Raise Roll-n-Lock Tonneau by 2"?

[ggdillon]

I'd like to get just a few more inches of bed depth under a tonneau. And yes, part of that is so that so that I can fit my favorite cooler under it; and the other part is I just would like a bit more dry cargo space. Two years ago when I first actually considered getting a Gladiator, this is the first thing I checked because it was a pain point with my old Tacoma, so I knew would have to deal with this eventually.

I've been looking around the web and haven't really found anyone doing this, but my thought is to basically bolt 2" x 2" 80/20 t-slot profile on top of the bed rails, put the roll-n-lock on top of those extrusions and then get some extended brackets made up so that the tonneau is still mounting to Trail Rail (or unistrut or whatever I end up going with). The t-slot profile would be nice because I can then use it to mount a cargo rack or ski box just above the tonneau when needed.

I will also need to extend the tailgate somehow. I'm worried about that extension because of the forces that it will see when stepping up onto the tailgate. And I'll need some gasketing at the cab end of the bed because it's a bit lower, but that should be easy.

Any thoughts anyone? Is there a better way? I need 2" minimum.

Here's the 2" x 2" 80/20 t-slot that would frame over the three sides of the bed:

Here's a nice view of the end of the tonneau on the bed rails stolen from Vegas_Blue's install video.

And finally, a view (also from Vegas_Blue... thanks for the high-quality videos!) showing the brackets underneath.

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