Alu-Cab Gladiator Bed Cap

[steffen707]

I mean, compare ALU with RSI. Look at the corners, they're HUGE, and the side windows waste like 3-4 inches.

I do think the RSI looks awesome with those boxy fenders they got on there. But still happy I picked Alu-Cab!

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[Veloruche]

It’s gong on!!!!

More
Pics later!

Hate I missed it today, couldn't get away from work. Looks great!

 

[smlobx]

Another piece of interesting information I found out today while at AVO...

The dynamic load for the canopy is 350#
The stationary load is a whopping 800#’s !

Each of the corners are built with full channel (4 sided ) tubing. That’s what gives it the strength without taking up much space.

I was asked if I might be interested is showing the canopy at Expo East!....

 

[coreoski]

That's awesome! Crazy strong!

Did they know anything about recommended wiring options? ;-P

 

[steffen707]

Another piece of interesting information I found out today while at AVO...

The dynamic load for the canopy is 350#
The stationary load is a whopping 800#’s !

Each of the corners are built with full channel (4 sided ) tubing. That’s what gives it the strength without taking up much space.

I was asked if I might be interested is showing the canopy at Expo East!....

just out of curiosity, i need to go see what rsi and RLD's numbers are.

EDIT: RLD claims 700lbs dynamic and RSI EVO holds up to 330 lbs when moving and a whopping 770 lbs when parked.

So RLD clearly blows away the competition IF their claim is accurate. Guess I need to calculate the weight of what I might haul up top. probably only an RTT and maybe a few odds and ends.

Ikamper xcover is 120 lbs
Mt. Rainier Extended Stargazer Summit by CVT is 270lbs
150-200lbs seems average, so 350 lbs seems plenty.

 

[smlobx]

That's awesome! Crazy strong!

Did they know anything about recommended wiring options? ;-P

Not sure what you’re asking Corey but I will tell you that it comes with two pigtails.

The one coming off the back passenger corner is for the rear brake light (we will now have 4 brake lights on our trucks!). He slightly bored out one of the holes on the corner of the bed and then picked up the brake light from the rear corner lights.

The second pigtail comes off the rear drivers corner and this is for the 3 led lights that come standard with the canopy (I didn’t know this). They asked me how I wanted to be able to turn the lights on and I said anytime I wanted to wether or not the truck is on so they ran a wire into the bed of the truck like they did on the other side and ran the wire along the rail up to the battery where they installed a fuse before connecting it to the battery.

The led lights have a medium and high setting and provide a lot of light when on. They are each switched separately.

 

[smlobx]

Hate I missed it today, couldn't get away from work. Looks great!

‘They are installing another one today for another customer. Stop by if you can!

 

[Rokon]

Not sure what you’re asking Corey but I will tell you that it comes with two pigtails.

The one coming off the back passenger corner is for the rear brake light (we will now have 4 brake lights on our trucks!). He slightly bored out one of the holes on the corner of the bed and then picked up the brake light from the rear corner lights.

The second pigtail comes off the rear drivers corner and this is for the 3 led lights that come standard with the canopy (I didn’t know this). They asked me how I wanted to be able to turn the lights on and I said anytime I wanted to wether or not the truck is on so they ran a wire into the bed of the truck like they did on the other side and ran the wire along the rail up to the battery where they installed a fuse before connecting it to the battery.

The led lights have a medium and high setting and provide a lot of light when on. They are each switched separately.

@smlobx can you provide more detail on the brake light wiring? Which truck wires were tapped for which cap brake light wires? Thanks

 

[smlobx]

@smlobx can you provide more detail on the brake light wiring? Which truck wires were tapped for which cap brake light wires? Thanks

They took the brake off the body of the truck and tested which wire had power when the brake pedal was applied. Don’t quote me but I think it was the green wire.

 

[steffen707]

@smlobx can you provide more detail on the brake light wiring? Which truck wires were tapped for which cap brake light wires? Thanks

Should be able to put a test light on ground and see which wire energizes when a helper steps on the brake light. then you can check for continuity between ground and the other wires to find a solid ground wire. once I get my cap and start installing everything, i'll post back what wires I ended up using.

 

[smlobx]

I’m hoping to do a series of posts to hopefully answer most of the questions you guys may have..

Up first is the fit of the canopy to the bed..

there are 3 stainless steel custom brackets on each side that are attached with SS bolts to the Gladiator bed rail. These brackets are really well built and will securely hold the canopy to the truck regardless of what you do to it.

Also, as you know the front of the bed is slightly below the side rails and this would create a potential leak point. The canopy front is actually slightly lower than the sides and along with the heavy duty gasket completely seals the canopy to the bed. We drove home in heavy rain yesterday and didn’t have one drop inside!

Now some pics!

 

[smlobx]

Dimensions...

‘Here are some dimensions that might help you if you want to throw something in there...

 

[smlobx]

The load bars...

I was blown away how well built these load bars are made. As you can see from the end picture they are made of multi channel extruded aluminum and are very strong.

The load bars are normally attached directly on top of the canopy via a “L” bracket to the channels on the canopy. I needed a minimum of 2” from the top of the bars to the top of the canopy so that I can use the bolts that are on my Roofnest hard shell pop up tent and AVO supplied these Alu-Cab risers which gave me just what I need...

 

[steffen707]

there are 3 stainless steel custom brackets on each side that are attached with SS bolts to the Gladiator bed rail. These brackets are really well built and will securely hold the canopy to the truck regardless of what you do to it

and they can stay on the rail unlike the clamps some OTHER canopies use. This should make uninstalling/reinstalling easy peasy.

 

[steffen707]

Also, as you know the front of the bed is slightly below the side rails and this would create a potential leak point. The canopy front is actually slightly lower than the sides and along with the heavy duty gasket completely seals the canopy to the bed. We drove home in heavy rain yesterday and didn’t have one drop inside!

i'm so glad they did this instead of making it flat accross and used another gasket on the front. Did this also help to figure out where laterally "centered" was?

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