Let's see those Alu-cab setups

No extra sealing done at all, unboxed it and installed it. Just made sure it was mounted even on the bed rails and bolted it down. Comes pre-wired for 3rd brake and interior lights. Pos/neg are located near the back door and are routed separately.

 

Booty pics from today’s cleanup.

 

Damn, that looks like the back of an MRAP!

Aewsome BTW

Derek

 

Thanks! It was a nice day yesterday so I added some butyl tape on some areas that will be annoying to access once the canopy gets mounted. Figure it can't hurt.

I pulled up the bed rails and laid some butyl tape along the inner edge of the rail, I'm pretty sure the holes the bed caps snap into are open to the wheel well and could be a point of intrusion. I also pulled the front header rail and laid butyl tape underneath and smushed some in-between the header and the side rail at the front.

 

Would anyone be willing to measure from the ground to the top of their closed camper? (Of course it's varied based on suspension, weight, tires just need a general measurements)

My wife and I are considering an Alu-cab after realizing out current set up isn't up to par.

 

This is how a canopy is shipped: Alu-Cab Canopy by chris tsay, on Flickr

Door side down, cab side up. Going to grab a buddy tomorrow to mount it up. Packaging was smushed on one corner but I opened it up and appears to be no damage to the canopy.

edit: Had the orientation of the topper wrong.

 

Did you ever get the canopy installed?

 

Ha, not yet. Tomorrow my wife will be off and she'll be able to help get it on the truck. Evidently bothering our neighbors to help is not acceptable to her. I'm working from home because of 'rona so hoping to get it done in the afternoon when it's warm out.

I did get the Total Chaos bed stiffeners installed today, painted the holes and then bedded them with butyl tape, because why not.

 

Ok, it's on the truck but not fully secured. This thing is way lighter than a fiberglass topper. In the past when we've had to remove or install the fiberglass topper on our first gen it was a huge ordeal. This thing went up pretty easily. First got the front of the canopy resting on the back of the bed rails with a person on each side. Then my wife went into the bed and made sure we stayed relatively centered as I picked up the door side.

The fitment guide on their website isn't 100% matching what I received but the hardware I have on hand will work fine:
The spacers I received are really a bunch of shims that go between the top mount bracket and the vertical mount bracket and I am glad I have these.
There are no spacers that go between the vertical mount bracket and the Toyota bed rail, I don't see any need for it.
Their diagrams of the assembly stack (bolt, washer, nut etc) is incomplete, I've got enough flat washers in the kit that they should go to all the places a washer would normally go. That is to say underneath every bolt head (except the bolt head in the Alu-Cab rail) and underneath every Nyloc Nut. The pictures seem in line with what I'd expect.

Interior lighting which is present at the rear center of the roof as well as on both door panels is routed to the drivers side of the rear door. The brake lamp which is mounted in the door has its wiring routed to the passenger side of the door. Luckily I ordered a 4-way DTM and 2x 2-way DTM to be able to handle them being routed to the same side or different sides.

Untitled by chris tsay, on Flickr

Untitled by chris tsay, on Flickr

 

Aside from what you present as minimal issues detailed above the cab looks good!
Also what part of Texas you from?

 

If anyone sees my Gen III RTT let me know the truck and tent were stolen from the Seatac Marriott Hotel parking lot on 12/17/2020

 

I'm so sorry to here that. What a phucking shame.
Zim

 

Yeah, these aren't even issues, just details for the next person that DIYs the install. Fairly impressed so far.

I'm in Austin, TX.

 

That is super shitty mate, sorry to hear. I will keep an eye out for it at this end.

 

Finished securing the canopy and installing the load bars. Pretty straightforward except that the way that the fitment guide recommends installing the load bars is more difficult than it has to be.

The load bars are not symmetric, there's a slot along one edge for mounting of the low profile brackets. These slots for the low profile brackets are to the rear for the front bar and to the front for the rear bar. The orientation doesn't matter if you are using the high profile brackets as they mount through the bottom but you'll want to make sure whichever orientation you pick the end caps have 'Alu-Cab' right side up if you are OCD.

Also I found it way easier to mount the high profile brackets to the canopy and also loosely install the hex bolt / washer / nyloc fasteners for the cross bar. Then slide the bar over the hex bolt. This saves you from trying to thread the nylon nut while keeping the washer in place while everything is inverted and the bar in the way.

 

Truck has been recovered, thank you to all who kept an eye out for it.

 

So much for MT being a theft deterrent. What condition did the dirtbags leave it in?

 

Headliner will need to be replaced, truck smells like pot. Truckvault was broken into, canopy doors damaged.

 

Sorry to hear that. Hope it gets fixed to your satisfaction. Sucks that there's so many people out to get something for nothing, and that don't appreciate how hard we work to have nice things.

 

Good to here but still sorry for the damage. If you can, keep us informed about how the insurance will handle all this. I have lost sleep wondering if all this crap would be replaced. PM me if it's too personal for the internet. Not interested in numbers, just how they work it.
Thank you Sir, and good luck.
Zim