I haven't used a truck bed for a tandem or the gate covers but I suspect if I can haul a tandem in my Honda Element without any issues, you should be just fine. For me it's front wheel off, back the tandem in, front fork mounted to 2x4 with fork mount.

Does rear wheel fit between the seats?

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Pink? Maybe. Maybe not. You decide.

I think the wheelbase on our tandem is around 70”. I use a piece of angle iron across the stake pockets in the front of the bed. Mount 3 fork mounts to that. Drop the tailgate and mount the tandem. Now with a short bed it can be fun. Release the skewer while the bike is on the ground. Stand at the rear of the bed. Reach down and pick up the tandem by the handlebars. Have your stoked/captain hold the front wheel. Swing the bike into position. Secure on the form mount.

There really isn’t room to place the whole bike in the bed (with those short beds) with the front wheel still mounted. This method works well. I did it years ago with a small truck. Just load the tandem first, otherwise it gets rather crowded back there.

Depending on the length of the truck bed you could probably hard mount the Yakima Sidewinder into the bed?

https://yakima.com/products/sidewinder

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Washed up footy player turned Triathlete.

Yep, but not by much.

I have a short bed Toyota Tacoma TRD Off-road and neither my Trek T200 road tandem nor my Fandango MTB tandem fit in the bed without removal of the front tire and angling of the frame. This limits the usefulness of over the gate pads for multiple bikes. There are options for bed bars that allow you to mount the tandem as you would a roof rack or you can get a cap with rails but the cap will limit the bed use. I’m currently considering a Draftmaster rack for the tandem, pricey but solid, secure and easy to load.

Thanks for the feedback - great to hear from someone who’s dealt with this case.

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" I take my gear out of my car and put my bike together. Tourists and locals are watching from sidewalk cafes. Non-racers. The emptiness of of their lives shocks me. "
(opening lines from Tim Krabbe's The Rider , 1978