot of experience with Unistrut products. Think of the OEM rails as a wimpy version of Unistrut. You could replace the OEM rails with a much stronger version.
https://unistrutstore.com/blog/post/unistrut-channel-selection

 

Not my truck.
It is just one of a few examples that I’ve seen.
In that particular case, no stiffeners were used.

You need guys like @Kwikvette to fab up some stiffeners there.
A few guys have resorted to sliding the “D” hooks up as close to the cab as they can and using a ratchet strap.
You’re limited on design if you want a true “bolt-on” stiffener. The only mounting point is the channels or the channel bolt holes.

 

I was going to suggest as a partial fix that you put a thicker steel backing plate along the length of the rails, between the Toyota rails and the bed wall. But they are still light instead of heavy-duty ... anything that light at that length is super strong. The system shown above that is lower-profile and made of heavier-gauge material to the wall will bend less.

Bed stiffereners at the back, front corner gussets like this to make the bed stiffer: https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/bed-corner-gusset-tie-downs.476843/

 

Not a cheap option, but you could replace it with an 8020 extrusion. There's no way you'll bend it... it would obviously require some drilling and fab work to make it serviceable.

https://8020.net/1575-black-fb.html

 

The bolts and the mounting holes holding on the ultra-light rails may be designed for far less weight than that rail you showed. In short ... nice idea, but the Taco bed and liner cannot handle it ... maybe.

 

Right now, the OP's rail is failing, not the rail mounting bolts. This solution would absolutely make the bolts the weak link, but that's not currently the issue the OP is trying to solve.

If you wanted to address the mounting bolts, I'd recommend adding more attachment points by drilling more holes and adding backing plates behind the bed.

 

May be worth adding holes through rail/bed and rivets. Keep in mind this is a light-duty pickup.

 

30 Nm is not a lot (22 lb-ft). Those things only have to be snug. The flex OP is seeing is not from the channels, it's from the rack. Unless you turn the truck upside down, those clamps and rails aren't under a lot of stress. And there are a lot of other things to be worried about if you are turning the truck upside down.

 

this is what i see as well. the bed isn't moving, the rack is moving between itself. no amount of bed attachment is going to correct that. there's really no fix for that in a modular bed system like that. if it's unacceptable, you need to go to something more like heavy metal offroad bed bars.

you overtorqued the mounting system to your rails. there's no way those will fall back to where they need to be. the side rails need to be replaced.

i'd also take a very good look at the mounting system assembly to make sure you didn't gall the tightening mechanism, as is also extremely common when creating such a large force.

 

Uhg... Stainless steel galling has been the bane of my truck modding... first experience was on my Maxtrax mounts. Welded solid.

 

First anything where you move from the attachment point and apply pressure will flex whether it be a connection point or the material. Stand on a “friends hood” did it flex? The only solution is to use structured material made not to flex and connect that to a solid base.