ShapeShifter
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Well, I got the BedSlide in. If anyone is following behind me, it's a T50 torx bit that is needed to take out the 1500's bolts.ShapeShifter said:Yep, the 1500 needs a torx bit. Anybody have any idea what size it is? I have bits going up to T-40, and it's bigger than that.
I was a little disapointed at the quality control of the unit. When I opened the box, there were a handful of loose parts rattling around in the frame. Two bolts, two washers, two bearings, and two nuts. Looking at the frame, it was pretty obvious where these parts belonged. I didn't have any trouble putting them back, but I don't think that's something that I should have had to do.
I'm guessing that all the bearings where put on finger tight first, and then they were torqued down with a wrench afterwards. Maybe two of them never got tightened, and rattled loose during transit. I checked all of the other bolts, and while they were snug, a couple of them were not as tight as the others.
If you are doing an install, I would suggest you check the bolts before you put it in your truck. If you have one already installed, it might not be a bad idea to go out and make sure everything is tight.
The installation itself was rather uneventful. I was able to do it myself, but it sure would have been easier if I had some help lifting that thing into the bed. It is solidly built... and heavy.
The hardest part of the install was extracting the hardware from the foam packing block. The hold-down brackets were wrapped in a plastic sheet and then embedded in an expanded polyureathane foam block. I had to use a screwdriver and a prybar to break the foam away from the bracket!
Now that it's in, I'm kicking myself for not doing it sooner. This thing is solid, and it looks like it will make loading/unloading heavy and bulky things so much simpler. Groceries will also be a lot simpler: if a bag falls over and stuff rolls around, just pull out the slide and everything is easy to reach. No more climibing into "the cave" to get things out.
It seems that the past few weeks I've been carrying a lot of stuff in my truck, and spending a lot of time climbing in and out to load and unload. Now that the BedSlide is in, I just know it'll be months before I need to carry anything!
-- SS