Gondul
Prince of Pintops
- Joined
- Mar 10, 2019
- Messages
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Into the cab is a great idea......(light bulb went off)
If you can figure out a nice clean way to do it, write it up!
Into the cab is a great idea......(light bulb went off)
Like LateToTheParty, I changed my third brake light assembly. I had the CHMSL and Surround camera. I left the CHMSL camera plugged in and tucked it into the cab hole. My surround works with no problems.
The reason I swapped mine out is because the plastic housing broke and started to leak badly into the cab. (I don't think there is a good leak). It you take your truck off road, you may want to consider the swap with a low profile third brake light assembly. It seems the truck flexed enough to allow the canopy to hit the third brake light with CHMSL. I was not wheeling that hard for it to happen.
I had 3/4" when the light was broken.I don't recall how much space you said you had, but it wasn't a lot from what I recall...
Thanks, sir. The brake light wire you reference, is it connected to the trailer harness or tail lights? Or is it specifically for adding a topper? I’ll look for that wire this afternoon.I had the dealer install the shell and I did my own wiring. On my 2019 there is a single brake light wire with loom over the end of it just above the spare tire, closest to the back bumper where I tapped in for the third brake light. My ARE shell has the locking handle so I tapped into the door lock wires as stated in the ARE install sheet, under drivers side sill. I also ran 12v hot and ground directly from the drivers side battery into the bed for accessories.
Yeah ARE is worthless they told me that their tops are for water management not to be waterproof. The installer told me that water can leak under the factory plastic bed rail covers. Also told me that they would have to remove the factory bed rail supports to move the c clamp forward. The picture is from just sitting in the rain not even driving and that much comes in.My ARE MX leaked like a sieve... I had make a bunch of mods on my own to get it to seal better.
While the installer was helpful, ARE was pretty useless... for what I paid, I expected better, the old Z I had on my Dakota has ZERO leaks.
This was the gap at the edges... I shaped some Kydex and used some plastic epoxy glue it into place to fill in the 'triangle' gap along with some some extra weather stripping along the inside.
Also there is no gasket between the plastic and the aluminum door frame, it is just riveted into place... so I used some black RTV to fill and seal that gap and cut up a silicone cutting mat to have a real gasket on the T Handle.
They are just across the bay from me, but it's still a waste of time IMO... It was just easier for me to 'fix' myself...Man I hope mine doesn’t leak. Supposedly my installer leak tests them after install
My installer literally used clay to fill the gap for the transition from the side rails to the front and then used a rather large 'bulb' type weather stripping to minimize that leakage along the front of the bed.Yeah ARE is worthless they told me that their tops are for water management not to be waterproof. The installer told me that water can leak under the factory plastic bed rail covers. Also told me that they would have to remove the factory bed rail supports to move the c clamp forward. The picture is from just sitting in the rain not even driving and that much comes in.
Yeah mine did too. It has 4 strips of the foam in the front and the clay/tar stuff. The last time I went in he loaded up the rear with the clay and we readjusted the rear window. Still leaks like crazy. I may buy some garage door rubber weather stripping and try that. I’ve pretty much come to the conclusion that if I want it to not leak I have to figure it out.My installer literally used clay to fill the gap for the transition from the side rails to the front and then used a rather large 'bulb' type weather stripping to minimize that leakage along the front of the bed.