Cracks in bed of 2004 toyota tacoma from fleet model

[Traveler_fleet]

I noticed a few days ago I have cracks on both sides of the bottom of my truck. The air bag is now tilted. I am waiting for four wheel camper to look at the photos I sent on 3/15/18 and 3/16/28. My question is anyone else having issue of crack in the truck from the camper. I went to 2 car places and they said the camper is to heavy for my tacoma. The tacoma is 4x4,off rode. The fleet is heavier then the last eagle model. I got the storage under the bed of the camper and the weight 1400 lbs which the camper weight is over the toyota specs pay load on my truck. I hope four wheel camper gets back to me soon because I don't think it's safe to drive my truck now. I am posting photos. I bought the model fleet and as a customer I figure four wheel camper should put the correct camper on my Toyota truck. I wouldn't know. They are the experts. I also got air bags and new shocks when I got the fleet. I am going to the service department At Toyota to see what they say tomorrow. I posted crack from left and right side and tilted air bag on right side. What i think is the fleet is too heavy for my 2004 truck. I have not gone 4 wheeling so this is from city driving. Please, think twice about buying the fleet. I love my Fleet the camper works great but maybe the truck spec on a Toyota it goes on is wrong? Even the new Toyota trucks pay load isn't high enough for my camper. Anyone having this issue?

 

[kmcintyre]

I don't see any pictures and can't visualize where the cracks are.

 

[Traveler_fleet]

I will try posting photos again.

 

[Traveler_fleet]

I will post more photos.

 

[Bombsight]

Suspect corrosion... because of red overspray. Has the truck ever been wrecked?

 

[PaulT]

Search for “tacoma frame rust corrosion campaign”

Don’t know if your unit is in that group but might be worth exploring.

Paul

 

[Traveler_fleet]

No, never been in accident. Always on west coast. The red is the color of the truck. I bought this truck new and had the eagle model first. I then got this fleet model. When I drove off the first time with the fleet camper. It was swaying left to right. I had to slow down so I got new shocks, and air bags. Two car companies looked at the cracks last week and they said the camper is too heavy for the truck. The second guy said it should had been reinforced with a thick metal going across. He said four wheel camper should have known and go back to them.

 

[lactic]

What year Fleet is that? It looks huge compared to my 2018 Fleet shell on my Taco.

I will say that even the shell added quite a bit of weight and I will be upgrading the leaf packs even though I have the airbags.

Tons of FWCs out there on Tacomas though.

 

[BillTheHiker]

I read this and went out to the garage and crawled under the truck with a flashlight. Everything looks good. It is a 2008 tacoma, v6, trd offroad, 4wd with a 2016 Fleet. Truck is red but no paint underneath.I am not aware of Toyota painting anything underneath. I should also mention that this winter I drove some very rough roads in Death Valley (Trail Canyon, Hanupah Canyon, Cottonwood Canyon and Rockhouse Road in Anza Borrego and many others) and I think the Tacoma is totally capable of handling the Fleet.

Maybe that swaying you mentioned is to blame. Di it result in the camper shifting in the bed?

Boise Spring Works did my install. First trip the camper shifted laterally so I inserted wood blocks between the camper and truck bed to prevent shifting. It is so tight that the turnbuckles never loosen up at all.

?Who installed the camper?

Did they say anything about the red paint?

 

[takesiteasy]

Frame rust is a well-documented problem on that vintage of Tacomas. There was a program to replace frames but I think that has ended. I agree with others that mention that as a likely source of the problem. Not to say that the Fleet isn't overloading the truck because it most likely is.

 

[iowahiker]

Looking at the pictures, it appears the bed frame is broken not the truck frame. The bed sheet metal is attached to a bed frame and the bed frame is attached to the truck frame. My thoughts on the photo.

