Let's see those Alu-cab setups

So I haven't had a chance to get a true measurement, but according to prinsu's website these are the dims:

• Short Bed - 4.5' Long X 47" Wide
• Long Bed - 5.5' Long X 47" Wide

Seems like it just barely won't fit. And if it does, the feet will have to be all the way out to the very edges, which isn't the safest for carrying a centered load. I guess I'll hold on to it and see what it looks like once mounted. I put my deposit down on a Contour yesterday and should get it sometime in April. I'm psyched to join the Alucab cult club!

 

Paying my truck off next week and as a present I want to put a contour on. Should be able to make the purchase about mid-march.

 

I see you running the low profile bars. Any issues with the tent hitting your shark fin?

 

I’m a little late to the game, but here is my contour canopy. I mostly just want to share my experience with this purchase, since most others have already shared the thoughts on the canopy, which I love.
First off. I bought mine from Ok4wd, and I can’t say enough good stuff about their customer service. I purchased this months ago, and they shipped it with TForce Freight (formerly ups freight) and I will make sure anything large I buy never gets shipped with them again.
If anyone knows how this ships, it gets shipped standing up with the rear hatch facing up. Ok4wd sent me pre ship photos and all looked well. I had the canopy get shipped to a terminal near my parents house where it sat for 3 weeks. In that time as it presumably sat in a trailer, an employee decided to walk ON TOP of the 5 foot tall pallet and dent my rear door. I was pisseed because you couldn’t see it from the ground. Only until I signed for it and cut the packaging open to see the foot prints all over the top. There was one noticeable dent in my acceptance photos that wasn’t visible in Ok4wd pre ship photos, so I know it was 100% tforce. Ok4wd worked with me and got me a credit, and is also shipping me some missing bolt and touch up paint because the person who walked on it also somehow chipped the paint near a weld.
Anyways that’s enough of me ranting. Here’s the finish piece! And the top of the cardboard that was stepped on along with the dent that my friend and I were able to fix for the most part.

 

Looks good! Except for the shipping damage. So sorry to see this. I don't think there are enough fragile stickers on Alu-Cab stuff considering it is made out of aluminum.

 

Finished up some installs this weekend, table slide mount, goose gear deck plate and XL fridge slide. None were easy and all required some extra work to function. Will be sending some feedback to alu-cab on some of the issues I had.

Issues I have with the alu-cab installs so far. XL fridge slide non tilt brackets do not clear the rivets on the top part of the slide. No matter how much I adjusted the position. Had to resort to modifying(slightly bending up, then filing the edge closest to the slide) the brackets to clear the rivets.


Goose gear deck plate did not come with the proper length hardware for the rear most bolts. They have to go through the tie down bracket bolts in the bed. I was going to just find bolts that fit the tie downs but longer but Toyota put some screwed up size bolt in that location. I opted for longer versions of what they sent.

I also noticed that the gasket on my drivers side door on the canopy was sliced from the inner gasket. Something I am going to send to Alu-cab and see if I can get a replacement. Other contour canopy owners may want to check on theirs.

 

I have to add, I reached out to Alu-Cab to replace my rear Gen 3 tent sticker as I lost my b after 4 years of use effectively making it a Alu-Ca and they sent me a replacement label! Very grateful they did this!

 

I snagged a contour canopy from Mule Expedition in Issaquah WA. Installed myself at home.

 

How hard was the install? I plan on doing mine by myself in April instead of paying 600+ for OK4wd to do it. Any tips or things to look out for? How did you transport it home?
Your truck look fantastic

 

They ship them in on a pallet standing up, so I just strapped it down and hit the road. The cardboard box isn’t very strong at freeway speeds (kind of a given), but I was driving about 400 miles back home to Oregon.

As far as the install, I had a buddy help me lift the canopy on, it’s easy once you figure out what all the pieces are for, it’s pretty straight forward after you get the brackets assembled. The install instructions online (none provided) weren’t very clear, and the installation package had different parts than the online instructions said I would have. So I had to figure it out myself essentially. I did have 3 bolts snap off in the channel of the canopy, not sure what the deal was with them, but they broke when I was loosening them to adjust the brackets. As stated by another member, the bolts have a hard time sliding in the channels at times but not horrible. I had to use the spacer shims they supplied in order to get everything lined up and properly spaced (shims not mentioned in the instructions at all) so that’s why I had to loosen the bolts and trouble shoot, and that’s when the 3 bolts broke on me. I put a line of black sealant under the bed rail plastic to keep water out of the bed since the canopy doesn’t go over the bed sides like a traditional fiberglass canopy does.

Wiring, tapped into the brake light wires, and for the led canopy lights inside I already had a power wire ran to my battery from my snugtop so I just threw an in line fuse in for it and that was it. Brake light wires are ran on the right side of the cap if you’re standing outside looking at the back of the truck, the left side is the led lighting inside the canopy, no instructions for wiring the lights were included online with their install instructions.

if you have any install questions feel free to pm me anytime

 

Looks like you forgot the shims.

 

Yes, I did. I had to redo it since then. Nice catch.

 

Did you just cut and splice the existing brake light wires?

 

I used a tap, since it was already on there from my snugtop, or I would have bought a plug and play harness for it.

 

Looks like this might be a solid choice if you go the harness route.

https://fbchs.square.site/product/tacoma-2016-brake-t-harness/10

 

Yes it would be, I have a harness from him that I used for my V5 switchback turn signals, tapped into my headlights.

 

Thanks for the detailed feedback. Did you have to have the tailgate down? I have a C4 bumper with a swingout tire so driving like that down the highway would be a no go for me

 

Yes, I did have to have the tailgate down unfortunately.

 

I used this harness on my build and it was definitely worth the price. So clean, and that area of your truck gets a lot of dust/water, so a reliable connection is a must IMO.

 

Nope, no problems. I had the short alu cab mounts on there but wanted to get it down closer to the truck.