RSI Smartcap

[HeyYoSchmitty]

@RSI North America Inc I have the RSI platform rack. The wind noise is bad with my RTT attached. Any advice for a wind deflector? Thinking of going DIY but I might be inclined to be lazy and just buy.

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[A 2]

Hmm, this seems like a safety issue? Most caps and new vehicle trunks have a safety latch inside, No? Just in case the mafia picks you up...

What ever became of this? Anyone camp in the back with the rsi? How do you get out?

 

[WKYRIDER]

Hey Guys...thought I'd share a some RSI Photos with OVS Awning, RTT and link to a short walk around vid of my EvoC with load bars, OVS 270 awning and a new TuffStuff Alpha II clamshell Roof top tent installed. I had to slightly off center the load bars to driver side and offset RTT slightly to passenger side so that there was sufficient clearance for the RTT clamshell to open without hitting the awning in closed position. When the awning is open, there is not clearance issues with gull wing doors of Cap. The mounting clamps shipped with the Alpha II do not fit the RSI load bars, so I fabbed my own out of aluminum bars from home depot.

I’m looking to go with the same setup. How much of a MPG killer is the RTT?

 

[PhantomChameleon]

I got my cap installed this past weekend -- on several of the seems I noticed this sticky foam was protruding out. The best the shop did was use a knife to try to cut some extra off.

Is this normal? Is this manufacture defect or installer was lazy? I feel like for the price of this thing I shouldn't have to be worrying about this. Main issue is the foam can catch on branches and it's also very sticky so I'm thinking once I hit dusty conditions it will just be full of dust.

Mine is not like this - I would guess that the installer might not have taken their time to make sure the gaskets were all lined up...could also just be the way the gaskets themselves were as well, perhaps they had some extra material in those areas. Hard to say, but I do know mine does not have that amount of protrusion.

 

[beelzebot]

What ever became of this? Anyone camp in the back with the rsi? How do you get out?

I have a couple times. I have to open a sliding window and reach out to unlock from the outside, then climb out the window. Not ideal. Hoping for a replacement lock that can be opened from the inside to come to market.

 

[HeyYoSchmitty]

I have a couple times. I have to open a sliding window and reach out to unlock from the outside, then climb out the window. Not ideal. Hoping for a replacement lock that can be opened from the inside to come to market.

I actually saw an Australian company that has created electric locks. Remotely unlocking is ideal. I think the actuators are a little cumbersome and with my bin, I don't think they will work. But, honestly, I would have paid >$1000 more for my cap to have electric locks. Once you are $5k in, what's another thousand?

 

[SmartCap]

I have to put this somewhere to vent a little. First, I love my cap. It's everything that I could have possibly wanted. But, the goop that drips out of the latches is something I am very dissatisfied with. It is constant. I clean it, it oozes out, I clean it, oozes, etc. I am not 100% certain that a $5k cap (all-in with accessories) should look like I weeping glob box 90% of the time I own it. The sad thing, I have used denatured alcohol to clean it, as instructed, and it's drying out the plastic. The website says that this is tested in SA. It must have been some historically cold years during R&D because if it's 70 degrees outside, I have lock juice dripping out.

Thanks for reaching out, and sorry that you are experiencing this issue. We have become aware that in hot climates, adhesive can run from behind the door latches onto the door surface of earlier produced units. This is coming from where the foam gasket is bonded to the latch backing plate. While we have since corrected this on all later production, earlier units will unfortunately still be susceptible. As mentioned on the forum by both ourselves and other forum members, this is easily cleaned using a product like Goo Gone or another type of non-abrasive solvent, and corrected by simply replacing the backing plates and foam gaskets. If you are interested in replacing these parts, please contact us at [email protected] and we will send replacements at no-charge.

 

[SmartCap]

I think I have a reasonable solution to my issues as well, though done differently.

I bought 3 2”x36” 70 durometer 1/2” think strips from McMaster: https://www.mcmaster.com/1372N39/

Using these, I cut them down in width using my bandsaw (simple) and then made 12” sections. I replaced the 1.5” spacers under the clamps with these 12” wide sections instead. The idea was to distribute the clamping load across a larger section, thus reducing compression as well as spreading the warping around a larger area on the bed cap. I’m happy to say this, combined with a 3/4” spacer I made previously worked out well. The D-gasket was still compressed for a tight seal and the tailgate seals ok.

If I had to do it again, I’d probably order 4 of those strips, cut them to fit and glue them to the bottom of the cap over the entire length before installation. Which is what the factory should have done.....

It’s not perfect, but I don’t see it getting any better. I’m still extremely unhappy about having do to this on such an expensive piece, but it works.

It seems you all are very resourceful, and you help each other out incredibly well; and that's great to see! We wanted to let you know that we hear you, and appreciate your feedback.

While this has been addressed many times on the forum, a few people have expressed frustration that to correct the concern of the rear door rubber compressing too tightly against the top of the tailgate, they had to find thicker spacers themselves. This is absolutely true and we apologize for any inconvenience that this may have caused. With that said, we think it is important to point out a couple of things:
A. Once we determined that using thicker 12mm spacers would help correct the issue of the rear door rubber dragging on the inclining tailgate cap, we felt it was better to provide customers with an easy solution that could be implemented right away and not make them wait for us to source the material, manufacture the spacers, and ship the replacements to North America.
B. For anyone dealing with this issue today, please email us at [email protected]. We will help you determine if you have incorrect spacers, if the cap is not properly positioned on the bed, if the mounting hardware is over-torqued, or a combination of the three.

