Bed Rail Screws

I bent a bracket for my tonneau cover and the bracket slides in my bed rail. The bracket is long enough that it cannot simply slide off the end of the rail (i.e. it hits the spray in bed liner, where the liner bows out in the corners). Thus, the rail has to actually be removed to get the bracket off and put the new bracket on.

It seems that the previous owner stripped a few of the torx screws that hold the bed rail in place. I did get a few screws out using a T25 socket wrench.

Has anybody else run in to this issue and/or switched their bed rail screws to something less injury prone than the torx screws (I know there is an argument for torx; I have never been a fan though)? I anticipate that I will have to use a screw extractor to remove the damaged screws, but I am open to other ideas and wisdom.

 

I had to do the same thing; remove the rail to get my tonneau bracket in, and I stripped 2 of the heads, even though I tried to be very careful. I did not have a good quality screw driver that was slightly damaged. I had to go get a new driver and was able to remove and put it back, but I am sure one more removal and a slight slip of the driver will 'screw' it up for good. Screw extractor will be your best bet to remove it, and then try to find something with a different head to replace it. After my experience I was going to look for different screws, but then being out of sight, out of mind, I never got to it.

 

I noticed some of my bed rail screws were not all the way tightened after I got the Linex done. When I went to tighten them I noticed the same thing as you guys. I think they must have gotten some over spray in the threaded holes causing the screws to bind and strip out. I had to drill the heads off a couple of them, and then used vise grips to turn the rest of the screw out. I found these hex head replacements on Amazon. I also had to chase the threads with a tap to get them to turn in cleanly.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00JDU1ON0/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o02_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

 

Thank you @Boerseun and @Geeoff for the feedback. I will give the Amazon screws a try and save myself a future headache or two.