Yesterday I picked up a used cap / topper for my 2006 F350 long bed for a crazy good price. It had been stored in the guys front yard laying on the lawn for a year. Surprisingly it was still in very good shape or so it looked from the outside and inside. And it matched the color of my truck perfectly. We picked it up, slid it on, clamped it down and I was off on my way as happy as can be.

I got home and sprayed it out because there was a lot of grass and bugs in it. I then wanted to test it to see how water tight it was and well, it wasn't. It's leaking right at the front seal close to the cab. And then the drivers side window has major leaks around a few of the many small screws that hold the window in place.

Any way, I probably clamped and reclamped 10 times and still could not get that front seal to stop leaking. So, I unclamped it and jacked up just one side of it a little bit so I could get a good look at the seal/weather stripping under it and well, it's in bad shape. Really bad shape and probably because of sitting on that lawn for a year.

I also checked the leaky window and frame and the whole thing probably moves about a 1/8" in and out in a couple of spots where it's leaking. I tried tightening the screws down but they wouldn't budge and a few are stripped but not where it's leaking

So, this leads me to a bunch of questions:

1. My truck comes with the plastic bed rail caps. Do I need to remove those and then clamp down the cap / topper? The truck has a spray in liner but the left/right bed rails and tail gate all have the plastic caps on them. And so I'm wondering if the bed rail caps are causing the front of the cap to not seal properly.
2. What weather stripping or seals should I use on the cap? The ones on there now are completely shot so I'll have to strip those off, clean it up and then install new ones.
3. The window; What do I do about this? I figure I'll need to tape the outside of it very well (so it doesn't fall out), then remove all of the small screws inside and see if it has a seal or silicone or something that's rotted.
4. And then the big question; How can I get the cap up off the truck far enough to be able to remove the plastic bed rails (if I need to) and strip off and install the weather seals all by myself without the use of a cherry picker or a second person? I just need to prop it up about 6" front and back. And the truck is too tall to fit in the garage to rig up a hoist (I don't have any tree's for a hoist either). However I lift it, it will have to be done from the inside of the bed.

Thanks!

 

You don't need to remove the plastic rail cap's. Have a friend held you, and take it off all together. I stood mine on the cab end (obviously, put something down so you don't scratch it) and replaced all the weather stripping.
As far as weather stripping, your on your own! I used cheap stuff from wal mart (The kind you would use on a leaky house door) It failed miserably. You do need thicker stuff for the front, as the plastic rail's on the sides, are a bit higher than the front.
You could remove the widow, and put windshield sealer on it, than reinstall.

 

Use a good quality silicone for the window, 100% silicone sealant does not deteriorate,
Make sure you put enough on so it leaks out all the way around the window when you reinstall it and clean up the excess before it dries.

 

If you have two pieces of junk 2x6" wood about 8 ft. long , you can slide them under the cap and position them across the truck box . Then ,raise the cap further with two pieces of 2x4" wood (about a foot long ) on four corners( on 2x6") . You will have enough clearance to strip the old weather stripping . Just move the wood as needed .
Good luck,

 

Ah sweet! I do have some old wood laying around and so not having to take the bed rails off makes this much easier.

Looks like I've got a shopping list of some thick weather stripping and clear silicone I need to get.



Thanks everyone.

 

Are you planning on removing this top very often?

You could make a hoist out of some pulleys and rope to mount to the rafters in your garage.

 

There is a rubber/foam gasket material made just for this purpose. You can find it at an RV store, sometimes WalMart will have it or a place that sells caps. It's about 2" wide and comes in a roll about 25' long. Get 2 rolls. Along the bed rails install the gasket 1 layer thick. Along the front of the bed install 3 layers thick. The idea being to have the front and sides to be even. Depending on how the cap is made, you might need only 2 layers on the front. You might have some small gaps in the front corners, if you do shoot some black silicone in there or a small amount of black roofing caulk. This spot is where most of the water will come in.

