Used FlipPac questions

[faulke]

Hey everyone,

Excited to be a FlipPac owner after picking up a used one for $300 off craigslist. It has its quirks and will need a few minor repairs (besides a broken torsion bar...), but it should work out great provided I can solve this problem:

I have an xtra-cab T100 (6.5' bed) and the FlipPac is the full-size short bed model. The length is perfect, but I noticed the width between the part that sits on the bed rails is about 3/4" wider near the cab than it is at the tailgate. As such, when the FlipPac is perfectly aligned, the lips that should hang over the inside of the bed rails actually sit on top of the bed rails about halfway up the bed. They fit fine towards the tailgate. Hopefully that description makes sense. I can try to post pictures tomorrow.

We tried squeezing the front on both sides to get it to pop inside the bed rails, but it would not budge. Is there some sort of trick to getting these things on the truck? Do you have to squeeze it in between the bed rails then push it forward? Or is there just something wrong with this unit?

Appreciate any help,
Evan

 

[billy bee]

The T100/Tundra bed is smaller than the domestic truck beds. Like you, I had a T100 and bought a FP that came off a fill-size Chevy short bed. The FP was a little too wide and a little too long for my T100. To solve the width problem, I shimmed the FP shell up with 3/4 x 3" wood slats. I felt the shell was too long; I could not get the shell to fit well enough to get a seal at the tailgate: so, I bought a domestic truck and sold the T100.

Bill

 

[faulke]

Thanks, Bill. The only other thing I could think of was to cut off the fiberglass lips, but that sounds like a task. I'm going to try your method and see how it works. It does seem a tad bit long, and there's a small gap between the tailgate and the rear door, so it will be interesting to see if that lets in water or dust over time. Maybe that can be accounted for with weather-stripping.

Evan

 

[Jr_Explorer]

It does seem a tad bit long, and there's a small gap between the tailgate and the rear door, so it will be interesting to see if that lets in water or dust over time. Maybe that can be accounted for with weather-stripping.

Evan

I was going to say that to my eye it looks too long. As for dust ingress... You WILL have "snow drifts" of dust inside with that gap. Heck, I dusted out the entire inside of mine and it fits like a glove. Just the gaps around the tailgate and the little gaps at the tailgate / Flippac door let in quite a bit.

 

[faulke]

Appreciate the info. Here's what I ended up doing. I mounted 3/4"x3" pvc trim with weather stripping on both sides to the bed rails. The lip fits comfortably on the pvc trim now. I used the pvc board to avoid rot, but we'll see how it holds up over time. This did make more of a gap at the tailgate, but I filled it by extending the rear window frame with a piece of vinyl garage door weather-strip and a piece of pipe insulation on the tailgate.

It looks like ****, but I was approaching crunch time with winter right around the corner (2" of snow last night!) and it not being totally weather-sealed. I'm thinking of naming it 'Jerry' for everything that will be jerry-rigged. It may not look pretty, but it will be functional.