Here is a pretty good selection of tie-down options.

 

My vote goes to the Bull Ring, if you are looking for something on the bed rail as oppposed to in the bed.

There are a number of threads that explain how to access the stake holes in the bed rails, for the short bed trucks that don't have a pop out cap in the bed rail cover.


https://www.f150forum.com/f38/isnt-t...ight=bull+ring
https://www.f150forum.com/f38/2011-b...ight=bull+ring
https://www.f150forum.com/f4/how-loc...pockets-60292/
https://www.f150forum.com/f38/how-do...il-caps-61377/

 

I test drove the Tacoma when looking for a new truck after my old tacoma died... I was ready to buy it, then I took it home on a test drive, loaded my motorcycle in the back of it and ripped 2 of the 4 tie-downs right out while securing the motorcycle to the bed.

The salesman insisted to me that they would hold 2k lbs each, but right on the cleat it said that it was only good for about 220lbs... anyways... convenient is good, durability is better.

 

I agree with you. I had a 08 Tacoma and, while the sliding bed rail system was good, no way could anyone use it to secure the kind of assets you describe. Thanks

 

Bull ring works well if you already have access to the open hole. Some trucks have a different cap that don't allow access easily and even a dremmel won't make a clean enough cut.

Extang has a nice model that I've used. Supports 500 lbs each and can be removed or moved up and down the rail. They also fit nicely under most tonneau covers.

 

In my old tacoma I just took out the rear bed bolts and went to Tractor Supply and purchased a couple of d-ring tie downs made for trailers. Just install them under your bed bolt when you put it back in. Give you up to 4 tie downs using all 4 bed bolts. Not sure if it would work on the F150 or not but worked great on the Tacoma. Hooks laid down out of the way and being able to tie something down to the floor was great as well.

 

I have a pace edwards cover retractable cover... don't see the the extangs working... of course they look removable, and i don't need them all the time so it might work.

 

Not trying to hijack the thread but I'm interested in the lighting you have in the box. It sure would help at night when my tonneau cover is closed.

 

thats because the toyota ones are junk. This is the one feature I miss the most that my frontier had (well, that and the manual transmission). Two rails on the sides, two on the floor and one at the cab end of the bed. had fork mounts for my mountain bikes, ammo boxes for storage and with the nissan system, anything for unistrut fit. The cleats were beefy (and not plastic).

If you've never had this type of system, you dont know what you're missing. I did see something similar available from the factory for the 6.5' bed F-150's, not sure what the attachments look like though and the rails only come on the sides.