camper - tailgate won’t close?

I mean it closes
But hits and scratches on the right side. DCSB snugtop

anyone dealt with this before? I’ll ask a shell shop.

Current mods are KBvoodoo bedside caps, Relentless tailgate skin

i can’t move the shell more left. And the panel gap on the right of the tailgate is bigger than the left.
Both the relentless skin and tailgate itself appear to be hitting the shell.

not sure if the side to side tailgate position can be adjusted with washers, or if the bed is potentially crooked (even from factory) on the frame. Or if the issue can possibly be fixed by loosening the Torx bed bolts and shifting the bed right until the tailgate is centered.

 

Could be a mixture of things but the upgraded frame caps makes you lose clearance for any camper or shell you put on. I had to remove my plastic tailgate cap in order for my GFC camper to fit properly and close. Yours may be a mixture of the lost clearance/height of the bed rail caps and the increased angle of the tailgate cap. Looks like you have decent clearance on the drivers side..any chance you could shift it a little to have equal clearance on the passenger side?

 

Looks like the cap moved to the left a whisker. There’s times mine is little bound up too. I close it and the next time I open it it’s fine.

 

that’s what I’m wondering. I don’t know if the tailgate mounts to the bed, or to the frame. I think the frame. I’ll take a look.
Because if the bed itself shifted that’s possible for 2 reasons
1. Naturally over time, especially before I had bed stiffeners (shell was added later though)
2. Potentially crooked from factory

each side of the tailgate hinge has what looks like washer. However it may actually be a bushing with a section of it exposed that looks like a washer, with the rest of the bushing going into the tailgate cup socket making it hidden

 

Shift the canopy a hair to the passenger side

 

Keep left side clamped, loosen right side clamps. Have someone push out the right side just a hair at the rear, tighten down clamps. Had to to this on a Leer I used to have and it solved the problem and never had another issue.

 

it won’t/can’t move. Ran out of room for adjustment. If I loosen the clamps and lift it to try moving it, it’s unable to move any further in that direction

as in try to put some bend/flex into the fiberglass?

 

Looks like you just need to push that P/S out a little. I wouldn't even loosen the D/S. Just loosen the P/S clamps, push that corner out about a 1/4" and retighten.

Edit:

^ This.

 

Once you have everything adjusted you might want to think about getting some bed stiffeners.

 

Yep, they bend and flex anyways. Won't hurt anything unless you get crazy with it.

 

From the third and fourth pics, OP already has them.

 

already had/have stiffeners installed a year ago

 

Used a jack based at the bed to push the right side outwards. It wanted to move the whole bedside with it. Which might be fine given the panel gap was small anyway.

but would only go so much. Good enough for the time being; now it clears the tailgate just barely. I’ll try later on loosening the bed bolts to try shifting the bed right and see if that does anything.

the kbvoodoo bedside caps stack on top of a stock metal plate. When combined, there’s some thickness that the inside portion of the cap hits preventing it from moving further right; maybe trying to shift the bed would be a workaround

 

what metal plate are you referring to? I thought that they go directly on top of the sheet metal on the bed? @fatfurious2 dont you have the side rails too?

 

The KBvoodoo bedside caps do go on top (mostly) along the bedside,
however, at the tail light area, there's a 90 degree bend with material where they bolt on, sandwiched with some more metal that's stock to the truck
which seems to be what the shell is hitting
I'm guessing with the OEM plastic bedside caps, that this piece may be thinner, or at least more flexible to squish, if it even exists at all.

The stock plastic may not have it because they mount to the bedside with clips on top. Whereas although the KBvoodoo caps use double sided adhesive on top of the bedsides, they also have that fold that bolts on by the tail light

these pics show



it's where the 2 bolts go
so now the shell has to fight the thickness of that metal
Not sure if some creative cutting/trimming of that could help or what the stock piece underneath even is for

I'm not saying the KBvoodoo caps are bad. So far, I've liked them.
If anything, I imagine they help the shell seal water out better, and have heard of this before.
Because the underside of shells has rubber to act as a gasket, which I bet functions better pressed down on a flat piece of metal (such as kbvoodoo caps) vs. the stock rough patterned rounded plastic

 

Yes I have them. I have Total Chaos bedside stiffeners. I had to modify the kbvoodoo bedside caps to go around the stiffeners

I think the issue is the kbvoodoo caps are 1/8" thick, where the OEM plastic ones are 3/4". The cap fits if its up on the 3/4" plastic, but because of the change in height, it's rubbing the tailgate. The tailgate cap doesn't have anything to do with the rubbing.

@TacoTuesday1 i think you will need to file down your cap (easiest) or put OEM bedside caps back on, to get it to fit better.




You can see my trim job here, even with all the other things going on:

 

I reckon I was looking past them and instead looking at the gaps. Thanks for bringing it to my attention.

@TacoTuesday1 I hope you get everything worked out.

 

But did you trim the stock piece? Looks like you just trimmed the KBvoodoo to accommodate your (caliraised?) bed stiffener. In hindsight that’s what I should’ve done a year ago just to keep my stiffeners.

I had the same exact ones for tall full coverage but because they didn’t fit the KBvoodoo I switched to ATHfab ones that are shorter but hopefully still strong enough

whoops edit: total chaos

 

Trim the stock bed rail caps? No, there isnt a bolt that goes near the TC bed stiffeners.

Actually in my picture where the wire is going into the bed, is where a push clip went in to secure the rear part. On top, it was a press in attachment, in addition to the bolts in the rails/push in clips that are built into the stock bed rail caps

 

oh dang they looked metal from the piC

now that makes a lot of sense why mine pushes the shell inward into the tailgate
Because the kbvoodoo cabs wrap to the inside adding thickness where the stock plastic ones do not/cut around