Questionable Leer Quality

My son's new Leer 180 for his 23 TRD OR DCLB came in last week. Yesterday it was installed. Less than 4 Weeks from order to delivery. Top is real nice, but I can't say the same about the wiring. He got LED lights in both the front and the back. The Installer did a great job installing it. When he went to test the lights, they did not work (3rd Brake did). After a lot of trouble shooting it was discovered after removal of the wire loom that the ground wires for the lights were cut at the connector. Due to the length of the wires, they just couldn't be re-crimped. So we took the truck home and I got out my soldering iron (Installer didn't have one) and some wire and was able to repair everything. Got both lights working. You would think that they would test all features before delivering a product.

 

Fiberglass truck topper companies are notorious for not giving a shit about quality anymore. Seems universal for the whole industry these days. I had so many problems with my Snugtop (paint issues, leaks, scratches, blemishes, etc..) I ended up getting a lot of my money back, but it took several months and lots of phone calls between the shop and the Snugtop rep. Snugtop and Leer are the same company, so same business ethics.

 

Another awful Leer experience here; from nuts & bolts continuously falling out to leaks everywhere (somewhat due to an extremely poor install at my local dealer), I even contacted the manufacturer by email with questions and got a very harsh response. Finally sold it at 60% of what I paid. Item had been custom ordered for a Ram with color match (OK on the match) but the fit wasn't what I expected; the top left significant scratches on both sides of the outside fenders due to improper fitment or insufficient insulating foam rubber seal. I mounted & re-mounted the top the best I could and got real good at re-assembling the hatch lock mechanism because it constantly rattled apart. Sure looked nice but the leaks & hatch issues did it for me.

 

I had purchased my Leer topper right before COVID, took 3 months but everything was perfect. Still have zero issues with mine. Manufacturer quality has tanked since the plannedemic.

 

I have an ARE that is terrible. I would not buy another. My local dealer sucked too.

 

It's like anything else; often quality is driven down when prices are driven down,,, can't have it both ways.
These topper MFG's seem to share a space with the camper MFGs,,,,, it's price price price and somewhere along line # 76 comes a mention of quality.

 

Every single truck topper these days is shit. There is zero quality control.

Edit: I will say that at least my local dealer fixed a bunch of wiring fuck ups from the factory on my snugtop.

 

My brand new Leer 180 has issues too. The trim around the removable front window was bent up and is being replaced. The trim around one windoor is not exactly straight, but is close enough that the windoor works fine. I attached a battery powered LED push light in each corner with Velcro on the carpet headliner and noticed that the carpet is not secured in lots of spots. There’s enough adhesive to hold it all in place, but there are some corners where you can easily pull the carpet away from the wall and it’s obvious there’s no adhesive behind it.

I still like the camper and I’ve put it to good use and I’m glad I bought it, but it definitely has some issues that it shouldn’t have.

 

Yeah, I don't think Snugtop are much better either. Bought a new one about 6 months after I bought my 2020.
Fit/finish/electrical/installation were all just fine, and has a really nice bright LED dome light.... But 6-7 months later I was backing up out of the driveway and the whole rear glass just imploded. Sounded like a gun-shot going off. I couldn't believe it. There was absolutely nothing I could have possibly backed into.
Got the glass replaced, but it was a 6 month wait to get the replacement glass (It only took 3 months to get the whole shell to begin with) and cost me $700....
Yikes.

 

The cheap rubber skirt that runs along the bottom of my back liftgate just decided to come unglued, so I used gorilla glue and gorilla tape to put it back on.

My snugtop leaks a bit, I’m really not invested in trying to make it work and spending more money.

 

Got a ARE Revo. Terrible leaker. Poor quality overall. Got some $ back from dealer, but stuck with constant leaks. Never again ARE.

 

Dang, this sucks to hear. I've been looking for a used one for my 1st. Gen. and finding nothing, so I started looking at new. I think I'll keep looking for a nice used one. I don't want to take the chance and roll the dice on QC for the kind of money a new one is. It seems everything is like that, it takes 2, 3, or 4 times to get something right anymore.

 

I got a brand new Leer XQ from the dealer. Third brake light has water intrusion but still works. There’s a water leak where the rear glass, shell and lift gate all come together. I’m having a hard time figuring out how to make that spot water tight.
I like it enough overall, but the price I paid versus quality doesn’t really match up.

 

You can’t even have it either way with camper shells these days. Quality is at an all time low, and prices are at an all time high. People are spending upwards of $4000 now on new toppers with the features everyone wants like windoors, roof racks, keyless entry, etc… Mine was $3650 more than 2 years ago, before I got a good chunk of that back for all the shoddy bullshit. But I had to fight hard for that. At first they wanted to send it back over the border to the same factory that fucked it up initially, so why the hell would I want it to go back there? And it was going to be a 4-6 month wait (even tho it was a 3 month wait for the whole thing to be made). So I kept the topper and fixed what I could (I had to remove all of the windows and reseal them with silicone, re-paint all the window frames because they were scratched and looked like they were 10 years old, unbend one of the frames, fix their wiring for the lights, re-glue carpet in multiple spots, fix the keyless entry solenoid that had loose wiring, replace weather stripping that was torn within a few weeks, etc…). I got it to the point it doesn’t leak much now and looks good. But it was a lot of work. And for how much they charge for their product, it’s ridiculous. I wonder how many people are too nice to stick up for themselves and just get bent over by Leer and Snugtop.

 

See post #53 in this thread for my solution.
https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/advice-needed-leer-100xr-canopy-leaking.695797/page-3

 

I was glad I got my ARE used ($500) because the quality is not great, and it's a pre-COVID unit.

 

Have been happy with my leer top. Only issue was some of the led’s on the brake light went bad but a $50 replacement solved it.

 

My 2023 produced leer cap is awesome as I just live with the leaking …. I fixed the 3rd brake light leak with some RTV sealant and that stopped the one leak that annoyed me the most

 

That was helpful, thanks! I’ll have to look into that