Sandra... Sandy for short.

Suspension day!!

 

Got one side done…

 

All done!

Looks a little nose high… so I’ll be in the market for some coachbuilder shackles… +2 ought to do the trick…

 

Stopped by the tire shop…

Going with the Falken Wildpeaks in 295/70/18

Picking up the SCS Ray 10’s on Friday AM, then tires Friday mid day, then window tint Friday afternoon!

 

Oh Sandy!

 

Been doing some truck stuff with the truck...
Load of firewood up to my mom's house...



Hauled the trailer on our first camping trip with the new rig... Gotta sort out the rear end sag... pretty droopy.


Drove her off road for the first time. Forest roads up to the peak of Mt Burney. Pretty tame but a few sections of washboard, whoops and a lot of volcanic rock fields towards the top. I was amazed at how well it handled off road. Soaks up bumps like nothing, smooth and tight. None of the rattle and chatter that's present in my Tacoma. Also the added power is really fun...

 

Excellent choice of color
Yeah you might want to look into a weight distribution hitch for hauling that camper if its front heavy or a longer hitch drop one.

 

Thanks!! yeah I have a Husky round bar hitch with the weight distribution. Our last trip I hooked that up and things were much better. Of course I didn’t take any pictures. Still a little lower than level though, I might be adding the coachbuilder +2 shackles for a little pre trailer rake.

 

Bed rack + tonneau cover quandary here. The bakflip isnt really compatible with most bed racks... and even if it is, you can't open it at all with a bedrack (or bed bars) in place.
Considering other options... retractable tonneau, roll up tonneau? And a thought on bed racks. Why do none of them utilize the stake pockets? Literally every one ive seen sits on the bed rail and attaches to the inner bed track mount... why is this?

Oh and by the way, I sold the Tacoma... so sad to see her go.

 

Got Retrax XR. I'm sure @memario1214 can get you a good price. I went with the aluminum slates and really like it. @Squatting Pigeon did the composite since he runs his rtt all times so he figured that would take the abuse instead of his cover.

But I agree with your statement, we are really limited for covers that have compatible racks. I traded out my bakflip tri fold for the retrax. The bakflip was fine but no rack compatibility and if you have your bed loaded you lose visibility out the back window. Yes the retrax canister takes up some bed space but I'll take that to be able to see out the back window.

 

Thanks for the reply. I do like that retrax... off hand do you know how much bed space the canister takes up? (I guess I could google it too...) I would like to retain as much usability of the bed as possible. The Bakflip has got to go I guess. It was on the truck when I acquired it so I'm not terribly attached to it.

Now that's a clean set up. I'm intrigued. I'm still leaning towards bed bars only, rather than a full rack, as my plan is to remove the whole shebang when not in use...

Thanks for stopping by here to chime in! The Xtrusion is pretty sweet! Might I ask why the Mountaintop as opposed to the Retrax? any benefits to one vs the other? I'm in more of a hurry to mount the RTT on the bars/rack, and can stand to be a bit more patient with the tonneau purchase. Mind sending me your best price on the Retrax shipped to 94951? Thanks!

 

I cheated and grap the response off Amazon but it feels about right. I didn't think it was a foot deep but once mounted it probably is. I still think its 100% worth it.

With the cover completely open it take up about 13 1/2” and hangs down about 10”. You have full use of the bed below the 10".

 

Finally pulled those n-Fab steps off…
Lookin much better!

 

I have been looking for a bed rack/bars for a while now… considered a bunch of different options, but also wanted to keep the cost low. I scored a set of Billie Bars at a low price. I’m doing the install today and going to see if I can manage to keep my tonneau cover intact and operational. While a new Retrax Pro and voodoo bed rack may be ideal, This will hopefully do the job at a fraction of the cost.

My truck has the bed rails relocated about 3” lower than stock, I assume when the PO had the Bakflip f1 installed they did this to retain usability of bed rail.

My first attempt was to capture the rail in its current location

However… the relocation also pushes the bed rails about 1/2” inward which resulted in a gap between the Billie Bar brackets and the bed. No bueno.


That just won’t do. Especially since I’m trying to reinstall the tonneau cover.


So, I removed the bed rail relocation brackets and reinstalled them in their stock location. This will make using the stock bed cleats impossible if I want to run the tonneau. We’ll see how that plays out.


I got the brackets secured and the bars on… but the one downside is they are still a touch too wide. They push the brackets out at a weird angle. The bolts still thread in, but I don’t like the angle they sit at, so I think I need to cut or grind the bars down just a tad to get them to sit in the brackets just right.



Going to go work on reinstalling the tonneau, which will require trimming around where the Billie bar brackets are.

 

I had to hack out some clearance for the Billie bars uprights to sit nice with the tonneau… might have cut a tad more than needed… oh well.




Final product!

 

So do you have to take the rear bar off to open the tri-fold or is it hinged?

 

Yeah the bar has to come off to open the tonneau… it’s not ideal… but the tonneau was on the truck when I bought it. So rather than dropping $2k on a new retrax pro retractable tonneau I decided to give this a go.
Also I think once I get the Tent mounted to it, I may keep the tent and bars together… so when it’s off, they’re off…

Not 100% sure yet, gonna trial it for a bit.

 

Can't hurt to try!

 

Just an FYI.....our bars would have worked with your cover without the hassle: https://www.kbvoodoo.com/all-prox-crossbars/prox-tundra-crossbars-2007-and-up

When billie stole our design, they didn't quite get everything right. I could point out what they did wrong, but I can't keep giving them free lessons.

 

Hey bud… appreciate the helpful hint, but please keep your beef with Billie bars out of my thread.

 

PM me if you want details on how to make those bars work better for you.

 

Finally got my tent installed…
Tepui Autana 4 Ruggedized
Billie Bars HD tent mounts

 

Here’s my multipurpose engine hoist/RTT lift. Worked pretty well!

 

Made the switch to the Retrax Pro XR. Got a new bed bar setup coming from Hotshot Off-Road. Liking the Retrax so far.

 

Go Rhino bed bars installed. Pretty happy overall. Might upgrade the hardware to stainless just to be safe, but otherwise pretty stout and I think they look cool. Thanks @memario1214

 

Looks great!