RLD designs pic request

[MeanMachine]

where did you get that water tank from? Love your set up.

found it on Amazon, Reliance Products 7 gallon jerry can

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[LostWoods]

Here you go

Appreciate it, but I'm actually wondering the size of the bolt holes themselves so i can figure out if I need 6, 8, or 10mm. That way I can get the right size bars because if it's a 10mm hole, I think that means only the 45 series 80/20 will work.

The answer is 10mm for anyone wondering. Measured mine last night.

EDIT: I'm completely full of shit on this one... pulled the stopper out and a 1/2" bolt barely fits so I'm guessing 12mm given it's not American. Guess my calipers weren't zero'd when i measured the first time.

 

[LostWoods]

Ok so not having a great time here... for those who installed their own Gen 2, how bad was the hole alignment? These are all slotted holes but I'm talking 1/2" misalignment or more.

Also, does anyone have a shot of how far forward their cap is relative to the front because I either get a gap on the front bracket I can stick my finger behind or it hits the cab and I can't close the back hatch.

edit: And Joost calling with the awesome customer service. Seems there's some inconsistencies in bed fit and drilling is a fairly normal thing. Guess I'll get that taken care of tonight.

 

[willemlock]

Ok so not having a great time here... for those who installed their own Gen 2, how bad was the hole alignment? These are all slotted holes but I'm talking 1/2" misalignment or more.

Also, does anyone have a shot of how far forward their cap is relative to the front because I either get a gap on the front bracket I can stick my finger behind or it hits the cab and I can't close the back hatch.

edit: And Joost calling with the awesome customer service. Seems there's some inconsistencies in bed fit and drilling is a fairly normal thing. Guess I'll get that taken care of tonight.

Did you bend the front plates for a better fitment?

 

[LostWoods]

Did you bend the front plates for a better fitment?

Front on the inside or outside? Inside doesn't even come close to hitting but if I get it where I'd need to bend it, the outside lip hits the cab.

 

[willemlock]

Front on the inside or outside? Inside doesn't even come close to hitting but if I get it where I'd need to bend it, the outside lip hits the cab.

On the inside, both sides have to be bent to get it a nice fit. I don’t have my Gladiator with me at the moment so can’t take a better photo sorry.

 

[LostWoods]

On the inside, both sides have to be bent to get it a nice fit. I don’t have my Gladiator with me at the moment so can’t take a better photo sorry.

Yeah, that's not a problem on mine... if my cap was that far forward it would be pushed into the cab. Had a conversation with Joost and it seems there's some variance with the caps and trucks. I'm wondering if they're still tweaking the design and I got like a v2.1 or something because there's no possible way I'd need to bend that front lip like people did previously.

Now I want to go take a better look because I think the clearance behind that lip to my bed is very close to how large a gap I have from the brackets to the bed holes. I wonder if that got pushed out but they didn't adjust the design elsewhere and that's why my bolt holes all seem pushed back. Even the rear one seems further back than most others' are in pics.

Thanks for trying to help though... sounds like i need to just drill some holes which is apparently how most of these are installed for other trucks anyway.

 

[Seanrobsar]

It seems RLD fixed some problems and now have others.
1. Big shout out to Joost and Chris at Rhino Adventure for taking care of me. I got my new Gen 2 and overall im pleased. They have my respect and my business.

2. The Cap looks better with the new shape. Definitely follows the lines of of the cab.
Fitment is still a slight issue. I kinda think all canopies don't fit perfectly. My last fiberglass had issues too.
For my Gen 2, now it's too far forward. My cap was bumping up against the back window. When the truck flexes on a bump it would make an awful sound. I had to put washers in-between the front mounts and the bed to push it back a few mm.
The other issue is the back door is too long and you have to close the tail gate and the door together. When you do the roof of the Cap flexes up. I was thinking of grinding down the plastic on the top of the tail gate. I just don't know if it's hollow it not. I have removed the gasket from the bottom of the window, but it's still way too tight.

If any one has ideas I'm all ears.

 

[LostWoods]

It seems RLD fixed some problems and now have others.
1. Big shout out to Joost and Chris at Rhino Adventure for taking care of me. I got my new Gen 2 and overall im pleased. They have my respect and my business.

2. The Cap looks better with the new shape. Definitely follows the lines of of the cab.
Fitment is still a slight issue. I kinda think all canopies don't fit perfectly. My last fiberglass had issues too.
For my Gen 2, now it's too far forward. My cap was bumping up against the back window. When the truck flexes on a bump it would make an awful sound. I had to put washers in-between the front mounts and the bed to push it back a few mm.
The other issue is the back door is too long and you have to close the tail gate and the door together. When you do the roof of the Cap flexes up. I was thinking of grinding down the plastic on the top of the tail gate. I just don't know if it's hollow it not. I have removed the gasket from the bottom of the window, but it's still way too tight.

If any one has ideas I'm all ears.

I'm thinking RLD has the engineering and construction part down but struggles with the finer points of fitment. All their caps are almost identical other than dimensions so it's not really surprising and, as you said, I've never seen a cap that went on perfectly the first time. I mean Alu-Cab is well regarded as well and their first Tacoma cap fit like trash too.

