ARE V Series. Kind of Disappointing

Anyone else kind of disappointed by their toppers? I just had an ARE v series installed with all sorts of extras and man...this thing feels janky.

Cab side window is held on by a plastic latch, slider is tough to move and runs against a deformed weather seal

Handles on the windoor slider part are ground down/deburred and then left as raw aluminum but still kind of sharp.

One windoor sticks when I try to open and close it. Looks like the factory ground down my lifting strut mount to try and make it clear the window frame...just real lazy

Drain holes were cutout, insanely dirty cuts and again bare metal

Massive holes along the seal from the back window hang over and tailgate I could fit a thumb through it

for a 2700 dollar topper its honestly quite disappointing seeing the lack of care and craftsmanship that went into this. Am I just being nit picky and had overly high expectations? Or is this everyone's experience with toppers too?

 

Jeez, I’ve seen plenty of rants about Leer but A.R.E and Snugtop seemed to be better.

Few people post up about how happy they are with their toppers but there are more than a couple threads about poor craftsmanship and unhappy owners.

My Leer was damaged during shipment, sent back, and fixed the way any fiberglass would get repaired. I was unhappy but ran with it.

One of the few who doesn’t seem to have water intrusion, but I’ve had hardware fall off already. Nothing I can’t take care of but for they loot were all dropping on these the quality isn’t there.

 

Put up some pics when you can

 

I paid $3200 for my v series and my only issue is one of the rivets holding the gas strut on the passenger side windoor is loose. It's been that way for 4 years, ill get to it eventually, maybe.


Sorry yours has issues.

 

Yup I have an ARE Mx topper and the quality is not great. Saying that none of the other brands are any better. The depreciation is also horrible. $2-3k dollars and the resale value is unchanged. The day after you pick it up you loose 30-40% of your topper investment. A $3000 topper is worth $2000 the next day

 

Never had the coin to buy new topper. We have tons of used topper dealers around here. I dont know if the steal them or are legitimate trade in from others.

In any event, had a Leer and a ARE for my previous two tacomas. 700-1300 paid. To me wasn't huge diffference. Reminds me of the RV market. Essentially all pretty shoddy construction. Then again, my expectation going in was low, so it served my purpose.

I have a friend just paid $4k from one from S. Africa. Forgot the brand.

 

I was under the impression that things made of fiberglass are not the best.

 

I have a Lakeland (predator, I believe) and the only complaint I have is the plastic shroud piece that prevents water from coming in over the tailgate is cheap and brittle in the cold. I had one replaced under warranty and the replacement cracked the next winter. Otherwise seems really solid, windows work well, watertight.

 

In my experience the fiberglass ones are all built like crap. No experience with the fancy metal ones but I've looked into them a bit and seen a ton of complaints on here about those too.

On my first gen I've been through 3 used shells that were all <$200 on craigslist or OfferUp. Even if you're not getting a crazy steal like that it seems worth it to wait around and buy used for half the price.

Then again, everyone on here is a bit picky and I'm sure your new shell will work as it's supposed to even if the finish isn't perfect. Get out and use it and see how much you still care about the little things--it'll probably be a lot leas than you think

 

Random pics attached. Sounds like build quality is just shotty across the board, or is any of this particularly bad? Just looking around, it feels like it was a rushed build

Edit: definitely some repeat pics in there...sorry!

 

I get that sentiment. Yes everything here will work as it was intended to but my gripe is more out of principle. ARE is cranking these out at 2700 bucks a pop, and seem to not care about the craftsmanship and/or has QC asleep on the job. Almost everything here I can likely fix myself, but for 2700 bucks I shouldn't have to. The biggest gripe is the fact that that driverside windoor gets stuck and they cut that mount corner off to try to get it to fit. I imagine the guy working on it:

Frabricator: Ahhh shit, looks like this windoor is stuck
Fab 2: Lets just cut off this corner
QC: *Slaps it the topper* Looks good to me!

 

I have a $2500 Leer 100XR and most of the same complaints. One of my sliding windows gets stuck and takes a lot of force to open/close, a lot of scratches in the aluminum pieces, poor craftsmanship overall. You’d think for the high price point you’d have some quality control involved, but I guess they just slap them together and send them out

 

YES! My god, the amount of metal shavings all over the weather seals and whatnot is insane. Y'all could not even be bothered to hit it with an air compressor before sending it out the door?

 

That is how they do it at the FCA factory.

 

LOL, Good ol lunch beers! Never hurt anyone anyway, except for FCA. And reliability. And general build quality...innovation, interior design, or feel, or resale....

 

I've got an ARE CX on my 2015 and feel the same way. I've got the same issues. Seems an easy problem to fix for them if they care enough to address the QC

 

Did you get this recently? I was told current production times are pretty backed up, and I'm wondering if ARE build quality is always like this or if they're rushing to get through their backlog?

 

Totally understand, it's ridiculous for the price. I looked into buying an ARE aluminum contractor shell new and was talking about the prices with a local dealer, who quoted me a little under $3k with the options I wantes--he said they use the same molds and hardware and make the same product as they did 20 years ago, but the prices have doubled. Kind of a bummer

 

I just told my friend the design of it feels "primitive" and what would come out of a guy and a garage not a big factory/company like ARE. Knowing its basically the same product from 20 years ago makes sense.

 

Clearly finished in a small workshop, wouldn’t pay 1000 for that. Probably clearing old part inventory from failed iterations. With lasers being so affordable a lot of those cuts could be done perfectly for a few bucks total during production.

you can get an entire manufactured inboard boat on alibaba for 3k