Leveling TV bed with 5th wheel rails

[Brian B-P]

Originally Posted by C&G in FL

Brian, the only question I would have is wouldn't the Bed Mat compress. The OP indicates at times he might want to move large kitchen appliances. While a foam backed mat may make the bed appear to be (somewhat) even with the top of the rails (appearance), but would it serve to keep the appliance from rocking (function) on the bed of the truck.
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Yes, I'm sure that's an issue. The big challenge is that the desire was for an off-the-shelf product: the BedRug mat is the only one I knew of.

By the way, I finally realized where I most recently saw a photo of the BedRug Bed Mat filling between rails - John (john o) showed it in his album Canyon short bed and 5.0 classic rig.

Originally Posted by C&G in FL

Assuming you have the space to store it, I am thinking that a couple of 2x4s cut to the length of the bed and laid on the outside of the rails and a third 2x4 cut into 3 pieces and laid down the middle of the bed, overlaid with a piece of 1/2 or 3/4 inch plywood cut to fit (wouldn't have to be attached to the 2x4s) would provide an easily installed/easily removed flat surface for the occasional times one might find a flat bed surface desireable.

From John's photo, it appears that in the Canyon/Colorado (and so likely in a Tacoma or Frontier) there is no space to run those full-length 2x4s between the rails and the wheel wells... although this would not be a problem for Rich and his F-150. It might be practical to notch them over the rails, if the rails are not much more than an inch high (how high are they?). With several pieces of lumber - depending on the cargo to be carried - the plywood might not be needed.

Originally Posted by Old Skool

I would keep it simple like Jim said and just throw a piece of 3/8 plywood over the rails if needed. When we had our truck camper I had a sheet in the bed for almost ten years with thousands of miles with nary a problem. Hauled dirt, rocks ect.

I had a sheet of plywood in our pickup, too... but it didn't have fifth-wheel mounting rails. If you just run a sheet over the rails, it will sag between them and not provide a flat load-bearing surface... thus the original question of how to level the surface.