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Any others have issues with fiberglass cap leaking?

markitzero

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New Leer cap install and I found leaks a week later. Others here ever have similar issue?
My leaks seem to be primarily on windoor latches and removable front window....water will pool on front edge of cap and typically drip off of corners. Parked outdoors in rain and not caused by auto car wash.

Ford F-150 Any others have issues with fiberglass cap leaking? FFA69074-615D-4E18-B58E-2A2F66D9558F_1_105_c
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Jaylars

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Leer 100XR. Yes. Seems like the removable front window and the drivers side slider is leaking. Not much though and hopefully not going to be an issue. My removable window squeaks like crazy over rough terrain. I had to place weather stripping in the frame to stabilize it. The frame looks like a 5 year old built it.
I also noticed some paint issues, drips and orange peel. I had a Leer on the old rig and it was 100% solid, no issues for 13 years except rear window lifts were replaced. This Leer seems like their standards have dropped.
 

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New Leer cap install and I found leaks a week later. Others here ever have similar issue?
My leaks seem to be primarily on windoor latches and removable front window....water will pool on front edge of cap and typically drip off of corners. Parked outdoors in rain and not caused by auto car wash.

FFA69074-615D-4E18-B58E-2A2F66D9558F_1_105_c.jpeg
Hi there! Would you send us a private message with your VIN and dealership name and location? I’d like to look into this concern on my end.
 
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markitzero

markitzero

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Leer 100XR. Yes. Seems like the removable front window and the drivers side slider is leaking. Not much though and hopefully not going to be an issue. My removable window squeaks like crazy over rough terrain. I had to place weather stripping in the frame to stabilize it. The frame looks like a 5 year old built it.
I also noticed some paint issues, drips and orange peel. I had a Leer on the old rig and it was 100% solid, no issues for 13 years except rear window lifts were replaced. This Leer seems like their standards have dropped.
Yes, the removable front window seems to have sealing problems.
I visited the cap dealer yesterday and they found a pinhole in the windoor and made adjustments to the seal on the front window since it was barely touching around the frame. Leaks were especially noticeable when parked downhill.
 

Jaylars

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Hi there! Would you send us a private message with your VIN and dealership name and location? I’d like to look into this concern on my end.
Well now we know the "Ford Rep" in the forum is actually just a bot. (n)
 

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markitzero

markitzero

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Update....cap was replaced under warranty and the new cap also leaked. My dealer went above and beyond trying to make it right. He wanted to give me a full refund and send the second cap back. This would have left me looking for a new manufacturer and dealing with new lead times, invest more of my time driving around for install, etc. So, I decided to keep the second cap and fix the leak myself.

If anyone has a Leer with a windoor slider; the slider rail is not sealed on the ends where it attaches to the window frame. This means if you are parked on any slope the water will not drain via the weep holes in the frame and water will come into the cap/bed. I solved the issue with some butyl and fixed 90% of my problem. The weep holes are not at the extreme ends of the frame so water can pool up and drip into the bed.

My advice to anyone looking for a fiberglass cap, stay away from Leer. My dealer is actually dropping them since he's tired of dealing with issue after issue from them. Low quality control. Second thing I've learned talking to dealers of ARE and Jeraco, the overall quality in the industry is low. We're paying $3500 for caps with too high of expectations I was basically told. Fisheyes in paint, uneven gaps, some leaking water, and even poor fitment are all par for the course for the industry. The ARE dealer actually told me the company only expects the paint finish to be acceptable for the areas of the cap you see when standing on the ground. So the roof could be full of fisheyes, dirt, fingerprints, etc and ARE would consider that acceptable. I was stunned.

Overall, the cap looks great but the experience was very, very poor.
Ford F-150 Any others have issues with fiberglass cap leaking? 7535EDB8-D579-43C5-8796-8BAD20E03A5F_1_105_c
 

Jaylars

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That truck looks fantastic brother.
I have a squeaky removable front window that still plagues me. Especially since I take this truck off road. My 100XR has simple sliders and the amount of water that gets inside is minimal and only when going through a car wash. It is sad to see our manufacturing go downhill so fast.

We are headed to the Oregon coast for a week with camping, good thing it doesn't rain on the Oregon Coast. 🤣
 
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markitzero

markitzero

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That truck looks fantastic brother.
I have a squeaky removable front window that still plagues me. Especially since I take this truck off road. My 100XR has simple sliders and the amount of water that gets inside is minimal and only when going through a car wash. It is sad to see our manufacturing go downhill so fast.

We are headed to the Oregon coast for a week with camping, good thing it doesn't rain on the Oregon Coast. 🤣
To fix that squeak you could clean the seal with a quality interior detailing/cleaning spray (not Armor All). Same thing can be done to treat the door seals on the truck as well. There are some specific products to do this but I haven't found them to work exceptionally better than an interior spray.
 

bigjohnp

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For the squeaky front window, has anybody tried a silicone spray on a rag and then wiping this on the rubber seal? I guess it would also work on the rear door seal.
 

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Well now I am in the same boat leaky leer XR, 1 week old. Should have been more educated on the quality I guess. We will see how it pans out. Again I think my dealer is better than leer.
 

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markitzero

markitzero

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Well now I am in the same boat leaky leer XR, 1 week old. Should have been more educated on the quality I guess. We will see how it pans out. Again I think my dealer is better than leer.
Where is the leak coming from?
Mine was mostly on the sliding windoor that I eventually sealed myself and added two drain holes.
 

harvestlaser

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Initially it was all the openings. Now it’s just a little in the sliding windoor. The drain holes seam to be only functional if the window is perfectly vertical, not angles like the side of the cap.
 

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I bought a new Snugtop cap for my 2022 truck from the local Snugtop dealer. Any problems with leaking and I would go to them and not the Ford dealer. I have been using Snugtops on my trucks for more than 20 years and they never leak. The older campers would leak at the camper to bed rail connection but the gaskets have been greatly improved and this is no longer a problem.
 
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markitzero

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Initially it was all the openings. Now it’s just a little in the sliding windoor. The drain holes seam to be only functional if the window is perfectly vertical, not angles like the side of the cap.
The issue I found is the track for the sliding windoor window is not sealed to the ends. So, instead of water using the weep holes in the track it prefers the ends where it flows down to the channel of the window frame. The leak is most noticable inside the cap when truck not parked level. As a fix, I opened the weep holes in the sliding window track (the plastic liner), added some butyl to seal the end of the track and finally drilled a hole in each corner of the windoor frame. It seems the weep holes in the slider are not close enough to the ends so water pools up in that channel and runs over into the frame even with the ends sealed.

After drilling the holes I have not seen any further water getting inside.

Ford F-150 Any others have issues with fiberglass cap leaking? 97178D96-30AF-49B7-98DB-E98D0D810DB9_1_105_c
Ford F-150 Any others have issues with fiberglass cap leaking? 8F23C35C-0AD3-4909-A1E8-9131DE9187F8_1_105_c
Ford F-150 Any others have issues with fiberglass cap leaking? 125EC838-5507-47D6-9897-18A7FED78926_1_105_c
 

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I have wicked leaks along the bed rails. It's really focused at the backend where there's plastic caps (I think where you can put posts in). I have a SmartCap. The shell is sealed up... The water comes in between the metal lip and plastic lip on the inside. It's a nice constant drip. Anyone have a fix? My first thought was to foam the whole underside, but now I'm thinking of sealing that "cap".
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