Tonneau Not Fitting

I went to ePlastics and talked to them about the environment and the actual part I was thinking of making to solve this problem.

They recommended HDPE. It's chemical resistant, UV resistant, and is strong. The piece needs to be about 57 1/4" wide and that creates an issue of cost. The smallest piece I can get from them that I can get a 57" piece out of is 96"x48" and is $340 at 3/4" of an inch tall. IF I had enough interest I would definitely spend the $340 but without interested customers I would not.

Something is seriously wrong if there's a 2" gap.

 

Can you post a picture? Thank you.

 

@christian06 do you have any input on this topic? Thank you.

 

I had a Flex on my Tacoma for about 3 months. The fit sucked. Truth be told, both undercovers I had on my Tacoma the fit sucked. The best I came up with a bigger piece of weather stripping across the tailgate. I have pics somewhere but I no longer own the truck so I’ll have to find them.

 

Any chance it's on backwards?
I'm not familiar with that particular cover so I'm not sure, but some better pics might help.
I think if I had "the gap" I would mold up some medium density rubber with integrated washers where those screws are.
Put a bead of silicone on the edge of tailgate and screw it on, done, gap b gone.
Maybe that's what I would call it.

 

Not on mine, i have a rugged cover soft tri fold. Both ends have a thick piece of hollow foam/rubber which takes up all the gap.

 

So if I bought that chunk of plastic I could get about 22 of them out of the chunk. That works out to about $16 each plus the labor of cutting it. The labor is around $2.70 each. Plus whatever packaging would be needed. If there was an actual need I could talk to the place I buy boxes at. For me to sell them at $20 a piece I'd need a guarantee they'd all sell.

But 2" is a huge chunk of plastic and a lot more than the piece I was quoted on.

 

Just my .02 but have you considered making a mold and pour semi dense rubber?
I think you could knock a good chunk off that fab price and you wouldn't have to buy overstock and hope to sell. The rubber is tuff enough to keep your hand from poking through but still seal nicely

 

No I haven't. I don't know anything about that process. I know little about tonneau covers. I just know I've read similar comments before and plastic seemed like a good fit for the application and would be relatively cheap. Aluminum would probably be better but it would be more expensive. It wouldn't be exposed to very much under a tonneau and I'm assuming the tonneau's have seals above the tailgate but don't actually touch the tailgate. Either way, a dense rubber would probably work well.

 

Yup, same as mine, just a soft tri fold.

 

Now I see why it's about a 2" gap. Thank you!

 

Man I feel for you. What an awful design. That cap is not only cosmetically hideous due to the gap, but from a functional stand point, no bueno.

 

Right? The top of the tailgate sits lower than the top of the bed so what did they do? They increased the gap between the two!?!? Wtf smh...

 

You could put a pool noodle on your tailgate.
Or contact the manufacturer and see if that piece can be ordered

 

Here's a possible solution that already exists.

 

I was going to mention this, but i only gained maybe 1/8" from the steel cap, definitely still not close to level. I see that truck has steel rails as well, im not sure what the difference is from plastic.

 

I'm just guessing but it looks like the cap on the tailgate is raised slightly and the bed side caps are lowered fairly significantly but it's difficult to tell in the picture. The parts that I posted above change both the tailgates cap and the bed side caps.

 

I was only mentioning my real world measurements on that exact cap i installed which raised it about 1/8. I didnt install the bed rails.