Watertight bed DIY how-to. Rails/Tailgate/Tonneau

[Greglon]

First of all shout out to @Jeffola. He was who I saw first point out the swiss cheese under the rail caps that go straight into the bed and cover with vinyl.

Parts I used
-.5x.5in D shaped weather strip (From anywhere)
-KEKO 24+ Ranger Tailgate seal.
-Loctite Plastic Bonding (incase you break any cap clips) you CANNOT usse epoxy or other glues, the rail cap plastic is PP
-Permanent Vinyl (cricut, oracal,decal,w/e. vinyl to cover the swiss cheese) i got mine from Michael's.
-Small can of flex seal (used to seal the 6 total covers in the caps from water ingress.

I Removed the rails caps. You can access alot of the clips from below, inside the bed. Some you can't but I had no problem getting those out. If I went slower I wouldn't have broke any clips, but if you break any dont worry. They break very flush and the loctite plastic bonding seals them back very well. Just wait at least 1hr after applying before putting the caps back on the rails.

I took the vinyl and cut to fit, there is a grid layout on back of the peel plastic, very handy and easy to cut to size and shape. Laid the vinyl over the swiss cheese and cut a starter slit in each hole that a clip would go into with a razor.

Yes, it looks like ass I did not have the little edge tool to apply this perfect, and apparently my putty knife skills are lacking. But this is going to be covered and was put on to fill unused holes so serves it purpose.

I cut some rectangles from the vinyl and applied to the bottom of the rail caps where the 6 little pop outs are, with enough excess to smooth out and seal completely, I then sprayed the areas with flex seal. I will never use these cap holes but if someone way down the road wanted to they could easily pop the vinyl/felxseal.

After the flex seal dries you can pop the caps back on the rails, just line them up decently and tap in, I started rear-front. Then popped my tonneau cover back on (Gator EFX trifold) and sealed any holes i could see daylight through at the front of the bed. Filled gaps with the .5x.5in D shaped weatherstripping. Had to remove and repeat tonneau once. After this I saw no daylight at front or side when in the bed. Good to go.

I ordered a tailgate seal kit from truxedo and instantly realized it wasn't going to work. The tailgate edge meet design is just as confusing as the swiss cheese rails with built-in water ingress points in the rail covers above.
I originally used the .5x.5in D shaped weather stripping to run the outer edge of each tail light side section, running a bit under the rails for tonneau. This worked well for for a watertighting but the strip rubber started deteriorating from rubbing within a week. Ordered and installed the KEKO tailgate seal for the 24+ Ranger. The kit comes with brackets that allow for a strait bed seal, works well, no water ingress as well.

I let the truck sit and everything dry/seal, then went and took it to my local car wash. Ran through twice. Almost zero water entry. A few DROPS probably blown in by the high pressure dryers, or when i popped the tonneau and tailgate.
Overall very happy with the outcome. Time will tell with heavy storms, but hopefully this ends any water concern for me as I will be traveling 30,000 miles a year all over the Midwest with parts and tools in my bed, family camping trips, etc

Sorry, a little long, but if you didnt by a $1000+ tonneau that covers the bed rail, this is the way. Now you know, and knowing is half the battle.

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[Greglon]

the only ones ive seen that fully cover the rails are the retractable's

Excellent info. Thanks! Also, fyi, I have a retractable cover. It does lay on top of the rails but the water still enters freely. I’ll be using your method to stop it.

 

[Flak]

@BigOleOgre just curious, what if anything did you use in the front of the bed right under the rail caps where there's that odd void open straight forward behind the fender? Was thinking of finding some sort of compressible rubberized material, but while I can imagine finding something an inch or two big at the hardware store, it seems like you would need a big chunk to cut up and shove in there. I saw someone else mentioned tennis balls.

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