Bed rail cap removal

I live in Forks WA and the rain is here for the next 9 months. I'd like to keep this mattress in the truck full time however it's soaked and the canopy takes in water at the head every day. Also a bit from the driver side rail. I am hoping to seal this canopy for snowboarding season the best possible. I drive 5 hrs to snoqualmie pass and sleep at a sno park down the road in the winters. I used to do this in my sealed 96 tacoma. This will be my first year in the 05 tundra. I want to get this water tight so I'm not sure if I should double stack this cap seal at the head and leave the bed rail caps or I should take the bed rail caps off and try and seal the entire thing with pro flex rv sealant. I have both the cap seal and rv sealant from a van build. It's a 2020 leer canopy on a 2005 access cab. It looks like it will fit alot better without the rail caps. Not sure how to get them off without breaking them. But if I can get it sealed right without I'd just toss em.

 

I posted instructions on here at one point because I removed mine to buff out my paint. I don’t remember the exact details of how it’s in there but I remember there being large square holes in the steel, and the plastic had a double clip that secured it left and right into that square or rectangular hole in the metal.

I got mine up starting at the tailgate. I shifted the assembly left and right while pulling up. As soon as one clip released, the other came with it. I gently repeated the process moving up the rail toward the cab.

Give it a try. I kept seeing dudes on here saying they are a pain in the ass but starting at the tailgate side and using the passenger-to-driver left/right pressure while gently lifting up worked great for me!

When you get it up, can you please post pics of both the clip and the hole they go into? So we have a reference and all…

 

Mine just popped out. Start at the gate and work your way to the cab. Took mine off to throw some paint on it. Mine are loose, some of the clips had already been broken off prior to me removing them from the truck.

 

Reviving this thread as I just found a color matched camper shell for my '02 AC (2 yr old Century for $1500 - hard to believe I paid almost a quarter of what I paid for the truck, but in my area that seems to be what they go for) What have you guys found to be the best way to seal these? Here's what the cap and rail look like with the cap taken off. I agree with OP that mounting to the OEM caps doesn't look like it would create a good seal. Is purchasing a cap seal like he pictured above the way to go? An added complication is that I'd like to eventually get a ladder rack that will fit over the shell but that seems like an even bigger challenge to seal.

 

Be careful removing your bedrail, ensure the edge of the cap won't dig into your paint with the rail off. You've got a black truck, no reason I see to not leave the rails installed?

Lucky score on the sliding windoors! If I installed those and got my cap paint matched, I'd basically be about $1,400 into it, so getting the cap you want with the features you want is really ... I mean, it's arguably maybe worth it?

For the seal: https://www.tundras.com/threads/wha...-gen-tundra-today.2558/page-1503#post-3018426

I'm not familiar with what OP posted. But that stuff is great ^^

The front edge of the bed may be the most important, I'd probably save it for last, get the cap aligned just right, prop the front edge of the cap up with a 2x4 across the bed, apply the seal, and drop it down.

But since I don't need to worry about the side rails becase of how my Leer 100R is designed, @FirstGenVol has been through this semi-recently and can probably give some advice too.

 

Hey, I think this might be pretty much the same as the Leer 100r , at least the description seems very close. So you left your rail caps on? What do you have on the front rail to bring it up to the same height as the side rail caps? My factory plastic bedliner had a lip over the front rail but was higher than the side rails and with a big gaps in the corners where the front and sides meet that looks hard to seal.

 

The 100R has a pretty notable overhang, see here: https://www.tundras.com/threads/repairing-non-structural-crack-in-leer-cap.133360/

It totally covers the rail. If you've removed your factory liner, that double-bulb seal should cover the gap?

 

Damn @shifty` , you have better eyes than I do (had to look twice). I’m reading the reply wondering how the hell you knew that he had windoors
Great. Score @albru2!

 

Even better, windoor sliders!!!

 

oh wow that's some serious overhang! Mine looks more like OP's. I may have to put the factory rails back on and take another look. I think I just have PTSD from a tacoma that wouldn't stop leaking no matter what I did so I want to try for the holy grail of a leak free camper shell. A guy can dream...

thanks @The Black Mamba! yeah considering I had to drive all of 1.5 miles to get it, it came off the exact same truck and I was able to just pull up side-by-side and slide it over onto mine it was pretty damn easy. Do you guys know if anyone on here has a lumber/ladder rack and camper shell that could impart any wisdom?

 

Slightly related... I needed to install a pair of saddle toolboxes, and my bedrails looked like yours. I wanted a removable/bolted solution, so I installed some 1/2" thick treated lumber (over a poly foam seal), with T-nuts in both the top and bottom faces.

 

Interesting, so a ripped down pressure treated 2x4 or something? I suppose that would be a good way to create a flat uniform surface all the way around but I'm not sure I'd want something that moves so much when it gets wet. I've been seeing the pros use plastic rail caps that create really a nice smooth almost seamless surface but I think that's probably just what happens to be available for those vehicles. It sounds like there's no special tricks, people just get it as even as possible with multiple layers of weather stripping where need be. I'll keep looking for a bit but probably will end up doing that. thanks for the input.

 

I uses 1/2" thick PT boards from HD. My brains working better now - I was installing a clamp-on aluminum ladder rack first (then the boxes between), and 1/2" was the max that the bespoke clamp system would allow. I tried putting the rack over the plastic rail caps first, but they squashed down unevenly. I would have used aluminum plate, except for cost + availability. It solved my problem, but IDK how you would treat the headboard end of the box.