 

[pvstoy]

OK here is a thought:

You say both sides are cracked and it looks like the bed is cracked at the frame towers that the bed is attached to. I see there is a bolt that is attached to the bed I would assume that is for the turnbuckle. If so there should be a wider plate to spread the load foot print out.

I also see that the camper sits heavy to the rear meaning all the heavy stuff is more behind the center of the axle.

So I would suspect that the camper is rocking back and forth and doing so is putting stresses on the mounting tower where the bed attaches to the frame. And would suspect the cause of the bed to crack over time.

 

[pvstoy]

To follow up to say it is not a Toyota fault nor a FWC fault but just happens that your attachment is pulling up on the bed and the bed attachment just happens to be that close. The flexing over time has cracked it. There is amazing forces that the turnbuckles see as the camper moves around. ( I have always bolted my campers to the bed)

Take the camper off and have a welding shop re weld the breaks and add a sheet that covers a wider area to attach the camper to. You are still going to have rocking unless you can move some weight forward.

 

[Karlton]

I have a Tundra that is covered under the extended frame rust warranty, and received a notification about the coverage. The 2004 Tacoma is not covered by the warranty - it is 2005 - 2010 model years.

Sorry to hear you are having issues with your truck.

 

[Traveler_fleet]

I read into the rusting... there is a 15 year extension on the 3 year warrantee so I still qualify. I read if the truck was register in a cold weather state those customers got notices. I read I would be qualified. I go to the dealer tomorrow in the truck so kind of scary to drive it. I read that Toyota has told people no. Toyota knew about the rust issue. I saw where people got their whole frame replaced.

 

[Traveler_fleet]

If it rust then it will keeps corrosion further. It would be dangerous to drive. For my year 2004, toyota issued this warranty enhancement (called zth) so it covers your frame for 15 years from the date of first with unlimited miles. I got recalls notices but didnt do anything. I have never paid attention to recalls but I will moving forward. Thank you to the posting about this.

 

[bimmeryota]

This being a west coast truck rust is not the issue and overspray is common on those factory paint jobs.
I agree there should have been a wider plate used as a washer to spread the load out like I have for my 91 pickup. When I moved my camper to a T100 it moved more and assumed it was the bed flexing so I had a fabricator weld attachment points to my frame to attach the hooks to and it doesn’t move at all. It’s even better than bolting to the bed IMO. That’s what I would recommend.

 

[Bombsight]

I'm 55 years old and have owned two Toyota trucks.
Being a nearly 30 year old faithful Toyota owner, Never have I seen bolts, cables, hoses, brake lines and support brackets with body paint on them except those which have been repaired.

 

[BFH4N]

I don't think it's a FWC problem but, rather, a Tacoma problem. As has been mentioned, frame rust-out was a big problem with Tacomas (and Tundras) of that era. Toyota was doing total frame replacements under warranty or buying them back to get them off the road.

My 2001 Tacoma had this problem and wouldn't pass state inspection. The frame was so rusted that I could poke my finger through it. Toyota gave me 1.5x the "excellent condition" book value for it. Only $1000 less that what I paid for the truck 100k miles before.

Unfortunately, I have heard that this buy-back program has ended. Still, you should check with Toyota.

Meanwhile, yours is probably unsafe to drive, especially with a heavy camper on it.

- Bernard

 

[Wallowa]

This being a west coast truck rust is not the issue and overspray is common on those factory paint jobs.
I agree there should have been a wider plate used as a washer to spread the load out like I have for my 91 pickup. When I moved my camper to a T100 it moved more and assumed it was the bed flexing so I had a fabricator weld attachment points to my frame to attach the hooks to and it doesn’t move at all. It’s even better than bolting to the bed IMO. That’s what I would recommend.

Rust can be an issue on west coast...think salt air anywhere near the ocean [like San Diego] and many western states [including parts of CA] unfortunately salt the roads in winter during snow/ice...

Having lived on North Coast of CA long ago, many trucks/cars had "rust cancer"....

Just sayin' and I could be wrong...!