 

Long ago (1998) when my cap was installed, they used two layers of wide, double sided sticky foam tape. It did a good job at stopping rain water - with MINOR leakage to be expected as it aged. At about 15 years the front edge lost its sticky and worked its way out.

Even new, it would never have survived a direct hosing. Is that what you did?

 

MisterCMK: Nah, I'm actually moving to the Pacific NorthWet and so the topper will probably only be removed a couple of times a year if that. But, I'm hoping that we'll have a garage large enough there to rig up a nice hoist system.

dualwheels66: I found a roll of that stuff at Home Depot that's specifically for camper shells. It's 1 1/4" wide, 3/16" thick and 30' long. But, darn it, I didn't even think about doubling it up and so I may have to make another run there to get some more.

Army RET: Yeah, ashamedly I did do a direct hosing. But then I thought maybe it was to much pressure and tried to simulate a rain storm by firing the hose straight up to let the water fail straight down and it still leaked but even in more spots.

I wish I could find the type of weather stripping stuff that was used on my old '97 Dodge Dakota bed cap. I bought that truck (about 5 years ago) with a "Stockland Company" bed cap already on it and when I took it off it had a serious rubber gasket all around the bottom of it. That thing was definitely water tight. It never leaked a drop. And man was it heavy.

 

Thinking about doing this. Only problem is my garage has one of those huge engineered beams which takes away a lot of height but still provide enough room.

 

I almost picked up a top recently too. Same issues, leaky front boot. But it looked beautiful. Once I saw that it had a front boot rather than a front window I backed off.

Those boots like to rub paint off the cab, and I'd rather not have to deal with that down the road.

 

Yeah, I'm also not a fan of those caps with the front boots. I mean if I had dogs that like to go from cab to bed to cab then I might go with one but like you said, it's going to rub the paint off just because the bed and cab move separately.

One another note, I did get the cap up in the air on some 4x4's and 2x4's and then scraped all of the old foam rubber tape off. Man did it stink. I then laid down the new stuff and clamped it back on. But, I didn't water test it because I had just washed it and the water out here is really really hard. However, it is supposed to rain on Thursday and Friday so that will be a really good test. I suspect it will still leak but I'm hoping for the best. As for the window, I'll have to do that this coming weekend.

 

When it's dark outside, have someone on the outside shine a flashlight around the gasket material while you are inside the cap looking for light. Then silicone the corners just for the heck of it.

 

Here's another viewpoint. I opted for ARE caps with front boots instead of windows on two of my earlier F250s. Didn't want the cap to have its own glass window because the reflection/dirt/etc can make it more difficult to see through the rear view mirror (i.e., you then have 2 glass windows in close proximity to each other).

Any rain water would run between the rubber boot and the outside of the cab's rear window, dropping harmlessly under the truck, never inside the bed.

Chose to go with a BakFlip F1 solid folding tonneau instead of a cap on the newest F250.

 

ok I realize this is an old dead thread and I am not really on here much but it still pops up on a search so i will add what i have learned having shells on all of my trucks for years.

this the stuff is a bit pricey but lasts years and you can seal up any leaks that remain with a ood dose of silicone.
never hurts to put a small bead around the window frames as well clear for that and a little will do


easy fix there is a tape that you can stick on the back of the cab that is designed to peel off clean and the boot rides on it instead of the paint.
available at most places that sell shells.


this makes chasing a leak much easier but it can be hard to aply a clean bead of calk in the dark you can mark the areas you need to calk with painters tape in the dark and hit them in the daylight for a cleaner finish
just my 02 but i alway s try to get the boot type shell so the dogs can use the bed and still come up front when they want to.
the big issue I am having with my boot is the third brake light.
the shell i had done at a shop took the light out and used the protective tape over the hole. never leaked in 15 years of owning that truck but i was hoping to find a flat led type light for the location...
which was what i turned to the forums for
thanks for the read and if anyone knows of a good low profile led light for the back of the cab let e know