djrockadoo
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Just thought I’d share a quick note on installing the Rough Country bed extender. This would have been a day one purchase but some things limited its use case for me. I'm happy to say I modified installation in a way that completely eliminates my issues. Maybe you had some reservations too because, well now I have a 7' bed when I need it, who doesn't want that?? This is a mandatory accessory for all R1T owners in my opinion.
Installation is super easy although I changed it up a bit They want you to put the mounting brackets directly over the rear tie down hooks. This was a bummer for me for a few reasons.
1. It covers up the tie down hooks, but I like my tie down hooks... so that blows.
2. If you add the mounting bracket and base of the extender’s width, you lose about 6 inches the beds width in total. This takes things down to a sub 48” usable width. No bueno, in my opinion.
3. The length of the bed extender stops about 4.5 inches from the edge of the tailgate. I’m sure there’s good engineering/safety reasons to do this but to me, if I’m putting this thing in, I want all that beautiful tail gate space at my disposal.
So, I decided to install it a completely different way than directions suggest. You'll see in the first photo the template that's provided and where they want you to mount it. If you do that, that’s where the above issues come into place. I thought, why can't I mount it inside the well area where the tail gate closes. There’s actually a ton of empty space below the locking mechanism, and luckily the mount is very small. I spent a good half hour trying to figure out why this wasn't going to work. Eventually I gave up and did it. Wouldn't you know, it works totally fine. I'm actually going to contact Rough Country to tell me what I did wrong, because if not, they should definitely consider marketing it this way as an option.
This method does come with 3 "issues" all of which are easily over come.
1. I can't do the nifty flip around thing with the extender into truck bed. I wasn't going to be able to do this anyway because my Built Right Molle panels block the space to flip, and I just have no use for that feature anyway. I can totally see where others would like it though.
2. The back of the extender now sits just off the edge of the tailgate and hugs flush to the plastic trim. An easy fix would be to cut the poles about 2 inches back at the mounting bracket side. But I'm tempted to either just leave it like this or do some kind of little shims on the bottom two feet that lift it back to tailgate level. Because as I said above, it's now an actual 7' bed, which is kind of sweet.
3. The cotter pin system they ship with it is meant to slide down from the other side and use gravity to help keep it in. I haven't had any issues with doing it backwards as seen here, but I can easily fix this with various other types of pins that lock in better.
Feel free to let me know why I did all this wrong below! But for me, this fixed the only one issue I had keeping the R1T from being the perfect truck. But now, it is!
There you see it using the full length of the bed, and I think it actually looks perfectly integrated in the well area.
Hangs off the back but is completely snug, not sure if I'll fix this or not.
This is the supplied template and where they suggest you put it, which is directly over top of the rear hooks.
Here you see the mounting bracket and base add up to 3 inches one either side you'd lose mounted where they suggest
Here you see the about 4.5 inches in bed length lost if mounted where they suggested verses in the tailgate well.
I have to put the cotter pin in backwards, but I can easily just get a different kind.
Ok not exactly 7 feet, but dang it I'm calling it a 7' bed!
This to me looks almost OEM in perfect fit. And look at that beautiful tie down hook I get to keep!
Installation is super easy although I changed it up a bit They want you to put the mounting brackets directly over the rear tie down hooks. This was a bummer for me for a few reasons.
1. It covers up the tie down hooks, but I like my tie down hooks... so that blows.
2. If you add the mounting bracket and base of the extender’s width, you lose about 6 inches the beds width in total. This takes things down to a sub 48” usable width. No bueno, in my opinion.
3. The length of the bed extender stops about 4.5 inches from the edge of the tailgate. I’m sure there’s good engineering/safety reasons to do this but to me, if I’m putting this thing in, I want all that beautiful tail gate space at my disposal.
So, I decided to install it a completely different way than directions suggest. You'll see in the first photo the template that's provided and where they want you to mount it. If you do that, that’s where the above issues come into place. I thought, why can't I mount it inside the well area where the tail gate closes. There’s actually a ton of empty space below the locking mechanism, and luckily the mount is very small. I spent a good half hour trying to figure out why this wasn't going to work. Eventually I gave up and did it. Wouldn't you know, it works totally fine. I'm actually going to contact Rough Country to tell me what I did wrong, because if not, they should definitely consider marketing it this way as an option.
This method does come with 3 "issues" all of which are easily over come.
1. I can't do the nifty flip around thing with the extender into truck bed. I wasn't going to be able to do this anyway because my Built Right Molle panels block the space to flip, and I just have no use for that feature anyway. I can totally see where others would like it though.
2. The back of the extender now sits just off the edge of the tailgate and hugs flush to the plastic trim. An easy fix would be to cut the poles about 2 inches back at the mounting bracket side. But I'm tempted to either just leave it like this or do some kind of little shims on the bottom two feet that lift it back to tailgate level. Because as I said above, it's now an actual 7' bed, which is kind of sweet.
3. The cotter pin system they ship with it is meant to slide down from the other side and use gravity to help keep it in. I haven't had any issues with doing it backwards as seen here, but I can easily fix this with various other types of pins that lock in better.
Feel free to let me know why I did all this wrong below! But for me, this fixed the only one issue I had keeping the R1T from being the perfect truck. But now, it is!
There you see it using the full length of the bed, and I think it actually looks perfectly integrated in the well area.
Hangs off the back but is completely snug, not sure if I'll fix this or not.
This is the supplied template and where they suggest you put it, which is directly over top of the rear hooks.
Here you see the mounting bracket and base add up to 3 inches one either side you'd lose mounted where they suggest
Here you see the about 4.5 inches in bed length lost if mounted where they suggested verses in the tailgate well.
I have to put the cotter pin in backwards, but I can easily just get a different kind.
Ok not exactly 7 feet, but dang it I'm calling it a 7' bed!
This to me looks almost OEM in perfect fit. And look at that beautiful tie down hook I get to keep!
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