I am surprised not to find more information on people having leaks at the rear opening of a camper shell. On to my second shell with one truck and I have run into leaky doors with both. Seems like a very difficult job to seal an opening that is tilted toward the sky and I am not quite sure how the manufacturer originally designed the seal to be reliable. During a recent spat of rain, I did a moisture test and the side windows and closed cell foam seal with the bed seem to work well, but the rear door allowed what might as well amount to buckets of water through. This post is motivated by an anticipated need to use my truck as a bedroom at times during the near future during a period of relocation/transition and would not like to deal with a sleeping area that is not reliably dry.

The shell is from the same era as my truck (being '94) and it seems impossible to find the original radius door bulb seals. A quick search on ebay shows a small selection of two sizes, one of which has the proper size 'T' that fits in the channel but an oversized bulb (#4145020000) and the other has the proper size bulb but a 'T' that is too small (TSD402202). I have bought and tried both, the latter I quickly vetoed because of its instability in the channel, while the former is the one used for the aforementioned test, and the stock seal unfortunately is in the landfill because although it also leaked, leaked less than the seal with an oversized bulb.

Are there many people who have a similar shell with a reliable rear door seal who would lend confidence to tool storage or even a sleeping setup? Any ideas on where one may be able to find the properly sized bulb seal? And given I am kind of desperate to restore functionality to this shell, are there any possible workarounds that could be added to this situation that would provide a fix? For example, some kind of eyebrow glued on above the door hinge to keep water from rolling into the hinge and instead direct it only the glass.

 

 

I, too, have the same unit. Alas, I don't have a leaking problem. (Except when the door is UP -- water runs down the glass and around the corners.)

Good luck finding the better seal. Let us know what you find.

 

Do you have a local truck cap / canopy dealer near you?

An independent truck cap / canopy dealer may have various seals available for common rear door designs.

Just a thought.

 

Pictures and measurementsof the products you are trying to use would have been helpful.

​​​​​Can see past the drip rail and I to the side of the hatch, left side at the bottom. Tighten up your latch and if needed tap the flange in the hatch in or out so it mates the rubber to the tail gate.

The way the drip rail.is designed it should drain the the gap in the tailgate.


Abit of adhesive should hold your bulb style seal, IE glue the little one on if the bulb is the right size to bot distort the window.

 

not sure I know of a glue that would bond rubber to metal and hold up with repeated use, though I am curious if there is a glue that I can use to bond the bulb of the proper size from one to the flange of the oversized seal. I have actually gone to a local truck customs biz asking about the proper seal and informed the seal is out of production.

good idea about tightening the latch -- although they are already tight, maybe there is a way of moving the flange with the bulb seal toward the door.

this doesn't sound good -- I am trying to keep water out of the tailgate .. I will look more closely again at the drip rail/side channel

when I bought the truck the original owner actually fashioned some rubber that seals the tailgate -- I will post a picture next chance with some daylight.

 

I'm interested in this because I want to convert the stupid slide-up rear window (relying on electricity, slow and heavy tailgate) of my first-gen 4Runner to a flip-up like this.

Have you isolated exactly where the leak is from? Through the rubber weatherproofing seal?

Yes pictures please? Of the lip with the glass up?

 

here are some more pictures -- as you can see the bulb is oversized and is getting smooshed out especially up near the hinge, although this is where it has the appearance of making a decent seal .. my guess is that water simply seeps in down the sides of this channel that could possibly never be under enough compression to form a seal with a floppy bulb. I also remember how the tailgate of my truck is about an inch wider than the shell is intended for and therefore the flange with the bulb is not making full contact with the door. Maybe I ought move the shell body to its native width and grind at a bit of whatever is in the way of the tailgate opening and closing.

 

 

I spent quite a bit of time getting my top square and lined up, a few times even. Pretty sure I eventually added locator pins, will try to remember to take some photos when I'm up at my kids next time.

 

So I did a quick hose test while it was raining and found that the oversized bulb seal I am currently using works well enough. The problem area in my case turns out to be a gap between the door frame and the shell body as seen in the photo. Here is a video I shot during the water test: It would probably be best to remove the entire door and frame to get a solid bead of silicone behind the flange where the frame meets the shell body. This youtube video seems like a worthwhile guide: Next I will probably be interested in tightening up the seal at the tailgate, for which another thread may be in order.