Alert the tundra 3rd Gen cannot support a topper

After waiting many months for a topper, it finally came in, in December. The truck cap was installed and later on the ladder rack about 2 months ago.

I noticed the door was rubbing a bit but the problem kept getting worst where I couldn't open the topper door without opening the tailgate.

This brings me to today. I went to action car and truck to complain about the topper but the tech noticed my tail gate gaps and sure enough it became now the center of attention.

Brought my truck in to toyota and I get it back with foot notes that say, cannot support weight it is aluminum fenders etc etc recommended to remove the topper.

Forgive me if I'm out of line but do they expect people to only haul groceries with a truck? I thought the purpose of a truck was to be a little rough house with it.

A.R.E. literally makes a stamped 8ft topper for this truck someone has not communicated between both parties or not aware. So basically I have to either scrap $11k cad of hardware, or find another truck... both options are ridiculous.

I'm about to open a can of worms thought I'd save you headaches before you think about putting a topper.

DCU A.R.E. 8ft topper on a sr5 8ft tundra with ladder rack, 1 ladder is 24 and other is 8ft both are fiber glass.

I can lift this whole topper with my coworker so I don't think the weight is that extravagant.

I've put a topper of similar sort on a 2008, 2017 Tacoma and now 2023 tundra and it's a complete failure.

 

I was wondering how long it would take for people to figure this out when they switched to the composite bed.... Try bed stiffeners like Tacoma owners have been doing for years.

I bet there is more than one bed out there that has unusual gaps around the tailgate if you start really looking at them.

 

lol
wait

this new tundra has a composite bed?

I bought a '21 tacoma and then realized it was a composite bed and decided to trade in for a '21 Tundra because it has a big boy metal bed...the tacoma was a mistake for other reasons as well but the bed was a head scratcher

Lets see some pictures of these pushed out box sides
Imagine putting a light camper in the bed?

 

Any chance for pics? I have an ARE CX topper and carried three ladders all last Fall on the 6.5’ bed. Did not notice anything, but haven’t looked too closely.

 

I got ARE DCU MAX topper, short bed.

We've had quite a few new trucks on this forum that have misaligned bed panels, various size of gaps between panels, Trd Jon from YouTube truck tailgate was rubbing side of the bed when closing (never had a topper).

Some of the new trucks have issues with misaligned panel gaps from the factory.

How did the dealership tech diagnosed the issue? Did he measure panel gaps and the removed the topper and measured again?

It's very convenient to blame all of the gaps and misaligned panels of the new truck onto the loaded topper, but it may not be the issue.

Maybe your new truck panels are misaligned so when the aluminum topper was installed, the clamps pushed topper to the misaligned bed, more load on top of the rack, and topper got deformed itself because of your trucks misaligned bed panels... Thus the doors on topper got misaligned and don't close properly now...

Since it's your work truck, you can try to fix it up yourself. Dealer won't do anything about your misaligned panels... Unless it's really extreme, and even then you don't know how well they'll fix it.

Try to add bed stiffeners as others suggested. Maybe try to make topper more stiffer somehow...

Try to remove the topper, take measurements of your bed size panels, then put topper on, add ladders, and measure again to see if anything changed. It could be that topper has nothing to do with your misaligned bed side panels.

I personally didn't have a need to put too much weight onto my topper rack, but didn't notice any issues...

Both of your ladders are probably under 100lb, and ladder rack another 50lb? This load is spread evenly between the front and back roof mounts... So about 150lb total weight on top of the topper pushing DOWN ONTO THE PANELS NOT PUSHING PANELS OUT TO EACH SIDE! In addition to this, the topper also has its own frame and will be holding the weight just fine without pushing it out to the sides.

The dealer tech just took an easy way out and blamed it onto your topper to get rid of you. You can try to remove the topper and go to another dealership regarding the panel gaps.

 

Heres the photos you can see if it wasnt for the tail gate, the panels would split. Please note that i did not have gaps before. I am trying to get my day 1 picked up photos from the company teams platform but i dont remember exactly when i posted them

 

Are you sure you only loaded one extension ladder on top of the rack and one 8ft ladder? That kind of weight wouldn't do anything to your side bed panels

 

Yes I got one Louisville 24ft and 1 Louisville 8 foot

 

The bed is plastic, plastic can flex.the bed is pushing the panels out...bed stiffeners would probably be your solution.

