Let's See Some Softoppers

@gkomo no hassle at all brudda. I’ll snap a couple before heading home and I feel you about wanting to see that gap before purchasing. When I installed I just followed the softopper measurements/instructions and surprisingly got it to my liking on the first go. While it’s not seamless I think I struck a good balance. I ordered direct through softopper. Their customer service was/is top notch!

 

@gkomo

 

@gkomo

 

Alright alright alright, thanks for posting. Looks good i've seen the gap way worse so must've just been other peoples bad installs. Appreciate it!

 

@gkomo it definitely depends on how you position the rails. But just follow install instructions and it’ll be chill!

 

I've not been able to get mine to stay straight. Rails always tilt inward

 

I wouldn't say you can't see shit out of the rear view but I also wouldn't say that the softopper doesn't take away any visibility. I've learned to live with it.

 

did you put the clamps/measure within the spec range that the instructions had? I think 10-13 inches from end of bed rails. I believe there was 3 different holes in the plate that could be utilized for custom adjustment as well.

 

I installed it tonight. It's amazing. I love it. There's nothing in there so it's just an echo chamber. I heard a voice say "you're awesome" and I think that was swell.

The rails are slightly clocked inward though. About 1/2" outboard from the inside of the rails and about as lined up with the clamps as I could get. Don't know if that's expected or not.

How do y'all wipe dust off from the windows?

 

"Snow is God's way of covering an imperfect world"

I like snow, I had better.... ;-)

 

What ever happened to using turn studs to secure soft tops?
https://www.ebay.com/itm/3215585954...1291&msclkid=ee27e74e2db5165b4e4687cd8de1e92f

They always were reliable on my A-H Sprite and my Datsun Roadster.

 

How long did it take to arrive after ordering?

 

I was doing a search and this post popped up. I'm looking at a memory foam topper for our rtt. I have seen comments about it getting hard in the cold. Do you have any experience with thememory foam and cold? thanks

 

I can't speak specifically for truck camping but when I travel with a memory foam pillow in the winter, it's rock hard when I take it out of the trunk.

 

thanks. we were adding it to our rtt.

 

We sleep on a memory foam topper when truck camping. Definitely gets extremely firm when its cold out.



Also just ordered up a soft topper can't wait.

 

Just picked up black softopper off of CL from a younger guy with a 2010 and put it on my first gen. I bought a set of generic shell clamps for $15 at an auto store, and replace the utility track bottoms with the "standard" looking bottoms from the shell, and voila! Converted without the 10+ day lead times at softopper RN.

It's a little shorter (vertically challenged) than I expected, but looking around at pictures it appears to look very much similar to what other first gen DCSB's look like, and even if it's not perfect, it's just fine for me and what I payed . The rear window is separating in the upper left hand corner, but that's ok - I was already planning to get the tinted rear window as an accessory. I will also buy the bag and the doggie door accessory.

Im about 6' 2", so my sleeping plan is to open the back window, drop the tailgate, then run an old but very nice large tent footprint around the dropped gate, tucked in at the corner where it meets the bed, and then bungee to the wheel well. The other part of the tarp goes over the top of the camper and bungee down to the wheel well. Drop an inflatable mattress between the wells, put on the ground softener (probably several beers), and g2g. This will be next weekend, so I'll put some pics up depending how lame it looks/works. No real weather planned this weekend so it should be good.

The trip will be mountain biking with a crew of 8, and my truck will be one of our shuttle vehicles, hence the tailgate pad (btw, that dakine model is so far the best I've used on tacomas).

Let me know of any softopper hacks that are worthwhile! This thread is immense, but I'm starting to work backwards through it looking for gems

 

Looks great!

 

Awesome! Looking forward to the pictures.

We love our dakine pad but just for the record we cut a thick pool noodle lengthwise and put it on the tailgate under the pad. Keeps the forks/brake discs off the bumper since our tailgates are so shallow.

 

I do the same but with a layer or two of pipe insulator - not in this pic though. Back when I had an early Thule model, I had to jam a bunch of insulators just to have PADDING! That danged pad was a 4" block with a padless seem on either side of it, so no matter what you did, the tailgate would find the padless seam. Some people said to cut the thing open then slit the foam to relieve it, but the pipe insulation worked OK. The extra height does make a nice difference!

Soaking of noodles, I do want a proper pool noodle, or some other dimensionally similar piece of scrap to use to fill the gutter between the bed and the horizontal open tailgate. I'll have an inflatable so I mostly won't notice it, but seems like a good idea. Whatever I figure out to fill that hole with will get covered by a heavy quilt prior to putting the inflated mattress down.... But I digress