Cracked Pinch welds under bed (!!)

Noticed a little more creaking than usual from the rear end when going over speed bumps etc. Crawled under to inspect suspension torque settings and saw demolished pinch welds under the bed, on the passenger side above the rear wheel. One of them has crept into the bed material and is starting to crack and the length of the bed.

I’ve got a 900# camper shell that is permenantly attached and a fancy aftermarket Icon RXT suspension. I don’t wheel it hard. 36000 miles, 2018 Platinum. Any suggestions?

 

That's what happens when you jump driveways!

Warranty try? That's pretty bad for it being only 2018!

 

900lb camper shell?

 

I'm guessing he has one of those slide in shells that's like an actual camper.

 

It’s a roof top tent camper shell thing from Vagabond. it’s either 700 or 900#, I forget.

I’m not sure if the warranty would cover this, or if the camper shell (or after market suspension or after market bumper) would void any claim I may have.

But Vagabond has been outfitting Tacomas for years, and I’ve seen comically heavy slide in campers on Tundras that look like they’ve been on for years and years, so I’m not really sure if I just got a bad bed or not, and not sure how to approach the dealership.

Super disappointing. I was hoping to slip under the truck and tighten a few bolts to stop the squeaking and then I see the blown up pinch welds.

On close inspection, The ones on the drivers side are starting to go too. A sad day.

 

Bummer man, that makes for some dreary weekend fun... I'm not sure how one could approach a dealer with a warranty claim either but what about a flatbed in-lieu of a new bed or repaired bed..? It would be stronger, lighter and more offroad capable with approach/departure angels...?

 

Oh I’m sure I can get my welding buddy to fix this thing up good as new. But it’s clearly not working for the camper shell that I have, so I’ll probably just weld it up so I can sleep at night, then sell it, and move on. The market for roof top tents, and low mileage tundras, is just too good to pass up right now.

Honestly this truck is just too big for me. Great overlanding rig until this happened. But I never loved it like my 1st gen Tacoma, which I’d much prefer to spend my time and effort on. And the girlfriend is really in love with the idea of a heated shower and flush toilet, so maybe it’s time to move on to a 25’ tow camper. I dunno.

 

So your plan is to tow a 25 ft travel trailer with a Tacoma?

 

A slide in distributes the Load across bed floor. 700 is a lot on the bed rails. Think of the forces when hitting brakes/bumps on the front corners of the bed. Yes its pathetic a truck in 2022 cant take a load like that

 

How would bed stiffeners affect his problem? Would they be helpful or make it worse?

 

I'm not sure I follow ... I would call my insurance company and ask them what, exactly? I wouldn't mind paying my deductible to get this fixed, I just don't see how insurance would help here, when the damage that was done is by my own dumb luck. I thought insurance was for stuff damage that other people did to the vehicle.

I wonder if talking with a collision shop would give me some options. I'm sure they've seen worse damage than this. They would have enough expertise to remediate this problem, and they might be able to help me navigate insurance and advise me of cost.

I guess first thing is to get rid of that camper shell. It's obviously not compatible with the truck, and the kind of (fairly light) off-roading I do.

 

No, I'd have to get a new tow vehicle for a 25 ft trailer.

 

Thanks for all the input! I think I have a plan now. I'm going to sell the camper shell and then focus on getting the pinch welds on the bed fixed up through a collision repair shop.

 

I admire your optimism that an auto insurance company would pay out on a claim like this, but here is the letter I got today:

"The damage to your vehicle appears to be caused by wear and tear. Therefore, there is no basis upon which we are able to afford coverage for the repair of your vehicle since the damage appears to have been caused by wear and tear."

 

Man this sucks but the damage does appear to be wear and tear there is no sudden and direct impact which would fall under your collision coverage.

 

It's AAA.

I'm going to guess we'll be seeing a lot more bed failure posts in the next year or so. I was the first or second person in the manufacturing queue to receive this style of "big full sized aluminum roof-top tent shell that rests entirely on bed rails" a few years back and there were not any others out there for full-sized trucks at the time, so now there's hundreds more people out there with the same setup I have, that haven't had enough time yet to fail. And like I said, I go off-roading extremely frequently in this rig, but no crawling and certainly not at high speeds, so I am sure there are dudes who beat their truck beds up a lot harder than I do.

