Ok, nearly killed myself!
Well, that or completely trashed the topper.
Or maybe both.
First to explain something. I have NO place in my driveway where I can park on a flat spot. Every bit of it is angled in two directions.
Where the truck sits, the nose of the truck is facing downhill.
The passenger side is also downhill.
It's steep here. A friend measured the angle one time and said it was over 30 degrees.
Pictures simply do not do it justice.
I was in the bed of the truck, moving the topper by myself.
Moved it back, a couple feet, with no real problem.
Got the front of the liner installed over that lip.
Sat the topper on top of some pieces of styrofoam, to get it out of the way, (Pieces of styrofoam were on top of the rails of the bed.)
Had to do some banging to get the liner under the rails.... yup, you guessed it. Topper fell.
Pretty much just came down and didn't move much though. So I easily got it back into place.
Got one side of the liner all pushed in under the lip of the rails.
Started the second side.
Now I want to move the topper back forward where it is supposed to be. After that, I'll lift that passenger side again, so I can get the rest of the liner under that lip.
Get under it and lift, and start to slide it...
Remember I described some actual rips in the metal of the side rails? Yeah, it caught on a jagged one of those.
I realize what is going on and give it a bit of a tug and lift at the same time... And the topper takes off like it was shot out of a cannon.
Carried me right along with it. It's a miracle it stopped where it did, instead of going completely over the side.
If it hadn't stopped there, it could have either cut me in half, or broke me in the middle.
Instead I just hit the side and fell.
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You can see that the front end, which is the most downhill portion, went the furthest.
Ok. Took a breather. Came in the house and thought about it a while.
Went back out, and used three ratchet straps to slowly get it pulled back up where it belongs.
Once it was back in place, I lifted that passenger side again. This time, leaving two straps in place, so that it couldn't slide on me.
Got the rest of the liner shoved under the lip. Then put the topper back in place exactly where it will sit.
Works pretty good.
Looks like the liner is shorter across the bottom of the bed, than my truck. Side to side.
Front to back is is only short by about an inch at the most.
Wheel wells are bigger than my wheel wells.
And across the tailgate area, it is really out of whack.
Here is a pic. The liner is so much shorter across the bottom of that opening, that you could shove a soup can in, on either side.
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I'm probably going to have to work with a heat gun, first, to try to deal with some of that.
Then do some cutting if I can't get rid of the problem.
And possibly have to do some plastic welding.
All in all, it isn't bad.
As I said before, I am going to have to find some rubber or plastic that is about 6 feet long, and 10 to 12 inches wide.
I want to fasten that under the end of this liner, and let it ride up, on the tailgate.
To close this gap...
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I think a piece of inner tube that size (1' x 6') would be about perfect.
He didn't have the liner for the tailgate. But I think I have a matching liner for that.
With both liners there, I could lay the rubber over the gap. Then fasten both liners down on top of it.
I think I'm going to have to put weatherstripping up the sides of the tailgate area to seal the tailgate to the body.
Last... I think I am going to spray some expanding foam up under the side rails.
There's a few places where you can actually see daylight through there. Obvious leaks.
And the point to all this...
An emergency place for me to sleep in case of something like having to get out of here fast because of a forest fire or something.
In this area, the biggest concern is being waterproof.
Can't live in it even temporarily, if water is leaking in all over the place.