Sealing the front of the Tacoma bed before ARE MX Install

Greetings. Just placed a deposit on an ARE MX topper for my 2021 Tacoma - 16 week lead time!

Anyway, I am planning on sealing up the bed in various areas against dirt, dust and water since I plan to take this offroad and have reada bout all the dirt and dust that gets up in the bed area. I asked them about the obvious area where the side of the bed meets the front of the bed. The tech I spoke to said NOT to worry about that spot, that they use some of the ARE topper seal to seal that up. He says they do it on all the Tacomas and haven't heard of any issues from people.

I was going to use rubber butyl to seal that area up, but now I am torn. Trust that they do it properly, or say heck with it, I trust myself more than I trust them and do it myself.

Opinions? Thoughts? Anyone else have the topper company seal that area for them?

 

I agree that you should trust yourself more than the topper installers. They're pros, which means that they want to get your truck out the door as quickly as possible. To them, time is money. So they take shortcuts.

The first step would be to pull all three plastic bed caps off and seal underneath. (The installers almost never do this -- they put a bulb gasket on top of the plastic caps. But that's not where the water comes in.)

The front corners have big, obvious gaps. Use the Toyota rubber plugs that are normally installed with factory tonneau covers. They cost $32 each but are worth it IMO. You need to notch the side caps so that the plugs will fit. There are threads here on TW that show you how to do this. Use silicone sealant in addition to the plugs.

Plug the 3 drainage holes in the bed, and the 2 drainage holes in the passenger side cubby, with 5/16" plugs you can pick up at Lowe's or Home Depot. You'll also have to do something about the slots for the hinges and clasp on the cubby lid, but that can wait until later.

Since you have time, you might want to pre-wire the truck for the topper, as well. Again, this is something that the installers do in a slapdash manner. Find out what ARE uses for a connection. (Leer uses a special fuse box that the truck wiring plugs into.) If ARE is like Leer, they probably market a T-harness that uses the 7-pin trailer connector, so you don't have to tap into the existing wiring.

 

Thanks for the feedback. I had read about those cover plugs used on factory covers but people said it still leaked. I did not think about using them WITH some sort of sealant. I will take another look. I imagine the gap to seal with those are significantly smaller and easier to have success with. Also did not think about using plugs on the drain holes you mention. Iwas going to seal over those, but love the idea of plugs so it is not permanent.

I was planning on pulling up the rail covers, sealing the side rails with foil tape to cover all the large gaps and then a bead of some sort of sealant. Here is where I don't see a consensus. Silicone, RTV, or rubber butyl. Anecdotally I get the impression rubber butyl is the better bet based on what I have read. But I imagine simply using a sealant of any kind is going to work.

 

The problem with that is that the holes in the top of the fenders are used for the clips that are part of the plastic top caps. So, if you cover the holes with foil tape, the tape will be penetrated when you put the caps back on.

What you want to do is seal inboard of the holes, so that any water that works its way up through the holes will drain harmlessly toward the outside of the truck. Look at the bottom of the plastic rail caps. It's not flat. There's a web of pockets and reinforcing splines. You want to put your sealant so that it makes contact with the reinforcing splines (the high points on the bottom of the caps). It's a good idea to run a generous bead of sealant along the inside edge at the top of the bed. It doesn't matter if it's a little sloppy because it will be covered by the lip of the plastic cap.

 

My ARE dealer installed my MX on my ‘19. They did remove parts of the front bed rail. Also applied some silicone in other places. 20k miles in some heavy Florida rains with no leaks.
I bought my first topper for my 1979 Toyota Hilux SR5 from this same shop back in 1983. Some shops do quality work. Most folks just have to stop shopping for cheapest price and get quality.

 

OP I am in the same situation as you. I've had these items in my Amazon cart for a week now but haven't pulled the the trigger on the topper yet.

 

ha I have probably looked at every single one of those items!

what topper and you getting and how long before it arrives? I am feeling OK with the 16 weeks to do multiple passes on some thing if needed.

FYI one bit of advice the topper place told me if I was going g to seal the rails, they said take the bed t-bolt rails off.

that will expose press
Tabs that let you pull up the side rails more easily. A lot of the YouTube videos show people just ripping those off.

I cannot confirm if this is true but I plan to do some trial and error stuff this weekend just exposing easy times to see what I am dealing with.