 

A cable with a turnbuckle inline from one rear tie down point to the opposite could be used to pull both sides together. A ratchet strap could also suffice, but would stretch. That said, there's nothing I like about the new Tundra design.

 

Did you try and loosen cap, then use ratchet strap to pull in bed sides and then tighten down cap? Maybe the problem was botched cap install. Lots of trucks with caps/toppers here

 

These ARE/LEER toppers are in fact flimsy and get deformed easily by extra weight. I have a "big boy metal bed", but will weld a weight distributing subframe to support a roof rack bolted to the topper and whatever load it has. If that new bed is as flimsy as topper, I can imagine a topper deforming the bed as well.

 

Here you go https://www.srqfabrications.com/pro...a-billet-bed-stiffners?variant=46710499279170

 

Those are pretty intrusive. Perhaps a little more structural integrity built in by the inganeers?

 

In a perfect world, yes. We're trying to find a solution to an existing problem that doesn't entail a redesign and purchase of new vehicle. Bed stiffeners are intrusive, but obviously necessary in this scenario.

 

SDHQ makes a hidden bed stiffening system for the 2.5 gen. Might check and see if they will be doing similar for the 3rd Gen POS.

 

I'm running TC stiffeners on my '21. I got them for $80 on Amazon. Open box return thing, I guess. With a bed full of stuff, or a bed rack with weight on it or whatever, these keep my tailgate gaps set so I don't have problems. But who knows, with enough running around off-road or with hauling enough weight, do they just move the stress somewhere else???

 

Here's the thread on bed stiffeners
https://www.tundras.com/threads/anyone-using-bed-stiffeners.140132/#post-3547019

 

Yes that is what most high end buyers of these trucks do with them. Although they likely use a grocery delivery service.

You are using the truck for truck things and the new Tundra isn't designed for it? WOW! That is going to be a no go for the overlanding crew and commercial buyers.

@Eurodriver

 

Newton's 3rd law - every action there is an equal and opposite reaction. The "action" and "reaction" refer to forces; If Object A exerts a force on Object B, then Object B exerts an equal amount of force on Object A in the opposite direction.

So, the answer is yes and hopefully the area "getting it" can take it as it is a steel bed.
Adding bed stiffeners to a steel bed is one thing. Adding them to a plastic bed is another especially on full size truck. Think of the 6.5 ft length plastic bed loaded up.

Vibration/noise (Toyota uses patches underneath the plastic bed) and I would be concerned about cracking.
How do you fix a cracked plastic bed - you can't weld it like steel.

 

Why are you saying ARE toppers are flimsy? Do you have one? I've had ARE DCU aluminum on my ram truck for 10 years, loaded it up with up to 200lb of emt metal conduit without any problems, and the topper never had any issues.

 

Fiberglass ones. I have LEER. When I was picking one, I looked at both and picked LEER, because it looked thicker/sturdier.

 

This is the thing I boasted that I loved my truck so we got a few it already looks like our recent added fleet with topper is starting to experience rubbing and now can suddenly see space

 

big boy metal bed > composite bed

 

I appreciate how much the turdgenners protect their trucks. Anyone that notices anything bad is a hater. Kudos. Now somebody see how it handles a yard of gravel.

 

"Turdgenner", I resemble that remark. Lets not go crazy with the rock. How about a yard of dry mulch?

 

How does it hold up against years of road salt?

 

It's plastic so it should hold up better than metal I would think.

 

ugh have you seen the build threads for the gen3 on this forum, this guy aint the first to put a camper, there are multiple overlanding rigs with full sponsorships - id go ask all those ppl how many are running bedstiffeners, if they are all doing it, ask them why and why not, and thats your answer....

 

I can see why he said those toppers are flimsy my dcu I currently have one has alot of little dents and lines just from driving with it past few months. You can see the aluminum wobble at high speeds with wind force. Being that is said, we run pretty much dcu a.r.e. on all the fleet vehicles. They always still stood up til we swapped vehicles.

I did have one incident many moons ago where they didn't well any factory plates for a ladder rack and the installer decided that tiny little plates would suffice. It chewed through the topper and almost lost my rack while driving.