Skid Plate and D-Rings

I am wanting to purchase both the skid plate and d-rings in the near future. That being this afternoon or tomorrow. However I am at work and the images do not pull up on the threads pertaining to both the skid plates and d-rings on here. So I have a few questions I hope someone can help me out with. One, if installing the Toyota skid plate (

$234 PT212-35075 Front Skid Plate

PT212-35075) yourself what size socket is needed in order to bolt it to the truck? Two, how difficult is it to bolt the d-rings to the front of the bed? Preferrably using the bolts that are existing that bolt the bed to the frame. And if using those bolts are they spaced far enough apart for hauling a sportbike since that will be their primary function? I read some threads on here where someone cut a whole in the bedliner to expose other bolts near the front of the bed in order to install the d-rings. I really do not want to cut into the bedliner if at all possible. I appreciate any help before I make the purchase. Of course you can always say get off your lazy ass and go see for yourself and which I would reply fair enough and will once I am able to make it home to where my truck resides today.

The dealer wants to charge me $134 estimated to install all this which I thought sounded a little high for a few bolts.

 

It's easy to drill holes in the bed to install D rings. I've done that. The bed is fiberglass and accepts drilled holes readily.

On a couple threads, guys have removed those giant bed mount bolts and installed D rings under them. IIRC, they're extremely tight and difficult to remove, in some cases folks strip the torx head. But you'll want to find that thread yourself.

 

Don't pay the dealer to install these items. These things are very simple to install yourself. I don't remember to size of the socket for the skid plate, but it is most likely metric. As far as the d-rings go, the hardest part is getting the original bolts out. I think the size you need for the d-rings is a Torx 55. You might want to use the search function of this forum for more information.

 

The skid plate bolts are a 14 mm if i remember correctly, deffinitly metric

The most difficult part was finding a Torx 55 socket, got mine at NAPA.

I would use the bed bolts up front, much stronger attached to the frame.

Got my son involved and helped him remove the bolts, one at a time.

once removed, helps to grind down some of the bolt to remove the washer

so you can install the d-ring, but well worth it.

have to drill out D-ring for the larger bolts.

 

Damn, dude that is f'ed up. My dealer installed my TRD skid plate, hood protector and wheel locks for me all for the grand total of $0 at 5PM on a Saturday evening. They were simply happy I purchased the parts from them.

$134? WTF are they smoking?

 

I did use it. The images are blocked at work so had to wait til I got back to the house to view them with the pop up picture editorial. Ha! I appreciate the info after being able to fully examine how the parts will bolt up I am going to order it from TRDparts4u.com and do it myself.

Obviously lots of CRACK!!! Plus they wanted to charge $200 just for the skid plate. I can get the skid plate and d rings shipped to my house for $209.44. I wish I had a cool dealer around here that would install it for me just for buying it from them, but everyone is out to make a buck where they can. I am just trying to hold on to as many as I can haha. Looks like I know what I will be doing next week when the parts come in.

Thanks everyone for the information.

 

Bed bolts are no harder to get out than any other large bolt. I had no problem at all getting them out to install d rings. It's when you reinstall, cross thread them, and then find out they cost $12 each to replace that the difficulty comes in.

 

x2 I had no issues at all removing my bed bolts