Sounds like you had the exact same issues I'm currently having. Installing it where the front brackets fit, it was contacting my hard shell as well. Then on top of that, the rear hatch would not close unless i did them together and got the door behind the tailgate lip.

I spent some time on the phone with Joost and it seems that drilling these caps is normal. In fact that's exactly how all but the Gladiator and Tacoma caps are installed and he said they typically drill a lot of those anyway. The instructions I was given were to get the cap where I think it's right - where the rear hatch closes with effort but not an obscene amount and where the front is a little set back so it seals. From there it's just aligning the brackets, marking and drilling, and installing.

@FR33DOM has a shot (added below) where I think the cap needs to be and that results in the gaps that require drilling. In that position, my rear hatch is fine.

Going to take a stab at it today so we'll see how it goes. Also for any fab company out there listening, if someone does a mostly flat tailgate top plate that gets rid of that damn hump, I'm the first in line.

 

[takeitsleazy]

The fitment issues some of you are dealing with is unacceptable, imo. I think I can cross this off my list.

 

[clweed]

Ok so not having a great time here... for those who installed their own Gen 2, how bad was the hole alignment? These are all slotted holes but I'm talking 1/2" misalignment or more.

Also, does anyone have a shot of how far forward their cap is relative to the front because I either get a gap on the front bracket I can stick my finger behind or it hits the cab and I can't close the back hatch.

edit: And Joost calling with the awesome customer service. Seems there's some inconsistencies in bed fit and drilling is a fairly normal thing. Guess I'll get that taken care of tonight.

Here you go

I'm thinking RLD has the engineering and construction part down but struggles with the finer points of fitment. All their caps are almost identical other than dimensions so it's not really surprising and, as you said, I've never seen a cap that went on perfectly the first time. I mean Alu-Cab is well regarded as well and their first Tacoma cap fit like trash too.

Sounds like you had the exact same issues I'm currently having. Installing it where the front brackets fit, it was contacting my hard shell as well. Then on top of that, the rear hatch would not close unless i did them together and got the door behind the tailgate lip.

I spent some time on the phone with Joost and it seems that drilling these caps is normal. In fact that's exactly how all but the Gladiator and Tacoma caps are installed and he said they typically drill a lot of those anyway. The instructions I was given were to get the cap where I think it's right - where the rear hatch closes with effort but not an obscene amount and where the front is a little set back so it seals. From there it's just aligning the brackets, marking and drilling, and installing.

@FR33DOM has a shot (added below) where I think the cap needs to be and that results in the gaps that require drilling. In that position, my rear hatch is fine.

Going to take a stab at it today so we'll see how it goes. Also for any fab company out there listening, if someone does a mostly flat tailgate top plate that gets rid of that damn hump, I'm the first in line.

This is how mine looks

 

[LostWoods]

Update, I have mine exactly where @clweed and @FR33DOM have theirs and it's a perfect fit. All it needs is a hole about an inch ahead of the slot on the front brackets and it all cinches down beautifully with no front gap and no issues with the rear door. It's not actually off that far but I wanted it to grip somewhere toward the middle/front of the slot and keep enough metal between the original slot and my new hole to keep it strong.

So 100% cool now and it looks great.

 

[LostWoods]

The fitment issues some of you are dealing with is unacceptable, imo. I think I can cross this off my list.

If you've ever actually installed a cap, the fit is never perfect out of the box and these will be more prone to issues because they actually have front mount instead of just using side clamps. There's a lot less tolerance and I'm just as inclined to believe it's partly an FCA issue as much as it is RLD. My problem was a couple holes in the wrong spot but it was extremely easy to remedy. Far easier than dealing with a fiberglass cap that's slightly out of square.

Once I bit the bullet and committed to drilling, it's a damn near perfect fit and all my issues went away. The problems were all from the front bracket being in the wrong place and I just fixed it in 15 minutes.

 

[bainbridge-xj]

Installed my RLD canopy on Friday. Now that is on, I think it's great- looks good and fits perfectly. That said, I wish that I had read all of the comments on this string prior to picking it up at UPS freight on Friday. Quite the adventure to unpack it in the parking lot, lift it on with my son and then realize that despite bringing every tool I thought I would need, I neglected to bring a drill which would have been really helpful. In case anyone was wondering, yes you can strap the canopy to the truck bed from the inside and then drive 2 hours with it without it ending up all over the highway. Anyway, once at home, I had it installed properly in about 20 minutes. Also, added a Prinsu rack which, with some more drilling, fits great.

 

[Hurley82]

Installed my RLD canopy on Friday. Now that is on, I think it's great- looks good and fits perfectly. That said, I wish that I had read all of the comments on this string prior to picking it up at UPS freight on Friday. Quite the adventure to unpack it in the parking lot, lift it on with my son and then realize that despite bringing every tool I thought I would need, I neglected to bring a drill which would have been really helpful. In case anyone was wondering, yes you can strap the canopy to the truck bed from the inside and then drive 2 hours with it without it ending up all over the highway. Anyway, once at home, I had it installed properly in about 20 minutes. Also, added a Prinsu rack which, with some more drilling, fits great.

Is it possible to take out the rear soft top window?

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