Haas,
1. The main reason for the tie downs is to hold the TC in the bed. The springs in the bezels just follow the racking in the bed AND keep the TC from pulling itself apart.
2. If you never get off-road, not to worry. Those apricots will still be there.
IF you decide to get a little more adventurous, loosen the rear tie downs a lot and the front tie downs a little. Get all that hardware i mentioned above. If it makes you feel better, get the front tie downs with the little springs in them. They WILL save your camper from The RACK. I'm not so fond of tie downs that are difficult to adjust on the fly.
Remember the prime directive in taking a TC off-road: RESISTANCE IS FEW-TILE to quote the Cone heads.
regards, as always, jefe
