This is my first truck:2011 F150 Lariat Ecoboost 4x4 supercrew 5.5foot bed. My truck is 1 week old and before it arrived I bought 4 Bull Ring retractable tie downs. I did not realize that the truck came with a rail cap. It is made of plastic & has plastic anchors. Does this truck have stack holes under the cap? How can I find them without snapping the plastic anchors? Are there measurements from front to rear and left to right that will allow me to find the center of the holes so that I can do a cut out for all 4 stack holes? Thanks for your help, the Newbe, Chuck

 

i have a 2010 with the plastic caps and the bed stake holes are def. there. they have plastic inserts covering them that can be removed if you need/want to use them.

 

Its exactly the same on my 2011. Just pop out the covers.

 

The 5.5' bed has the stake pockets in the front, but there are no caps to pop. You have to cut the plastic bed rail to gain access to them. There are no stake pockets in the rear of the bed.

Oh, and welcome to FTE.

EDIT: I lied! I just went out and looked and there are stake pockets at the rear of the bed. Same deal as the front; you have to cut the plastic bed rail.

 

I bought a set of these for my old truck and they work quite well. I still have them just haven't used them yet on the F150.
Bully Pilot Clamp On Tie Down Anchor Strap Truck Bed pr | eBay

 

Thanks for the reply. The 2011 has one solid rail cap runs the lenth of the rail withot any outward sign of where the stake holes may be.

 

Thanks. I tried to gently pry the solid rail cover that runs the netire rail but is tight and gave the sensation of snapping if I tried any harder. The cap does not have any inserts or cutouts identifying where the hole is below.

 

Did you check out the link I posted? They work well- in fact I used them yesterday when I went to pick up a snowblower ( thinking ahead, couldn't pass up a John Deere snowblower for $100 )

 

if you take some needle nose pliers just under the inside lip of the metal bed rail you can squeese the plastic tabs and release the inside edge of the plastic cap. after releasing all of the inside tabs from one end and working towards the other, you can then take a long thin flat tip screw driver and release the outside tabs and remove the entire bed rail and then be able to more accurately cut out the stake pocket hole. I recently did this the hard way. i crawled under the truck between the outer and inner fender and tried to release the outside tabs. Lets just say that i spent an hour only getting three of the tabs loose before i figured out the above^ way of doing it! hope this helps.

 

Thanks for the welcome. I tried to pry the one solid piece of rail cap up put it gave the sensation of snapping if I tried any harder. I was not able to lift it high enough to see if or where the holes may be. The cap runs the lenght of the bed and does not have any cutouts or indications of where the stake holes may be.

 

sorry, i forgot to mention that once the inside ones are loose, gently lift up on the inside of the plastic at the middle to insert the screw drive to push on the outside tabs. once you get a few of the middle ones loose it will become much easier to see the forward and rearward tabs. be careful when you get to either end because their are a few very close together and was a little more difficult to get to those ones.

 

Thanks, I will give it a shot.

 

you are quite welcome.

 

Do not I need to remove the rail caps. I can see where the stake holes should be and assume that I am going to have to cut the rail covers anyway. Can I just drill a whole near where the center would be and dremel from there?