Composite bed observations

I've seen a few of the other threads that have talked about the composite beds but just wanted to add my 2 cents.

I've had my Taco for less than 6 months (a short enough time that it still seems funny to call her a Taco). She's an SR Access Cab and I've been very happy with her, so when the bed was damaged recently I wanted to get as much information about the material as possible. After reading up on it and talking to the Toyota repair shop I'm not sure that I'd get another truck with a composite bed. I have really liked it so far and have loaded it with gravel, lumber, stone pavers, furniture, etc. But just a minute turning my back at one of the national DIY stores while they were loading some floor tile and I got to find out how much it takes to damage the composite. The insurance will cover it, but just the fact that as far as Toyota is concerned there is no repair that they approve and that the entire bed has to be replaced is a bit concerning. If/when it gets damaged again (we had our last Toyota for 227,000 miles) I think I'll look at a non-Toyota approved repair.

 

How hard did they hit it to do that? In all fairness, I doubt a metal bed would have done much better.

 

Wait! You'd rather have that repaired than replaced? That's an odd complaint. I'd take a replacement all day long.

In all of my time spent on TW, I've seen like 2 or 3 damaged beds. And typically, like your case, from someone being negligent. I don't think it's a common occurrence.

Edit: See if you can get it replaced with a pre-2020 bed, and you'll get your bed cubbies back.

 

Whatever fool ripped that wheel well would have done similar damage to a metal bed.

IMHO that's a patchable area (not structural) that would be quite strong when done right.

These beds have been in service since 2005 and hold up remarkably well. Anything can be damaged when ham fisted folk get involved.

 

I’m on my second Tacoma and I abuse my bed. Never an issue. This looks like the exception, not the norm.

 

Geez. Do me a favor... Since you get a new bed anyway, take a hammer and hit the bed so you can see what kind of abuse it took to make that hole.

 

Thats gotta be the first time I've seen that happen

 

Seems like you should not make judgments of the composite bed from this unique incident. It took some pretty major force to do that. Did they fork lift the tile into the bed? This is more about the cause of the accident than the bed material.

If it were metal, you would have had a big ol dent in the bed to be repaired just the same.

Composite is probably harder to repair to acceptable standards than metal.

You get a new bed liner, what's the big deal?

 

Pallet of tiles, don’t see any other loading method than a fork lift. As you and others mentioned, Take the weight of that pallet, force of badly used forklift, not much will stand up to that abuse.

 

If Saturn built a pick up. I don't know why Toyota didn't just go with composite bedsides on the Tacoma? The tailgate skin might still have to be steal since sees more use.

I believe the Ford Explorer Sport Trac had composite bedsides and a composite bed. The composite panels wouldn't hold up to a collision, neither does metal as it bends and crumbles from impact.


Stil can't see why Toyota sells a composite bed ruck the Tacoma in NA, and a steal bed truck the Hilux every where else in the world. Except Mexico where Toyota sells both Tacoma and Hilux.

Wouldn't Toyota only build one or the other, which ever happens to be the most reliable and dependable.

 

Dude, your insurance isn't exactly covering it. They'll pay you then turn around and collect from the negligent party to save you the trouble of working directly with the store that damaged your truck. You'll pay for that convenience by paying higher insurance premiums. You'd be better off in the long run by working with the store that jacked up your truck in the first place. They'll likely tell you to take it somewhere and send them the bill.

 

Looks like they ran the forks into the bed sticking out the other end of the pallet.

 

Thanks everyone for the input. Much appreciated.

I know that a steel bed would have been damaged as well, but I think the idea of having to replace the bed instead of being able to fix it sticks in my craw. I'm getting a new bed this time and I'm not complaining. Looks like the store will pay for it so the insurance doesn't have to get involved and jack up my premiums (that will be nice).

Regarding the replacement rather than having it fixed. I'd rather have it fixed just because it seems to be less of a waste of time and resources. I'm pretty sure that next time it gets damaged I'll check around to see if there are any places nearby that can do this kind of repair as long as the damage isn't structural.

I don't know if I'm jumping to conclusions with this or if the past day talking to the store, the insurance company and Toyota has just been a stream of consciousness where I've been ticked off, ok, aggravated, ok, annoyed, ok, etc.

Love the truck and this will be the second Toyota that I put a quarter of a million miles on.

 

I remember how hard I had to hit a centre punch before drilling into the bed of my 2nd gen to add front tie downs. Yours is either flawed or the the result of a monkey on a forklift.

 

Glad to hear the store is taking care of the damage. I have a trailer to avoid situations like this. Things like old deck boards with nails go in my trailer and not in my bed.

 

Ooooh, smart man on the cubby caper

 

The scuff above on the wheel well cover right above the damage suggests the load was dropped or otherwise dynamically loaded into the bed?

 

but have you dropped a tool box on it?!?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ox71UKDeazU

 

That's a fairly simple repair. Just because Toyota doesn't say they have one doesn't mean people all over the world haven't been repairing damaged composite structures for a very long time.

 

What?!?!?! This makes zero sense to me