Let's See Some Softoppers

what’s up jack! I did, appreciate your and airmax’s advice. Finished putting it on a bit ago.

 

Looks good! Looks really good!!!!

 

So long softopper. You've treated me right for a while now, but it's time you make someone else happy. Truck looks so strange without it. Tomorrow, hard shell.




Bars spoken for, but topper is still available for sale.

 

The truck looks naked! I’m sure your shell will look good tho.

 

I'm in the third year with mine (ST)
Two trips across country (camping all the way)
We get winter in VT. I do the ski patrol gig, so drive to the mountain every day.

No issues with the ST in winter!

That said, I have a car park at home, and open the back CAREFULLY just to get ski gear out in winter. I would NOT roll up the rear window at -10f. But flipping it up slowly has caused no damage.

We were just in Phoenix last week, Everything about the Soft Topper was more pliable.

 

I’m having trouble with the search function trying to find the DIY Softopper Tent (the one that zipped into the end of the topper) that a member made. Anybody have the link or thread readily accessible?

 

Spray paint is an easy fix! Slide some wax paper under the clasp and spritz just enough to cover.

 

I am also several years into ownership and I love my softtopper. I had it on my second gen and now my 3rd gen with a new tail flap to fit the curved tailgate. I have always taken it off in the winter because I was worried about the rear window getting brittle and cracking in the cold. Good to hear you havent had problems. It is so useful for hauling ski gear in the winter!

 

Wind came up that evening something fierce. The ground tent was flattened about 45 degrees. We slept in the truck under the Softopper.
The night time stars were incredible!
Perfectly calm in the morning.

SE Colorado.

 

Hey guys kinda a strange question here. I ordered a whitewater raft. I don’t have a trailer nor a place to put one so I’ll be inflating and deflating the raft and transporting it in the bed. It’s gonna have an oar frame, which I’m planning to strap on top of the bed. Do you think it would bend/dent/damage the softopper rails that run on top of the bed rails if I did this?

If you don’t know much about rafting, picture an aluminum frame slightly larger than our bed that weighs 80-100+ pounds, the weight would be distributed on both sides of the bed.

I haven’t unpacked and installed my softopper hence why I’m asking.

 

Frame is aluminum i think it will bend

 

Does it have to go across the bed? I mean, can it drop in on one side so it sticks up in the other? That way it wouldn’t really be sitting in the rails.

 

You could always just completely remove the softopper including the rails when transporting the raft. After the initial install it's surprisingly easy to quickly remove and install the whole assembly
On my FasTop that I have I marked where the bolts go and frame sits so I could remove the whole assembly when my truck had to get body work done. Took less than 2 minutes to remove and maybe 5 minutes to reinstall.

 

This is definitely a possibility. The problem is I’m gonna have a bunch of other gear to load up as well, so in my mind I was hoping I could lay it across the top in order to look a bit less trash and to save space for the raft, coolers, dry box, oars, pfd’s etc. Thanks for the responses guys I figured this was the case, I’m gonna have to do some brainstorming or possibly just dismantle and reassemble the raft frame each trip, which seems like a pain. Or take the softopper off entirely which presents a new problem. If only I had a trailer and space for one! I’ll figure something out. Thanks again.

 

Or if you plan on rafting a lot these bars might be a worthwhile investment.

https://heavymetaloffroad.com/produ...per-bed-bar-21-inch-pair-heavy-metal-off-road

 

yes, I left my truck at the Denver airport for a week I winter. I came back to the back vinyl shattered like glass. still some frozen pieces of it in the bed that I snapped like cheap Tupperware

 

I changed my tonneau for a Softopper off Cragislist last week. It would have been really easy to install if I didn't insist on keeping some of my molle bed panels. Eventually I figured out what I needed to grind down and now it's working great.

 

So after having my Softopper sitting in my basement for around eight months I finally installed it yesterday. I rushed it a bit cause I had to get to work and it was also starting to rain. So today I went back out (in the rain again) and kind of did a re install just to make sure I got it right. Everything went pretty well but upon completion I noticed that on one of the square frames it’s kind of twisted or tweaked at the joint where the two pieces connect, it is not like this on the other side. The square tubes are sitting flush in the clamps however they seem to be angled slightly inward towards the bed. Is this normal? Here’s a pic


Eveything looks normal and correct from the outside as far as I can tell.

 

That doesn’t quite look right to me. Both of my square tubing frames are pretty well aligned. The photo below is the worst looking one on my passenger side:



I would double check the inner sleeve to make sure it isn’t twisted and verify that both clamps are properly seated in the cargo track.

 

Yeah I'm gonna mess with it again tomorrow, something has gotta be off with my installation. That or improperly manufactured bars.