Patent ID: 7281889

Claim:
An exterior cargo bed arrangement for a passenger vehicle having a cargo bed, the arrangement comprising: an exterior cargo bed having a bed portion and an interior wall portion, the interior wall portion extending generally perpendicular to the bed portion; a side wall construction including an outer panel which runs outboard of the interior wall portion of the exterior cargo bed and an upper portion which runs horizontally toward an inboard-most edge thereof; a tie-down rail, having a slotted surface to accept a tie-down fitting, mounted to the interior wall portion at a position adjacent to the inboard-most edge of the upper portion such that the slotted surface faces inboard, the inboard-most edge of the upper portion of the side wall construction at least partially covering the tie-down rail in a horizontal direction such that the slotted surface lies within a range of substantially flush with the inboard-most edge to ½ inch inboard of the inboard-most edge; and a fastener that mounts the tie-down rail to the interior wall portion of the cargo bed at a mounting point of the tie-down rail which is opposite to the slotted surface of the tie-down rail.