Leer topper shifting/bending bolts???

Hey all. I'm heading to the dealership I got my shell and truck from tomorrow to figure this out/get it fixed, but I noticed today after MINIMAL offroading(as in cruising down a smooth gravel road at 45 mph) that my leer topper has shifted on the back of the truck a solid inch and a half, and when I open up the rear doors, you can see that the bolts holding the shell are now bent. I'm no expert on shells, but I would expect for how much this shell costs, and leer's reputation, that this should not be happening, especially when it's from basically normal use for a shell?? Has anyone else had any issue even remotely close to this?

You can see how much the shell shifted over to the right, and also how bent the securement bolts are. Kinda annoyed with this. Kinda wish that I had gone with a SmartCap instead. full aluminum, and just about the same price as this.

Photos attached. (apologies for the poor quality/lighting. currently dark and stormy where I live, so I had to make the photos a quick snap)

 

They’re just finding their happy spot. Mine did the same thing.

 

Did you end up readjusting your shell to line it back up? My OCD bugs the hell out of me when I can see the noticeable difference when I'm driving and look in the mirrors.

 

I took the bolts that came with it out and put stainless ones in it. They don’t bend as easy as those. Can’t put too much pressure on them though because of the fiberglass.

 

Uh, apparently it wasn't tightened down enough. It's not normal for the shell to shift like that.

 

I might just have to do the same thing, because fuck that. do you remember off the top of your head what size the bolts are? Ill probably swap those out when i take off/put the shell back on. im dropping the truck at the dealership for the 3rd brakelight recall, and i need to take it off for that.

 

That's what I'm thinking. especially enough to shift it that far and bend the bolts that much.

 

They’re 5/16-18 but I don’t remember the length.

 

that works perfect enough for me. Thanks!!

 

Get yourself some better clamps. I purchased some on Amazon for less than $25.00. Now I have the 4 originals plus the other 4 that I bought. Shell ain't goin nowhere

 

Sounds like I know what I'm about to do right now.

 

My ARE came with the clamps. I’ve had a 200lb roof top tent and awning mounted to mine plenty of times off road for the past couple of years and never had it budge before.

 

I have a Leer 100XL and I was noticing my topper shifting after purchase without off-roading with the same mounting system. It eventually shifted so much that the rear corners made contact with the bed and scratched the hell out of it. I noticed it was due to the bolts slightly loosening up after retightening them every few days. I finally readjusted it to where I wanted it and then put in new bolts and cranked them down to where I thought I might do damage if I went even an eighth of another rotation then I put a lock washer and bolt on the bottom of each bolt onto the brackets and held the top with a wrench and cranked the bolts onto the brackets. I noticed after it shifted minimally like a eighth of an inch and that’s where it settled, checked the bolt tightness every few days for a few weeks and didn’t notice it loosen up or move at all.
Was going to purchase the clamps and install a front rail system from a second gen and crank them down all the way around but have had zero issues so far so planning to just stick with the lock washers and nuts.

 

Here’s what I went with on my leer 100XR. I found these clamps through another thread on here. The exact vendor on Amazon I purchased these from says they’re currently unavailable but work much better with the rail system in the beds of these trucks. I went back and got new hardware from the leer dealer to use in addition to these clamps but didn’t use their bolts. Probably overkill, but the topper hasn’t moved since and I check it periodically to be safe.

 

Another thing I did that worked well is add a nylock nut to the bottom. Just threaded into the aluminum bracket only those things always seem to work loose.

 

FWIW the Smartcap uses the same type of mounting hardware that came with your Leer.

 

Those Definitely look like they have way more to them than the stock cheapo bolts. I think today im gonna hit my dealership and see if they have any spare bolts lying around, and if they dont, im gonna give my roomate a call who works heavy construction with chairlifts, have him snag me some grade 6 hardened steel bolts, locker nuts, and enough locktite to seal a lot lizard up, and absolutely CLAMP it down. Regardless, the shell is coming off before tuesday since the recalls on the truck, so im probably going to just swap everything out when i have the shell off for ease of it

 

Yes. It seemed to me that the 4 bolts provided by Leer weren't adequate. I added 4 more clamps, 2 in the middle of the sides and 2 at the front.

 

I'm just surprised that for the price of this shell, the bolts that come with it have the tensile strength of a toothpick. I mean, sure, if I was doing some heavy offroading, with the bed flexing a lot, that's one thing, but just normal driving around town, the bolts bend that much, and the shell shifts that much, it doesn't seem right to me. I'm going to just swap out the bolts that came with it, get some clamps like you have, and just sinch the bastard down since the shell lives on the truck and I never take it off.

 

Grade 8, solid shank, socket heads with thick, big ass washers. Put a little loctite on the threads, check them occasionally and…

3M, 2” double stick foam tape on the rails.