Yeah, the 8ft bed helps but I have a "L" Bracket just forward the tailgate so the rods rest on L bracket and not the tailgate itself. So you can lower the tailgate and the rods stay up where they need to be. Angled corner to corner and I can still mostly close the topper on my truck. I Also bend my rods in in a bit of an arc (Goldy's trick). This helps with those shelf banks and just makes it easier to get the other end into the bottom it seems. This arc also helps the part of the rod that's sticking out past your tailgate to angle upwards...keeping it above head level. BUT I'm short and have a truck with airbags so the back end is sky high (for my short butt). But yeah...still have to pay attention. Kind of like crossing the road. Bad stuff can happen.

I have both 1/2" rebar and 1/2" Fiberglass rods in varied lengths. The Fiberglass rods are nice and light but they are harder to get into a harder bottom with the flex that comes out of a fiberglass rod. Rebar is cheap.