AT Habitat, Atlas, & Summit Pictures, ideas, aaand BS

Finally remembered

 

...so what is your 'take' on this?

 

Thanks, Looks very similar to mine on passenger side

Have you asked AT about it? I have been meaning to send them an email just to see what they say.

 

Haven't yet. I'd be interested in a fix it needs it.

 

my thought is with a bunch of swaying flexing occurring to that corner, we are seeing fatigue cracks on the front corners. The rear are radiused and have much more stiffness to deal with the door and pivot point. Likely, I'll add a reinforcement to the corners and bolt them down.

 

When was your habitat completed? Mine was end of 2017, picked up in January 2018 wondering if it was a problem with a run of them or what.

 

Beginning of July 2017, currently at 56000 miles of which likely 46000 with Habitat. Thats a fair bit of cycling.

 

Sent Mario a Text with a link to TW post where the discussion on this issue started. Asked him to look it over when he has some time and no rush and apologized for interrupting his Saturday. I'm sure he'll look into it when he has a moment. Honestly, we have some early habitats, there have been some changes since, but there may not be many people that have seen this issue yet. It's easy to miss. Let's wait and see.

 

..been thinking vertical force from leverage applied by open shell.

so your thought of sway/flex while vehicle in motion?...twisting of frame, bed, Habitat..

 

looks like fatigue cracking and flex to me, however it is caused, lol.

 

Yes that indeed is caused by fatigue which is a direct result of constant flexing. Drilling out the ends of the crack is the 100% correct thing to do to stop the spread. We use .090 thick 5052 aluminum that handles flexing and bending well. The welds however will be a harder material which due to the hardness are more brittle. We have seen this once before. With over 300 Habitats in the field and the abuse that XOverland has dished out on theirs without issue, I wouldn't say we have epidemic problem but rather an isolated issue.

We know that the Tacoma has a very flexy bed and I am wondering that since both of you have experiencing the crack at the welds have 5' units, it may be a result of the increased fulcrum of the longer cabover. We do advise bed stiffeners now specifically for Tacomas using Summit toppers because of the increased cabover on that model. We may need to do the same for all Tacomas. I'm going to spend some time this week to work on gusset fix for your units that you can easily install to reduce the flexing you are experiencing.

 

Thanks Mario. Would love to see what you come up with for a fix.

 

Are the two with cracking running the rear bed stiffeners at the tail gate?

Are you guys running the corner gussets at the front of the bed?

 

That's sweet, looking forward to seeing what you come up with. I don't have cracks yet, but I have had those rivets come out, some of which I have yet to address. I'm guessing that would also be related to bed flex. I'm adding bed stiffeners to my list of things to-do as well.

Just out of curiosity, since I have one of the early design shells that has the side cutouts instead of the solid walls, how difficult and expensive would it be to replace it with a new one? Basically to transfer the upper tent portion to a new lower body.

 

Thanks MARIO.

 

I’m running rear bed stiffeners, since before I put on habitat, no corner gussets.

 

I have both the rear bed stiffeners as well as front corner gussets.

 

I was hoping you’d both say no... lol

I have rear stiffeners but not front corners. Alas no cracks yet. I am curious to see the solution Mario knocks out. Wonder if it’ll be released as a retrofit to prevent cracking there on the short beds.

I’ve thought about mounting some fold down steps there in the past to a strip of angle, to help enter/exit or climbing up top for photo time.

 

Swapping out the bottom is possible and not complicated. It'd be $2500 for parts + labor.

 

The idea is to make it available as a retro fit. We have fitted steps like that at the rear corners bolted through the corner stiffener that is behind the electrical raceway.