boogielander
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Hello,
I've searched far and wide and couldn't find bed stiffeners/ brackets for the DT platform. Does anyone have any lead or who I can get in contact with to get these made?
For your info, based on my understanding and experiences:
What are bed stiffeners?
Bed stiffeners are basically brackets that you install on your beds to hold the bed together to prevent it coming apart.
Why are these needed?
For people who overland, especially with installation of bed racks, roof tents, and other gears strapped to the bed rack, it is often to see over 200lbs of weight pushing down on the side of the bed. With off road driving going over rough terrains, the bed tent to flex due to the design of the truck. That is true across all platforms regardless of make and model. The bed will flex, and with the flexing force comes with the risk of bed side disintegrating, especially at the rear where the tailgates are. This is because bed designs are not box shaped, but rather C shaped. As seen from various applications (ie: Toyota Tacoma C-frames), C shapes are not as sturdy as boxed shape and will break easily when excessive forces are applied.
Bed stiffeners are needed to help reduce the stress that end of C-shaped bed experience, and to help hold the bed together better. It is like closing off the C to a box, but without fully closing the C.
Is this really an issue?
For Ram trucks, or basically any other truck that don't use composite bed (looking at yota Tacomas), bed splitting is not really an issue, even with offroad use. However, because my build's goal is to go fast in the desert and desert terrains can be rough, bed splitting could be an issue for my application. Especially I have a 95lb bed rack bolted to the bed side, and a RTT that weights about 87lbs sitting on top. I've noticed that going over bumpy sections while on trail that the bed flexes, which leads to the bed rack and RTT shaking at a greater magnitude. My fear is that eventually that would lead to splitting of the bed due to the left and right movement from shaking.
And I'm not the only one out there who has bed rack and roof tent on their DT bed, so I feel if I want to address this issue, there are people out there looking to address this issue as well.
So, if anyone has any lead, please let me know!
PFA
I've searched far and wide and couldn't find bed stiffeners/ brackets for the DT platform. Does anyone have any lead or who I can get in contact with to get these made?
For your info, based on my understanding and experiences:
What are bed stiffeners?
Bed stiffeners are basically brackets that you install on your beds to hold the bed together to prevent it coming apart.
Why are these needed?
For people who overland, especially with installation of bed racks, roof tents, and other gears strapped to the bed rack, it is often to see over 200lbs of weight pushing down on the side of the bed. With off road driving going over rough terrains, the bed tent to flex due to the design of the truck. That is true across all platforms regardless of make and model. The bed will flex, and with the flexing force comes with the risk of bed side disintegrating, especially at the rear where the tailgates are. This is because bed designs are not box shaped, but rather C shaped. As seen from various applications (ie: Toyota Tacoma C-frames), C shapes are not as sturdy as boxed shape and will break easily when excessive forces are applied.
Bed stiffeners are needed to help reduce the stress that end of C-shaped bed experience, and to help hold the bed together better. It is like closing off the C to a box, but without fully closing the C.
Is this really an issue?
For Ram trucks, or basically any other truck that don't use composite bed (looking at yota Tacomas), bed splitting is not really an issue, even with offroad use. However, because my build's goal is to go fast in the desert and desert terrains can be rough, bed splitting could be an issue for my application. Especially I have a 95lb bed rack bolted to the bed side, and a RTT that weights about 87lbs sitting on top. I've noticed that going over bumpy sections while on trail that the bed flexes, which leads to the bed rack and RTT shaking at a greater magnitude. My fear is that eventually that would lead to splitting of the bed due to the left and right movement from shaking.
And I'm not the only one out there who has bed rack and roof tent on their DT bed, so I feel if I want to address this issue, there are people out there looking to address this issue as well.
So, if anyone has any lead, please let me know!
PFA
