2001 Toyota Tacoma Prerunner - Project Venture Toy - Tech

In the back of the bed, we fabbed a simple bolt down assembly to keep our spare wheel and tire in place and added some weather proof storage for spare fluids and other trail contingency items. A 20mm ammo box from the local army surplus store served this purpose well, and was added next to tie-down eyes for our cooler and an Action Packer.

Here is the Bestop Supertop kit to add a weatherproof topping to our bed. It comes complete with the fitted soft top fabric, bed rails, top bows, a third LED tail light, and hardware and weather stripping for installation.

We built some simple mounts to secure our Hi-Lift jack in the bed. The foot is held in place with a bracket using two pins through the base plate and the jack rail secured to a bracket on the fender well using a 1/2-inch bolt through one of the rail holes. Here's the cool Powertank floor mount we used to keep our 5-pound tank in place. The mount base is bolted to the bed floor, but the tank comes out in seconds using the lockable quick release so we can refill it or use our portable air supply elsewhere.

The assembly started with putting together several bed rail pieces for each side of the bed and adding adhesive weather stripping to the bottom side of the rails where they sit on the bed.

With the bed rails clamped in place, the front frame bow was installed.

We started to install the fabric top at the front hoop after draping the top upside down forward over the roof of the cab. The top snaps in place to the front bow.

Next, the rails were clamped to the bed in four places using the universal clamps provided. This mounting method allows you to install the Supertop without having to drill any holes or modify the bed.

Another bow assembly went on next to provide a hoop for the middle of the top and a hoop for the back of the top.

The forward edge of the top drapes forward over the front bed wall and also inside the wall where it is secured with a long Velcro strip. The corners tuck tightly under a slot in each bed rail to fit close to the Tacoma bed.