Also, with regards to the positioning of the cap on the bed, if you have used 12mm (or greater) spacers and are still encountering your rear door gasket being overly compressed when opening or closing the door, it is likely your SmartCap is installed too far back on your bed, and the gasket is dragging on the inclining tailgate cap. We recommend you move the Cap towards the cab of the truck so that the front is in-line with the center, forward edge of the bulkhead panel. This, in combination with the 12mm spacers should resolve the rear door issue.

Thanks again for making us aware, and hopefully this will help.

 

[duvinclunk]

It seems you all are very resourceful, and you help each other out incredibly well; and that's great to see! We wanted to let you know that we hear you, and appreciate your feedback.

While this has been addressed many times on the forum, a few people have expressed frustration that to correct the concern of the rear door rubber compressing too tightly against the top of the tailgate, they had to find thicker spacers themselves. This is absolutely true and we apologize for any inconvenience that this may have caused. With that said, we think it is important to point out a couple of things:
A. Once we determined that using thicker 12mm spacers would help correct the issue of the rear door rubber dragging on the inclining tailgate cap, we felt it was better to provide customers with an easy solution that could be implemented right away and not make them wait for us to source the material, manufacture the spacers, and ship the replacements to North America.
B. For anyone dealing with this issue today, please email us at [email protected]. We will help you determine if you have incorrect spacers, if the cap is not properly positioned on the bed, if the mounting hardware is over-torqued, or a combination of the three.

Also, with regards to the positioning of the cap on the cab, if you have used 12mm (or greater) spacers and are still encountering your rear door gasket being overly compressed when opening or closing the door, it is likely your SmartCap is installed too far back on your bed, and the gasket is dragging on the inclining tailgate cap. We recommend you move the Cap towards the cab of the truck so that the front is in-line with the center, forward edge of the bulkhead panel. This, in combination with the 12mm spacers should resolve the rear door issue.

Thanks again for making us aware, and hopefully this will help.

Thank you for replying. Any word or update on latches that will allow an individual to open the shell from the inside?

 

[SmartCap]

So I ordered my RSI Evo Sport on 3/13 from Northridge 4x4 and was told then the lead time was 30 days. I’m now at nearly 60 days and nobody has any idea when the cap will ship. I reached out to Northridge 4x4 a few times and they keep telling me they will check on it (but never get back to me). Today I called Keystone, the US distributor, and they tell me the last RSI shipment was received in March and it is currently on back order. I recognize that Northridge and Keystone are not at fault here and it really falls on RSI to be more transparent in terms of the shipment plan. I paid in full in March using Affirm and have already made a couple payments - not a big deal, but adds to the frustration. I know the Sportcap is a great product, but with the rubber shim issue and the lack of effective communication on the shipping plan, I can only say, RSI you can do better. Anyone else experiencing similar challenges?

We hear you and we feel your pain. We know that some customers are experiencing long wait times to receive their SmartCap or accessory Components. We want to apologize for this and express that we are doing everything in our power to get you the products you ordered. While COVID related issues continue to impact us at every single step of the manufacturing and delivery process, they are only partially to blame for these delays. The overwhelming demand for our products has put us in a position that we simply can’t build enough fast enough to keep up. However, the good news is that for those of you that have backordered a product, you have secured your place in line. So please hang in there with us and know how much we appreciate your support, understanding, and your business.

 

[SmartCap]

I think we’ll have to do this all again once we add the weight of the RTT. From what I’ve seen, it’s the plastic bed side caps that deform. Another 170 lbs and they are likely to deform some more. At some point they either have to flatten out or break.

Sorry it's taken a bit for us to respond. We know that some customers have mentioned that their Gladiator bedrail caps are bowing when they tighten down the SmartCap clamps. This is due to a combination of the soft durometer of the bedrail cap material and the air-gap that is designed into the part between the metal bedrail and plastic bedrail cap. This can be alleviated by tightening the clamps to the point that the bedrail cap starts to bow and then back off the tension a bit until they are flat again...approximately 4 ft. lbs. As evidenced by other customers on the forum, this will still secure the cap to your truck and keep it from moving when you are off-roading. It is worth noting that while the deforming of the bedrail caps is not unusual, it goes unnoticed with fiberglass caps due to the extended lower edges that obscure the bedrail caps from view.

 

[The White Rabbit]

The long saga is mostly complete

Received my cap in November and through a series of unfortunate events instillation was delayed until a couple days ago.

I think it turned out pretty decent!

Front Runner load bars and RTT are going on over the weekend. Next week we leave for a 10 day trip! fingers crossed it all goes smooth from here on out.

I was hoping someone with a white hardtop would post. I am getting a sport for the features that really wanted color match but it looks pretty good with the white hardtop. Still would prefer color match but not will to give up the glass gull wings.

 

[beelzebot]

I was hoping someone with a white hardtop would post. I am getting a sport for the features that really wanted color match but it looks pretty good with the white hardtop. Still would prefer color match but not will to give up the glass gull wings.

I planned to paint mine Bright White to match but I like the black enough that I’m leaving it alone. My wife thought it must’ve come directly from FCA because it looks like it belongs. Might try vinyl wrapping the whole truck starting with the cap next year.

 

[Gwarden234]

I planned to paint mine Bright White to match but I like the black enough that I’m leaving it alone. My wife thought it must’ve come directly from FCA because it looks like it belongs. Might try vinyl wrapping the whole truck starting with the cap next year.

Is that a specific model number with the side port windows. I have seen some with just metal their, just side windows and then windows with a smaller window which is the model I want. Thinking it would be better for my lab. Thanks!

 

[Racer~X]

I’m looking to go with the same setup. How much of a MPG killer is the RTT?

Honestly, I havent bothered to figure it out bc the Gladiator MPG is already affected by the 37" tires, RSI Smartcap, decked system and step sliders with armor, and awning, so I gave up carring. I get about 280mi per tank on the highway with a full loaded bed of camping gear.

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