 

Leer 100XR with windoors and bug screens.
I haven't ordered it yet! Soon probably.

 

Jesus what do you do for a living? You just assume someone isn’t going to give a fuck installing a 2-4K topper. People and businesses don’t last without doing good work especially in today’s day and age with you Twitter finger guys

 

The bulb gaskets, etc., should be part of the standard installation (from the dealer). The sealing that you do, prior to the installation, only requires off-the-shelf silicone sealant, that you can pick up at any Home Depot. (The only exception is the Toyota front-corner plugs, that I mentioned earlier.)

My remarks are based on experience. Dealer-installers are not the perfectionists that some owners are. I got my first Leer cap in 1999. As it turned out, I had to redo the wiring. (I'm not faulting the dealer, because I got my most recent Leer cap at the same place. But this time, I made sure to do the wiring myself before having the cap installed.)

 

Okay thanks. A lot of those rubber seals that are in my shopping cart pic will also be used around the tailgate to keep dust out. I don't think I need to order all of it though.

 

Does anyone have pics/video of this process? I've looked on youtube and can't find a comphrehensive DIY tutorial. Thanks!

 

Maybe try some of these..

 

The bed rails come off super easy, but be careful. We removed those, put down silicone in-board of all the holes, and reinstalled them. Then removed the front rail using a torq bit, and siliconed all of that up. Used butyl tape to plug the front bed holes. Sealed the tailgate with an ESI gasket kit. Gorilla-taped the holes in the floor of the bed. Then had a LEER 180 installed. The truck has been in, and been driven in, some torrential downpours. No leaks at all.

 

I finally got around to sealing the bed rails this weekend. A few surprises and a few things expected. I doubt it is perfect there are a LOT of areas for dust and water to get in. I think I will be reasonably OK on water, not positive on dust (note I know I still have more to do to seal up around the tailgate area. I do live in San Diego so I am not overly concerned on water, more on dust.

Note I used "GE Window and Door Advanced Silicone" mainly. I do have butyl rubber but opted against it for the rails. I am using the Butyl rubber for the front corners but have not finished it yet.

Pics with narrative.

Bed rails came off easily but be careful as mentioned above by another. Videos online show people just pulling them off from one end like pealing a band-aid off. Go slowly and pull up each section carefully. The tabs can break and or get deformed. The plastic rail may also get a bend in it if you pull all the way up from one end and peel.



What I was not expecting was that just about every opening along the top has a tab that gets pressed into it. At first I was thinking, great I bought the foil ape for nothing. Well I didn't use any along the top at least.



This opening was a surprise to me and it for sure had a viewpoint indirectly to the wheel well. I did use foil tape over this area.




Also don't know what these mounts are for, but these also could see daylight so I foil taped over them. There area three sets on each side (sorry no pics of tape over them.



This is my silicon job. It took more than half the tube for one side, so buy two tubes. I was generous on the bead size based on other threads I read.



This one one of the back corners. You can see some clear silicone along the front of the rail, this is from when I installed the front rail a few months ago and while I had it off I decided to seal it.

You can also see my buildup of butyl rubber where I am starting to seal up the corner. Most of the pics you see are just of that "gap" between the front rail and the side rail, but there is a lot of hidden unseen openings for water and dust to get in.

I've seen sloppy pics of silicone just squirted all over the corners. I decides the butyl would be cleaner and more controllable.



Not I also took the mounting rails off, rolled short, very thin pieces of butyl rubber, put them on the back of the rails surrounding the bolt mounting holes and remounted them to hopefully eliminate any water from getting in from that area (no pics).

Like I said, not perfect but better than not trying. I need to tackle the tailgate area and cubby hole area next but those are not critical to get done before the ARE MX shell goes on.

 

I am also located in Florida and I’m interested in an MX cover for my 2021 DCSB SR5.

mom in the central Florida region, what shop did you have your work done at? Is it close to central Florida?

 

Those are for the OEM tonneau

 

https://www.arrowtoppers.com/ In Pinellas Park, Fl. Depends how exact you need “central” to be. Central but on the coast.

 

Very helpful BattleKat. Thanks. My Leer should be coming in a few weeks for my new 2022 SR/SX. I'm ordering sealant and butyl now.