Bed Cap / Camper Shell Photos and Opinions

[hopkintj]

How is everyone dealing with dust? I had a ton of dust in the back of my bed after a trip with the Diamond Back cover on. It's making a tight seal. The dust seems to be getting in at the bottom of the tailgate. I have a pretty substantial gap there. Anyone else?

A tailgate strip sounds like it might be helpful for you! I am still waiting on the shipment of my Diamondback - but I ordered the tailgate seal with it, in an attempt to curb the dust off the hop.

Tailgate Seal

Button up your bed and hit the road with confidence. Guard your gear against dust and water with this specially crafted, heavy-duty tailgate seal. Patented Taper Seal® technology Automotive-grade EPDM rubber Effortless installation

diamondbackcovers.com

 

[SurfRaptor]

I drove mine from Colorado, through Baja for two months, and then back to Colorado. I'm not sure you can cannot escape dust. My cap had a very good seal, and I was happy with it. The boxes I had on the roof (Thule) got dust in those too. Neither was too bad. I bagged everything. Anything I didn't want exposed got put into some kind of bag. There are cheap, BIG yellow bags (banana bags?) that can swallow several soft bags and/or suitcases. As long as you don't need to get into them often, they work great.

I've taken it off-road here in So Cal but man my long Baja trips put a different level of dust into the back of this truck. I ended up getting the Costco yellow top black bottom storage containers to keep everything clean, but they just don't fit well back there. I'll take a look at those bags

 

[SurfRaptor]

A tailgate strip sounds like it might be helpful for you! I am still waiting on the shipment of my Diamondback - but I ordered the tailgate seal with it, in an attempt to curb the dust off the hop.

Tailgate Seal

Button up your bed and hit the road with confidence. Guard your gear against dust and water with this specially crafted, heavy-duty tailgate seal. Patented Taper Seal® technology Automotive-grade EPDM rubber Effortless installation

diamondbackcovers.com

Yes Thank you. Did you get any other DB accessories?

 

[hopkintj]

Yes Thank you. Did you get any other DB accessories?

Yeah a set of ratchets, the light and the crossbin 8! Just waiting super impatiently for a shipping notice at this point. Initial date had it estimated to ship next week so we will see.

 

[SurfRaptor]

Yeah a set of ratchets, the light and the crossbin 8! Just waiting super impatiently for a shipping notice at this point. Initial date had it estimated to ship next week so we will see.

I went with the smallest cross bin (I think the new 4”) and it still takes up a decent amount of room in the back. The 8” one won’t allow a lot of larger items to get shoved all the way back so it essentially takes a foot of storage space away from the 5.5 foot bed. So does the smallest size. They all take about a foot of storage space.

I was wondering about those ratchet straps but I wasn’t sure what was different between those and regular one at Home Depot. I will tell you you want ratchet straps that hold themselves onto the cleat. I had to use twist ties or zip ties to keep the hook on the cleat when I loaded up a mattress. The ratchet strap fell off once and gave my truck a small scratch. Maybe you can cover the hooks with something soft also.

 

[hopkintj]

I went with the smallest cross bin (I think the new 4”) and it still takes up a decent amount of room in the back. The 8” one won’t allow a lot of larger items to get shoved all the way back so it essentially takes a foot of storage space away from the 5.5 foot bed. So does the smallest size. They all take about a foot of storage space.

I was wondering about those ratchet straps but I wasn’t sure what was different between those and regular one at Home Depot. I will tell you you want ratchet straps that hold themselves onto the cleat. I had to use twist ties or zip ties to keep the hook on the cleat when I loaded up a mattress. The ratchet strap fell off once and gave my truck a small scratch. Maybe you can cover the hooks with something soft also.

Yeah - it is the reason I went with the 8" and not the 13". I am about to add a second car seat for the majority of the time in the back of the truck so I am losing easy access to my under seat storage. So all those things will be going into the cross bin. Easy enough to remove in the event I need to fit something bigger in there, but that isn't very often as it is! Part of the reason I went this route vs a retrax - its less "permanent" of a loss of that space than having to remove the whole cover.

Yes - one of the reasons I bought a set - they have a spring closure clip so that issue of them falling off wont occur.

 

[SurfRaptor]

Yeah - it is the reason I went with the 8" and not the 13". I am about to add a second car seat for the majority of the time in the back of the truck so I am losing easy access to my under seat storage. So all those things will be going into the cross bin. Easy enough to remove in the event I need to fit something bigger in there, but that isn't very often as it is! Part of the reason I went this route vs a retrax - its less "permanent" of a loss of that space than having to remove the whole cover.

Yes - one of the reasons I bought a set - they have a spring closure clip so that issue of them falling off wont occur.

Yep I’ll look around for those type of ratchet straps. I’m also going to order the RAD ratchet straps that mount in the rear.

 

[PeteEinMT]

Here is my Leer

 

[grendel]

Here is my Leer View attachment 462162

Looks really good in that color!