I'm planning to have a welding guy take a look at things and see how he can better tie the weight of the camper shell to the frame, rather than its current situation where all ~700 pounds rests about 40% on the side bedrails and 60% on the bedrail the runs along the back of the cab. I surmise that having this much weight on the cab-most bedrail, along with torsional side-to-side loading and twisting of the truck bed, while rolling over rocks and obstacles, caused this issue. I think an ideal solution would be to have (3) 1/4" or 1/2" thick plates that sit on top of the 2 side and 1 cab bedrails forming a big "U", and then have the camper shell sit on top of those. Then, from the 3 plates, have support members that run diagonally down (perhaps with gussets), through cut-outs in the bed floor, and attach directly to frame. Also, doing fix-up on the current cracks that have formed along the bed and on the supports underneath it which are pictured in my initial post. Unfortunately this requires removing my $600 bedrug and melting the shit out of my $800 custom-color linex spray in liner.

I saw that Cali Raised has Tundra bed stiffeners (link) but those wouldn't really help because they provide support at the tail end of the bed, where the least amount of camper shell weight bears down. In fact they might make things worse by stiffening the tail end but not the cab end of the bed, which would in turn create even more torsional twisting on the cab end of the bed where all the weight is.

 

Did you get this resolved? What did you end up doing?

I also had an icon RXT setup and a bed rack with RTT. Seems the floor in my bed, towards the cab, and just left of the bolt tying the bed to the frame is now torn. Need to get the bed repaired. Not sure if I can weld as is, since I also have end liner on top. I’ve taken the rack and all accessories down for now. Considering picking up a slide in camper.

 

That would be time for a flat bed for me. I have a 2018 and crawled under there and looked. No damage but I have SDHQ bedrail supports and I do not sport a topper

 

Well, I wish you were wrong about seeing a lot more failures, but you're not!

I have a '21 Tundra DC TRD with the 38gal tank. Ovrlnd camper (weighs 390lbs) on for 3 years (~85 nights out so far, yes, my wife counts them . . ). Upgraded suspension and I do have bed stiffeners in the rear. Carry nothing on the roof to add weight. Battery (40lbs) sitting right above the bed bolt in that area too, so well supported. Crack in D-side front underneath, but no bulge yet and no bed wiggle. Wouldn't know it's there except I checked after seeing this video: https://youtu.be/6UNx5X70_4Q?si=1CHFa2gmir4Bwfb0

Clearly Toyota did not support the bed well there, especially if you compare to the P-side same spot. I don't abuse it, but do wheel tougher trails, and I tend to go faster over washboards to smooth them out. Don't think it was the weight, but rather the torsion of wheeling and likely my last trip with a really, really rough run (aired down, shocks adjusted soft!) down the flat parts of upper Hole in The Rock Road with the absolute worst huge washboards ever. Haven't figured out how to address it yet. Not getting rid of the camper or truck though.




Edit: just to be clear -- I'm not Angry Camper of the video, and I'm also not saying the specific camper caused this. I thing is is clearly a design flaw from Toyota when you put even a light weight camper shell on the bed rails and then mod the truck and wheel it.

 

Does anyone think a standard fiberglass topper over time would be heavy enough to do similar damage? My 2018 has a fiberglass ARE she'll on it, and has since new. I just recently bought the truck and the previous owner solely used it for a tow rig. When it warms up, I'm going to go check underneath to ensure I i don't have any similar damage.

 

By "SDHQ bedrail supports" do you mean their hidden bed stiffeners (for the rear)? Or is it something else I'm not finding?

 

I have no such damage on mine after 3 years with a fiberglass shell. I don’t off road and occasionally carry paddle boards on the roof. My dad’s long bed has had a shell on it for 13 years, probably 50k miles of gravel roads and most of it towing/ hauling - no damage. I think these campers that rest on the bed rails are just too heavy, especially at the front where the sleeping beds cantilever over the cab.

 

This is the precise reason why I never ever buy used vehicles, especially trucks!!

-T

 

Seam weld that sucker!


Maybe add some reinforcement while you’re at it. Then you can find the next weakest point in the system.

 

I can confirm, and based on research that I have done, I believe this to be a fundamental design flaw of the double cab tundras. I have gathered what I believe to be ample evidence of this and would love to get together with everyone who has an issue and see if we can’t make toyota rectify this by fixing the issue or getting us into a CrewCab instead.

 

The problem is there is no bed support after the final bed bolt. The double cab bed is “floating” for lack of a better term for the last 15” or so past the bed bolt towards the cab. You can see how the frame slopes down and goes under the cab. On the Crewmax this is a non issue. The cab sits right in front of the last bed bolt so the entire bed is supported.