Bedliner / Rails / Soft-topper advice

I have a new 2021 SR-5 with a drop in bed liner from the dealer. I really like the bed liner for hauling, sliding in and out bags of mulch, gravel, etc.

I'm trying to figure out the best option to have a soft topper, and to be able to mount things a bit better in the bed. It seems there are two options on the soft topper, with and without rails. I don't have the rails, but those seem great to have mounting cleats, attach rails for recovery boards, etc.

If I want to keep the bed liner, does it make sense to get the rail kit, and then will the soft topper work well with this setup? I'm assuming I'll need to either pull out the liner and drill holes in it, or cut off a section of the liner to expose the area for the rails. I'm not sure what that will do for the front part of the cab. Also connecting up the soft topper up there at the front of the bed, does that create another challenge? Is the bed liner easy enough to get out of the back of the truck?

Looking for some advice on a path forward.

Thanks!

 

Answering my own question a bit, and it looks like the best way to deal with the bed liner is to pop it out from the bottom middle. Then trip the liner so that the rails have room to mount directly (although there are some ways to create the holes and go through the bed liner, the factory way looks to be a bit better, probably more sturdy for the mounts as well.

I also grabbed some screenshots of the Soft Topper video, and it looks like they have slotted brackets to go right in the rail system.

 

Just updating my own thread.

Pulled the bedliner (easy) and cut out the notches as marked on the back of the bedliner. My multitool was not good for this job, it almost just melted it's way through the cut. I switched to my jigsaw and it left a clean cut and went really fast. I didn't have any lines marking where to cut along the back of the liner, so I clamped a track saw guide and scored it first. Again, cut easy with the jigsaw.

I also installed a protective mat under the bedliner from Weathertech. Hopefully that will protect the bed a bit.

Next step is to get the Softtopper, but waiting of the color swatches to come to decide between their gray and their sand color.