Leer 100R cap Leaks

2014 Tacoma Reg Cab - 6'bed-4Cyl. Just had a Leer 100R cap installed and after a night of rain discovered the cap leaks. Cap has carpet liner-side 1/2 slide open/screen windows & a front slider window. Along the side rails where cap meets truck the carpet/liner is wet. Doesn't seem to be coming from around the windows.....just where truck meets cap along the side rails.....mostly wet underneath the rails & more at rear of truck rather than up near the cab. I found small half dollar sized puddles of water on bed up near cab....but think that may be from road upspray from the small drain holes in the bed. I drove it for about 10 miles in heavy rain this morning before checking for leaks.

From inside the truck with tailgate & cap door closed....I can see a sizeable gap where the tailglate shuts along both side/edges up near the top.

Questions:
Anyone else experienced leaks on a Tacoma with a Leer cap?
Anyone else noticed sizable gaps on sides of tailgate where it meets truck body?

The exterior pic shows the tailgate gap. Interior pic shows light that can bee seen thru the tailgate space.

 

Is there adequate canopy / cap tape between the bed rails and cap espescially at the front ?

You can loosen , the bolts and move the cap inward to close the margin between the cap and cap door

also looks like your cap is mounted too far forward

 

I have a Leer 180 on my 2011 DCSB TRD Off Road and when it rains I noticed that the interior lip of the cap (carpeted too) was a little wet near the back edge of both side/sliding windows and there would be a little that dripped down to the bed. I checked with my dealer and he said it was simply due to water accumulating in the window channels. This is due to the angle of the sides of the cap not being as vertical as others. I really noticed the angle when I saw my truck & cap from above. The water doesn't shed as much with the angle as it would if it were more vertical.

So the water accumulates, then when I drive off it goes to the rear and overflows just a little. I've been in the back sleeping when it was pouring out and it didn't leak.

After a heavy rain I had a neighbor drive while I sat out back....and I watched it happen. It's not enough water to cause concern.

 

You may need to replace the foam tape or weatherstripping between the cap and truck box. Mine leaked a bit at the front corners until I sorted that out. No problems at the front since then.
My back window doesn't make a really good seal on its lower side edges either, but I know some more weatherstripping should fix that up.

 

I had a LEER 100R on my '06 and I have a LEER 100XL on my '13. My '06 leaked a little and I also found that the seam where the bedside met the bed front up under the front of the bedrail had to be sealed with silicone. I have not noticed any leaks on my '13 yet since my truck had been in the shop 32 days out of the last 2 months.

They do make a seal that can be installed around the rear of the bed and the tailgate closes up against it, a co-worker just got one on his truck because his trifold cover was leaking.

I think it's a pretty good chance that you'll never make it completely weatherproof, and ESPECIALLY dust proof... everything in the back will get filthy.... just nature of the beast. Make sure that the seal tape between the cap and the bedrail is good, and put silicone on any spot up front where the pieces overlap and cause a step in the surface, like where the side panel meets the front panel.... that's about all that you can do.

BTW... the rubber Toyota bedmat will cut down on the road noise that you gained when you put the cap on.

 

Thanks everyone for the suggestions. It's a newliy installed cap---less than 2 weeks old so I'm hoping the seal under the rail is good. After another hard rain & me inspecting it again, I'm thinking the rain is getting in @ the tailgate gap & then soaking forward along the carpeted rail sides. Will look into installing one of those tailgate gasket/seals to see if that helps.

And to stop the upspray into the bed 1/4 " drain holes...I've plugged those with a chuck of rubber from and old tire. If I need to drain out the bed I can simply punch them out and replace as needed.

hotrod53.....I noticed the extra or at least different road noise...guess that cap magnifies the noise. I've put down 1/4" carpeted plywood as a smoother base for the bed ridges and after doing that it's not so bad. LOL--I usually have the CD playing good blues music so's I don't notice it so much!

