Help with bed rug/bakflip f1 install

[Hockster]

Hence back to my tip....remove the tie downs, reinstall the tie down bolts 1/2 way. Install the bedrug fully. Feel around by the tiedown area, you can easily feel the bolt heads. Cut an X over the bolt head and pop it through the bedrug. Remove 1 bolt at a time and install the tiedown, this way it lines exactly up, no holes lost, no searching for holes.




You don't lose any clamping force on the tiedowns putting them over the bedrug. The bedrug isn't 1/2" thick on the sides. It's maybe 1/4" and that compresses to less than 1/8" probably closer to 1/16" when compressed under a bolted in tie-down. They'll never loosen up, and you can still strap the living chit out of the tie downs. On several occasions i've had an engine sitting balanced on a tire, 1/2 on the tailgate 1/2 in the bed, ratchet strapped down soley to the 2 rear tiedowns, and hour + drives each way, several times, the tie downs didn't budge. You'd rip the threads straight out of the bedsides (or possibly buckle the bedside inwards before ripping the threads out) before you'd ever have a concern of a compressed paper thin piece of bedrug clamped behind the tiedown causing a loss of clamping force.

Sorry bud but you are wrong... You cannot keep torque when plastic is in between the clamping surface on a big joint like that... Its a fact.. Sure vehicle manufacturers do it on small joints but not on a tiedown... And, I didnt say you couldnt do what you did I said that it will not stay tight and will loosen if you never check it...

 

[Reptar]

Sorry bud but you are wrong... You cannot keep torque when plastic is in between the clamping surface on a big joint like that... Its a fact.. Sure vehicle manufacturers do it on small joints but not on a tiedown... And, I didnt say you couldnt do what you did I said that it will not stay tight and will loosen if you never check it...

Sorry but I am not wrong. The bedrug will compress until it is a solid flat surface between the tiedown and clamp. That's like saying any bolts with a washer won't keep torque either. And it's not the same thing as putting 2 washers between the tiedown and bed wall, because that would leave a gap between/around the back of the tiedown and room for a moment arm to torque/twist. The bedrug behind the tiedown is equivalent to a solid shim and there is no open gap for a moment arm torque around the bolts when its bolted securly and the bedrug is fully compressed. We're not talking about a 6" thick piece of squishy foam, or even 1" thick piece of squishy foam where you can't fully compress it. The tiedowns will never come loose even bolted on top of a bedrug.

Besides the engineering side of it, nearly 10 years of a bedrug installed on my truck with the tiedowns bolted on top of the rug, they've NEVER come loose. And I use them all the time, and put them to some strenuous work. You can come over and put a torque wrench on the bolts as well if you'd like, I'd bet my title on it that they aren't loose

 

[Hockster]

Sorry but I am not wrong. The bedrug will compress until it is a solid flat surface between the tiedown and clamp. That's like saying any bolts with a washer won't keep torque either. And it's not the same thing as putting 2 washers between the tiedown and bed wall, because that would leave a gap between/around the back of the tiedown and room for a moment arm to torque/twist. The bedrug behind the tiedown is equivalent to a solid shim and there is no open gap for a moment arm torque around the bolts when its bolted securly and the bedrug is fully compressed. We're not talking about a 6" thick piece of squishy foam, or even 1" thick piece of squishy foam where you can't fully compress it. The tiedowns will never come loose even bolted on top of a bedrug.

Besides the engineering side of it, nearly 10 years of a bedrug installed on my truck with the tiedowns bolted on top of the rug, they've NEVER come loose. And I use them all the time, and put them to some strenuous work. You can come over and put a torque wrench on the bolts as well if you'd like, I'd bet my title on it that they aren't loose

A solid plastic shim yes... Plastic under a joint will loosen no matter what you try ro do with it... Its a fact... Dont matter if you say yours never loosened up... You might not have used it enough to notice it... I guess we can talk about this all day but, with 5 years of fastener testing at Ford I know what it will do... Ive tested hundereds of joints with plastic under it. If the joint will bear a load it will get loose... and hey, have a greatholiday !!! Dont ya love the FRF... to be able to talk and not have a ******* admin jump in and say ok guys lets cool it!!!

 

[Reptar]

A solid plastic shim yes... Plastic under a joint will loosen no matter what you try ro do with it... Its a fact... Dont matter if you say yours never loosened up... You might not have used it enough to notice it... I guess we can talk about this all day but, with 5 years of fastener testing at Ford I know what it will do... Ive tested hundereds of joints with plastic under it. If the joint will bear a load it will get loose... and hey, have a greatholiday !!! Dont ya love the FRF... to be able to talk and not have a ******* admin jump in and say ok guys lets cool it!!!

Agree to disagree then, but in the past decade I've never read of a single person say their tiedowns have come loose, and youre the 1st one I've seen slit the bedrug rather than bolt the tie downs back on top. I've used mine alllll the time and again never come loose. Even the logic behind it, the tie downs don't thread in freely the entire way down, they require torque just to drive them in from an interference fit on the threads, you can leave the bolts untorqued and the tiedown wiggling and they still won't come looser than where you left them. And bolting it ontop of the bedrug is 1 step further keeping a theif from just yanking the bedrug out. Seen several instances of that over the years, even with guys with tonneaus. Come out one day and their bedcover and bedrug missing thanks to the quick release systems on covers and the velcro on the bedrugs and the tie downs not bolted on top.