Anyone Drill Into Bed?

[MotsuNabe]

I am curious if anyone has drilled any holes in their bed to mount slides or other hardware. Thinking about a DIY set of bed slides and a kitchen build and would need to mount to the bed. I was thinking I could pop the spare tire lid, drill a few holes and then bolt directly to it. Would be fairly strong and easy to remove if needed. I realize it would make getting to the spare that much more of a pain.

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[Dark-Fx]

I'm building storage but opted to take the plastic sides out.

 

[MotsuNabe]

I'm building storage but opted to take the plastic sides out.

Is your thinking to make a frame all the way around the bed and then attach slides to that? How will you avoid impeding the spare tire compartment?

 

[atebit]

I would love to put some D-Ring tie-downs on the bed, but don’t know where the structural members are. The Tacoma was great for this…take out a bed bolt, put a D-Ring through it & torque it down.

 

[Dark-Fx]

I tied into the rails the tonneau/side panels use and made some brackets to go down to the tie-down bolts. Most of the strength is in the brackets going to the tie-downs. The ones near the tailgate are just flat plate with a bolt through them. I also put some 1000 lbs rings in when I need to use the bed still. Probably going to come up with a panel to reduce dust and dirt coming up from below but haven't yet.

Taking the panels out gives me a hair over 51.5" wide between the sliders. I have them mounted just under the tailgate latching mechanism.

Planning on relocating the compressor and outlets but haven't gotten that far yet.

Making everything out of aluminum to keep the weight down.

 

[Dark-Fx]

How will you avoid impeding the spare tire compartment?

It's technically still accessible. My entire storage area will slide out. Might have to figure out how to lift up the cargo rails and tent enough to get access, but I have a tire swing-arm that will likely get used instead.

 

[skunn]

I did tie down anchors drilled into the door over the spare compartment in a manner similar to whats shown on this video:



The plastic is a composite that is actually pretty darn tough and decently thick. Not enough to anchor really heavy things, but medium sized items should be fine.

 

[MotsuNabe]

Thanks all. Great stuff. I’ll post some some pics of what I have when it’s further along.

 

[perkinskit]

Anybody have any updates here? I'd like to bolt some stuff to the fixed portion of the bed floor (not the spare tire door) - has anyone done it yet?

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