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Took a few days off for a long weekend and decided to remove my cheap Tiptop tonneau cover and OEM mudflaps. What I saw underneath made me put both up for sale on FB marketplace. As a sort of disclaimer on this post, I'm not the most experienced or skilled person when it comes to installing upgrades. Some of the deep dives on this forum have been super informative in the time since I installed these two simple upgrades as far as maintaining your paint and protecting your Mav anywhere outside parts touch the body. I will definitely heed that advice if I ever decide to put anything back on.
I've been noticing over the past month or so that there was a lot of dirt/gravel dust trapped in between the mudflaps and wheel well...I think because the material in the wheel well is somewhat flimsy/flexible and it prevents a good seal. I didn't apply PPF when I installed these like a goober.
When I removed them, there was a ton of dirt packed in between the flap and wheel well, and even though it wasn't scratched where the mudflaps met the exterior body paint, there was plenty of dirt/dust packed in there as well. It was just dumb luck that it wasn't scratched - there was evidence of friction/movement and it was just a matter of time before my PPF-free install caused some damage. PPF film is essential there, but the OEM mud flaps move/rub to an extent that you would need to remove them and check underneath regularly even with that added layer of protection. As many have said on here, the coverage from the OEM mudflaps is subpar and there are better products to be had on the aftermarket.
The main reason I removed the Tiptop tonneau was concern that slight movement of the rails on the bedliner was scratching the plastic there. When I removed the cover, there were 3 issues. One, there were some scratches where the brackets that attach the rails to the top of the bed get loose occasionally and cause movement of the rails. Nothing crazy, but more than you would like to see after less than a year. I've tightened those brackets 3-4 times since installing in January of this year. You get what you pay for as far as that goes, can't fault the product for being what it is.
Second issue, top rails of the bed were getting warped from the pressure of the brackets on the plastic. Running my hand along those side rails they feel wavy, with noticeable peaks and valleys. Not an issue if you will always have a cover on there, but over time I could see those plastic pieces getting gapped/visibly warping. Will add here that there was a fair amount of dirt/dust trapped under the rails, and I was well on my way to some uneven UV exposure issues with the black plastic. That's to be expected, but I was surprised at the amount of dirt build-up.
Third issue was two-fold. Light scratches on the top edge of the bed below the rear window where the cover itself is mounted (again from slight movement) and more surprisingly, that piece of the cover was putting pressure on the top edge of my modular bedliner where it attaches with 3M and had caused it to bow out and gap quite a bit. Once I had the tonneau cover off, I was able to push that section back on and get a good seal.
This is a long post for $200 worth of accessories. I hope it's a sort of heads-up for those of you who, like me, have gone cheap on Amazon and slapped some parts and pieces on the exterior of the truck. More seasoned MTC members have put some good advice out there, and a little extra time to install buffers between these products and your trucks exterior will save you some money on paint chips, scratches, and rust remediation down the road.
I've been noticing over the past month or so that there was a lot of dirt/gravel dust trapped in between the mudflaps and wheel well...I think because the material in the wheel well is somewhat flimsy/flexible and it prevents a good seal. I didn't apply PPF when I installed these like a goober.
When I removed them, there was a ton of dirt packed in between the flap and wheel well, and even though it wasn't scratched where the mudflaps met the exterior body paint, there was plenty of dirt/dust packed in there as well. It was just dumb luck that it wasn't scratched - there was evidence of friction/movement and it was just a matter of time before my PPF-free install caused some damage. PPF film is essential there, but the OEM mud flaps move/rub to an extent that you would need to remove them and check underneath regularly even with that added layer of protection. As many have said on here, the coverage from the OEM mudflaps is subpar and there are better products to be had on the aftermarket.
The main reason I removed the Tiptop tonneau was concern that slight movement of the rails on the bedliner was scratching the plastic there. When I removed the cover, there were 3 issues. One, there were some scratches where the brackets that attach the rails to the top of the bed get loose occasionally and cause movement of the rails. Nothing crazy, but more than you would like to see after less than a year. I've tightened those brackets 3-4 times since installing in January of this year. You get what you pay for as far as that goes, can't fault the product for being what it is.
Second issue, top rails of the bed were getting warped from the pressure of the brackets on the plastic. Running my hand along those side rails they feel wavy, with noticeable peaks and valleys. Not an issue if you will always have a cover on there, but over time I could see those plastic pieces getting gapped/visibly warping. Will add here that there was a fair amount of dirt/dust trapped under the rails, and I was well on my way to some uneven UV exposure issues with the black plastic. That's to be expected, but I was surprised at the amount of dirt build-up.
Third issue was two-fold. Light scratches on the top edge of the bed below the rear window where the cover itself is mounted (again from slight movement) and more surprisingly, that piece of the cover was putting pressure on the top edge of my modular bedliner where it attaches with 3M and had caused it to bow out and gap quite a bit. Once I had the tonneau cover off, I was able to push that section back on and get a good seal.
This is a long post for $200 worth of accessories. I hope it's a sort of heads-up for those of you who, like me, have gone cheap on Amazon and slapped some parts and pieces on the exterior of the truck. More seasoned MTC members have put some good advice out there, and a little extra time to install buffers between these products and your trucks exterior will save you some money on paint chips, scratches, and rust remediation down the road.
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