Rubber molding & Leer cap

I got a Leer cap and it keeps leaking from the front corners where the cap meets the bed. I've hit it with silicone a few times, but it still leaks. The installers left the rubber molding on the top of the truck bed wall near the cab. (Not sure what that thing's for...) Should that have been removed before the cap was put on?

2015 shortbed 4.0 4x4 Taco

Thanks!

 

Rubber molding of which I speak is about half an inch tall and hollow attached at the top of the bed near the cab.

 

Is this the piece you’re talking about?

 

It's on top of that and is a rounded-top flexible rubber piece. I will post a pic in a few.

 

This is looking between the cab (right) and cap (left) on the passenger side. Obviously a ludicrous display of silicone application....

 

The round hollow rubber is to allow for the height difference between the sidewalls and the front wall or rails. If your Lear Cap is specific for your truck the molding on the cap takes into account for the difference between the front and side rails. At least my lear cap does and it's at least 11 years old now.

After 10 years of having the cap on and off I replaced the side rail seals and debated on the front seal. I opted out of the fat hollow front seal and went with a regular seal. Since I often travel on forest service road and other not so well maintained roads, I added some left over cap clamps I had hanging around. This helped to keep that front seal from moving around as it had in the past.

Here's a pic of the front seal that I bought but opted not to put on


Here's a pic of one of the two additional clamps I put on the front.


If it were me, I'd pull the cap off, clean and replace all the old seals. Placement of the cap on the bed is also a factor to help keep water from coming in on the front rail.

 

Thanks, Dave. What seal did you go with? Is it one piece or 3? And did you hit it with silicone, too?

 

I bought the seals from Extruded Solutions.https://www.extrudedsolutions.com/TruckCapSeals.html Either their Amazon or ebay store.

I went with the Super Seal XL for the side rails and initially bought the front rail seal, but seeing how thick the front rail seal was I opted not to. Writing this, I now remember that I put the Super XL as one piece on the cap. I could have gone down to a box store and bought what they had on the shelf, but after many caps and years of doing just that, I wanted something that would work and last.

As for putting the seals on, I prepped the fiberglass rails of the cap with 3M adhesion promoter and used a good weather resistant (black) silicone adhesive sealant to help the adhesive strip on the actual rubber cap seal. Overkill, yes but I wanted it to last. At 66, that cap is going to stay on for a long time. I then used 1x4's and C clamps to apply pressure to the seal and waited a couple of days before putting the cap back on the truck.

I have a manual hoist system to lift the cap off my truck. So I was able to do all the work with the cap hanging. Picture attached will show the height difference between the side rails and front rail. Not much, but it's there. Also shows the cap hanging from the ceiling in my garage. Oh, and then of course an obligatory picture of my truck full dressed.

Front and side rails.


Truck with cap

 

Thanks, Dave!
Dave

 

I don't think that rubber molding is supposed to be in there. At the front of the bed the fiberglass Leers drop down between the bed rails to fill the gap. That molding may be holding the cap up too high right behind the cab.

All the Leers I've had I just did a single layer of camper tape all around and never had any leaking