So I’ve been reading several posts/watching several youtube vids about water and dust intrusion, either while driving or while parked with tent up. I recently bought my V2 used and noticed a lot of dust and dry water/dirt inside. Wondering if anyone else has dealt with these issues and/or “fixed” them.
I went ahead and looked at my bed first (2017 Toyota Tundra). Despite having a LineX bedliner sprayed in, I could see some spots on the bed wall depressions where light came in. I sealed them up with silicon, as well as some thin pieces of plate steel with silicon to cover/seal some OEM holes in the bottom front of the bed.
Now to the GFC. I did use the proper rubber seal tape when I installed it. Pre-measured the width of GFC to make sure I had the rubber seal placed properly and even on both sides of bed. Also, front of bed also got the rubber seal. I’m fairly confident there should be no dust or water intrusion there. Looking at the clamshell/tent frame, I believe I’ll also have issues. I noticed the top half has that 1/2" wide and maybe 1/4" thick seal on it, however, it does not extend all the way to the front and over what I’m calling the silver hinge part for the tent. While I understand the tolerances are tight, there’s no way two pieces aluminum without a rubber seal is going to keep water out. I did notice my GFC has the larger weep holes in the top frame to allow water to exit the frame. I’ll be inserting a long thin hose and attaching it to my air compressor to blow out any debris or dirt. I’m planning to also replace that rubber seal on the clamshell to better seal the top half of the tent frame to the bottom half. Probably using a seal that’s a little thicker and wider. I did notice that there’s a couple spots in that OEM seal on the tent frame that has crimps in it, likely due to the PO having portions of the tent sticking out when she closed it.
Now onto the bed. Not sure if this is a design flaw, or if the prior owner bought a GFC for a different truck because the footprint fit, but there’s a 1x1" gap between the tailgate/bed frame and GFC frame/rear panel, in both corners. I’m debating getting a couple small pieces of aluminum plate, like 2x1" pieces, and epoxying them to the inside of the frame side, having them extend down to just above the bed. I’d place a rubber edge trim that I’ve put on the bottom edges of the panels to avoid any sharp edges.
Frame on both sides of the side panels. So the frame is about two inches wide, running from the top to the bottom on each side of the side panels. It’s just the aluminum panel bent on both sides to prevent intrusion. However, I noticed a lot of dust and dried water drip marks. Wondering if anyone has placed a piece of adhesive rubber/foam tape seal inside the frame?
Here’s some pics of the issues and I plan to get the dogboxparts vent to create negative pressure to further reduce dust. I’m in So Cal so I’ll have more dust versus water issues.