 

Picked up my Leer 100R last week. It rained all day Saturday and yesterday I checked for leaks. Found several...main one was the third brake light. Leer did not seal around hole where the wires come through the shell. Had to remove, seal, and re-tape light again to fix. Second leak was the frame of the slider window I upgraded to...had to remove window and use sealant. The window was installed with a thin rubber seal around window only. Third leaks were in the corners up front...sealant used again. First two leak scenarios are on Leer...quality workmanship issue. Third would be on the dealer installation.

Bottom line...good workmanship has disappeared!

 

Why didn't you get them to fix it !!!

 

As someone who bought a leer too I can answer this. You can spend the hour or two fixing it yourself, or you can spend an hour or two having them take it off and send it back and wait a month or so and get it back in the same shape. Your just better off fixing it yourself or resigning to the fact that worksmanship/pride in work is dead at leer.

 

As someone who has a Leer , I can respond , my Leer is awesome with no leaks and my installer did a great job on the wiring and the seal to the bed

I live in the rainforest and my 100RCC does not leak

 

Great, glad to hear you got a good one. But I don't judge a company on how it handles success. I judge a company on how it handles its failures. Leer does not stack up as far as I am concerned. I am not the only one. The shop even admitted some leer caps come perfect, but generally they have some issues.

Remember these are built by hand, not by machines. Maybe you got yours built by one of the good guys/ladies. I got mine built by someone who clearly did not give a crap. The screws for the windows were way over torqued bending the frame around the screw and causing paint to fleck off and also causing leakage (did kind of get fixed, still over torqued but at least it does not leak from it now). I had several needle point holes on the fiberglass (mostly fixed but not all) I also had a couple of gouges in the fiberglass (around a 1/16 of an inch wide, 1/2 inch long, which one got fixed the other did not). My third brake light had a burnt out LED (fixed) and when the flashers are on the third brake light flashed dimly (Not fixed). The paint was lightly scratched in several locations (fixed but then ended up in other places). lastly the Leer plastic/rubber sticker on the passenger side is peeling off already (had it 5 months a month of that was spent back with leer).

So while you got a great one, I did not. Stuff happens, but my installer said Leer would work on it again but to not expect it to get any better and I would be without it for another month. That's why I judge Leer poorly. They failed to fix my problems and according to my shop they generally don't care.

 

Oh and mines a 100XR if that makes a difference for anyone.

 

Wow yours sucks

 

And on that, we agree

Generally most the issues now are more visible than usable. Since I don't care to much about looks, as Cartman says "that'll do pig, that'll do.". I was able to build a 36x72 sleeping platform in the back thats good for camping which between that and getting my stuff to the camp ground undercover it works. I did pay 1500 so I am not super pleased, but seriously, its only money, if you get worked up over it the only person you hurt is yourself. So when people ask me about it, I let them know and tell them I did have a good experience with ARE, but again, ARE succeeded with the cover on my Tundra, I don't know how they handle failure. They may suck as bad as leer as well.

 

Like ThatMattGuy said...my Leer does not leak now. Took roughly two hours to fix. Leer had it for two weeks and could not render it leak free before delivery. I would not trust sending it back to Leer to correct their mistakes...sad, but true.

On a positive note...I am happy with it now.

 

My Leer 100RCC was $3K up here

 

Holy crap! Maybe that's why yours was perfect, they knew there would be higher expectations.

 

That's how much they cost

 

Over the years I have had 5 Leer Caps and not one ever leak. I bought them all from the same dealer. The dealer did a great job and it only takes them 20 minutes to install them. Leer is a awesome company, maybe your dealer is the problem. Any dealer that downs a company while selling there products is the problem. Maybe they never even sent it back and just said they did. I take my truck through a brushless car wash and no leaks. It's the best test. Water gets blown really hard. I give Leer a A+

 

I have had a Leer 100R on my truck for a couple years. No leaks just had to tighten the bolts a couple of times. Fit and finish are great. I'll be putting a piece of 3M clear tape on the tailgate where a rub mark is starting to show. It'll buff out I'm sure. The back glass handles have faded from sun exposure

The tailgate/back glass gaps look way too large on your truck.
Looks like your tailgate isn't shut to me. Have you been in an accident ?
Seems to me you could loosen the bolts and adjust the shell a little