Tacoma bed stiffners

I’ve been watching YouTube which I probably shouldn’t do, they were talking about the composite beds warping, after putting on camper shell or extra weight.
I have a goose gear baseboard in my truck and was wondering do I need to put bed stiffeners in? Or will the goose gear base plate prevent warping. thanks

 

Apparently, there are some companies that offer bed stiffeners. However, I believe that there is a conflict of interests with a vendor that claims a design patent on them. So you might get mixed responses. However, the vendor section has a number of options. ATH, SOS, and a bunch of others.

My bed is starting to spread apart at the rear from the weight of my camper shell. It's more of an issue if you have a shell, a loaded bed rack, or roof top tent that is putting significant weight on the top of the bedsides. There are people who need them that don't have those things either. Unless you can measure a big difference in the side gap next to the tailgate, I wouldn't worry about it. Or if you like the extra mounting points, they are good for that too.

 

I have a shell and RTT so I got some Cali raised bed stiffeners.

 

If the base plate is laid only on the bed bottom it's not going to help or hurt your bed sides from bending out, if I'm understanding that correctly.
I have racks that mount to my bed sides and frequently load two large kayaks on there. Then take them off-road. I could see my bed sides slowing tweaking outwards. Got the bed stiffeners (TC) and solved that. If you don't have anything on your bed sides I wouldn't worry about it.

The stiffeners do add additional tie points, so there's that. One has a bottle opener too.

 

EDITED: I redact my comment. I dont need a vacation from here.

 

REDACTED

 

If you already have a camper shell, do you have to remove the camper shell to put the bed stiffeners on?

 

No.

Not usually/I didn't/I haven't heard of anyone needing to, but YMMV.

 

I'm a fan of the Total Chaos ones. If nothing else, the tie down points are super handy.

 

No. I didn’t have to remove it. Total chaos work great. Pricey

 

You'd think for the price of the Total Chaos stiffeners they would have at least cut in a bottle opener.

 

I also have the Goose Gear base plate and a drawer on the driver side. I've been wanting to add the bed stiffeners since I've added a new camper to replace the soft topper. Was maybe thinking about altering an existing stiffener and bolting to the top of the base plate? Seems like it would still do the job .

 

@Trout49

Personally I feel like you really only need them when you have a shell or something heavy sitting on top of the bed sides. I would definitely suggest them even more if you have a shell or such AND driving on bad roads/lots of bumps or rutted out roads. When I put my shell on I didn't have stiffeners at first. I got them shortly after because I could see my rear moving alot while driving on shitty old mountain roads. I also usually have kayaks on top of camper shell too.

Edit- by the way I have no clue what a goose gear baseboard is