Cracked Pinch welds under bed (!!)

Yay! So they didn't total your truck. Outcome you wanted?

 

For now lol. The rear of the frame bent, not sure about the rest. The lift helped because the guy went under me mostly. They are laser measuring and pulling. Not sure if they can give me the numbers on that or if I’d even know how to read them. Deff happy it’s not totaled. A little worried in the back of my head about long-term issues like if the differential was pushed at all, wearing improperly with tires and the bed strength. But fingers crossed.

 

You'll have a much better idea when you drive it next, if it feels off you'll be able to make your decision then. Wishing you all the best.

 

Appreciate it. I had the lift on for 3 days before the accident. Wasn’t used to it yet. Will for sure have someone drive behind me and see if it is tracking properly.

 

Hey Folks -

This just happened to my friend's truck. What a shitty situation! They had an AT Habitat shell on for about two years prior, and had just swapped to a Tune camper shell. No shade to either of those products, but it's pretty logical based on the info in this thread why they create issues for a stock Tundra bed / frame.

I have a 2012 regular cab with 6.5' bed, so eager to find resolution before hopefully mounting a pop-camper of my own in the future. Thankful for all the amazing info already provided here! One cool update, and a few follow up questions:

1. Tune is studying my friend's truck to develop their own solution for this issue. That just began this week so I don't have any further info, beyond saying that's pretty incredible customer service from Tune.

2. @KevinK - You mentioned building your truck to expect and accommodate frame and bed flex. Could you elaborate on how you've done this? Especially design aspects of your bed rack that allow it to flex with the bed?

3. @joonbug , @831Tun , @Vizsla , @osidepunker , @papasmurf , @reywcms - Would y'all be open to sharing where you had your frames boxed? How much of the frame? Approximate cost?

Thanks!

 

My frame isn’t boxed because I’ll be cutting the frame off from behind the cab but thankfully haven’t seen cracking even with how I wheel.

But here’s the old man’s rig which has been boxed in the rear and reinforced up front. But focusing on the rear here. And added an example of it completed. Cost wise this is going to be all over the map per fabrication shop. Pulling the bed, material fab, trussing, remaking all the tabs to install items, tubing, etc the costs add up. The last pic is showing an example of how we plan on integrating the GFC to remove the load from the rails to the frame.

 

That's some clean work. Very cool

 

Kyle Green in AZ did Vizsla’s and mine.
831Tun and Papasmurf actually did their own.
Osidepunker did his for like $50 in the 80’s when fab work was dirt cheap.

I think we all relocated our hitches higher so couldn’t re-use the hitch assembly which acts as a cross member. So we had to cross brace the frame and also fab new rear bumpers. If you re-use all of that it’ll save a few bucks. But if I were to do that, I’d probably still add a little more additional cross bracing. I don’t know exactly how much my boxing cost, but I’d imagine you could find someone to do it properly for a couple thousand if you re-use the hitch.

 

Big thanks @reywcms and @joonbug ! I especially like the idea of tying GFC style campers to the frame.

I was able to find @osidepunker 's boxing documentation in his build thread. That's likely the way I'll go, and all I'll need to run a wedge camper safely with my driving style.

 

So in prep for a 450# shell on my bedsides, I’ll be building something to support the front bed. I have a RCSB, but my frame is similar to the double cabs. I’ll post back what I do. Likely pulling the bed and plating the frame as well.

 

I'd be interested to see what you come up with too. I just put a heavy camper on mine, but haven't wheeled it hard yet.

 

@rcsbguy - DMZ Fab in Norco, CA has a lot of experience with boxing Tundra frames, replacing factory crossmembers with tubed x-braces, and bed cages that connect down to the frame. @osidepunker uses DMZ's bed cage to locate his rear long travel shocks, but it also supports the front corners of the bed down to the frame and likely adds significant torsional rigidity. I wonder if a more minimal bed cage could be designed with camper shells in mind, for those not going long travel.

 

Unfortunately Tim doesn’t do any custom work anymore, only sells what he makes.

 

Damn, sad to lose that option but thanks for the intel @rcsbguy ! Unless we convince him to make them for Tundra...

 

He is working on a boxing kit but nowhere near done. And it’s a kit for the crewmax - not sure how the double cab and crewmax frame match up, but I thought they didn’t at all.

 

Boxed frame was one step of the process. Second step was these additional front bed support brackets from @shmellmopwho and the 2x1 running the width of the bed.

I’ll have a YouTube video on the bracket in the next weeks.

 

https://youtu.be/mutg-c9ETVA?si=Q0P9zo3NVksnv49V

 

That looks awesome. Are those brackets for sale?

 

Probably not, you can hit up @shmellmopwho if you’re local in so cal. though. I don’t think my RCSB frame is the same as the double cabs

 

Good news I had Ryan (Schmellmopwho) mock up the set he made for rcsbguy and the plates fit the double cab and Ryan said he’s willing to sell and ship the plates, if you’re in SoCal he can install as well (had him install mine)

 

Does the bed need to be pulled to install these?

 

nope

 

Cool! Any idea how much for just the plates? Shipping the bar would get expensive..at least to Hawaii. Mine hasn't cracked, but probably wouldn't hurt.

 

he said ballpark 200 to 250 plus shipping but he does send the towers welded. Also he won’t ship that bar anywhere but it’s super easy to get and cut yourself

 

Thanks! Ill keep and eye on mine, so far so good..

 

you most likely won’t need it unless you wheel hard or have a camper, I don’t off road unless it’s on a dirt road to go dispersed camping but it’s one of those things that if you ever get your bed cracked you’re pretty fucked, one guy got his totaled by insurance I guess it’s super hard or impossible to fix not a simple weld job by any means at all

 

There’s so far so good and then cracked, no inbetween. I spot that heavy rack setup from here…

 

Yea, it is pretty heavy, but I have other supports on the lift, so the bed rails are not taking the entire weight. That said, I will probably need front support.

 

Worth the peace of mind!!