Carpeted Panel between Cab and Bed Holding Water

[reidmefirst]

Old thread but just want to say thanks to @Porpoise Hork for posting the removal info. And to call other owners' attention to it now that fall is on its way.

I was moving some stuff with my truck the other day and somehow got to thinking, "gee I wonder if I dropped my phone down this gap, how I would ever fish it out", then started eyeballing down the gap. Yep: tons of acorns and debris down there. My truck is parked outside, under a big oak tree most of the time.

Mine is a Lariat, built in April 2021. It only has the sound deadening material on the driver side of the truck. But, it won't have that material for much longer! Will follow Porpoise's notes and get it out of there.

I definitely did notice a musty smell in the cab after a rain, but never found any damp carpet or leak or anything. I'm betting this is the cause. Ugh.

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[Racket]

I don't have anything like that on my 2019 XL

My 2019 Lariat Crewcab with the factory drop in bedliner has it and while the debris isn't terrible I'm inclined to yank it - mouse magnet? If I were OCD I suppose I'd remove the bed, clean the surfaces on both sides and use bedliner paint to dull any noise - but moving the bed far enough to do so sounds like a major job . Leave the rubber seals of course.

 

[2020FX4]

I totally forgot about this until the thread got bumped. I just went and looked between my cab and bed and it is packed! The last time I looked back there was 2 years ago. ugh.

 

[reidmefirst]

I got the carpet partially pulled today. I managed to cut two of the three plastic rivets, and used some trim removal tools to get the carpet unglued. I pulled a part of the carpet into the bed. I guess I'll tie a rope to it to start pulling it out the top.

But, I cannot for the life of me get the third plastic rivet out -- the one you can't see, but can feel. I tried a dozen different tools up there: scissors, various wire cutters, I couldn't figure out how to grab onto that rivet and push it out or cut it. Sigh. Once the mosquitoes came out, I gave up to try another day.

But yeah there is a lot of debris in mine. Lots of acorns especially. Mouse magnet is right. Our last rain was a week ago and the corner that I pulled into the bed was still soaking wet.

Hey once I get the carpet out it means more payload right? .

 

[dapakattack]

A few of us have blocked the top of that gap with foam pipe insulation

This Thread

 

[reidmefirst]

A few of us have blocked the top of that gap with foam pipe insulation

This Thread

I do like that as a fix.

Up here in the midwest we are in the salt belt though. That carpet is going to trap water and ice and salt all winter long, and hold it up against the side of the cab and the bed even if I did the pipe insulation trick. I may still do it just to keep crap from landing on top of the gas tank though!

 

[reidmefirst]

Welp, I got it done today.

Like Porpoise suggests, you can pull the carpet slightly into the bed of the truck. Once you have access to the hole in the carpet from the rivet, drop a good quality rope (I used some old scrap of sailboat line that I had), tie through the hole, then pull!

The real problem with the carpet is it that it actually /isn't/ fully glued to the bed. You can see the top part of the carpet is covered with pine needles: this wasn't glued to the bed, so fell over and created a nice pocket for debris to fall into.

My secret to removing the hard-to-reach plastic rivet was a metal trim removal tool seen below:

What a pain that was. It's hard to fit both your hand and a tool into the small space, so prepare to contort yourself a bit. Once this last rivet was removed, the carpet pulled right out easily enough.

Once I pulled the carpet out I found a new problem: I sprayed all the leftover leaves and acorns and pine needles out of the space between bed and cab, but there was only a quite small pile of debris on the ground. The reason is of course the gas tank:

Will have to use compressed air every once in a while to blow crap off the top of the gas tank. Thankfully you can reach up on top of it and grab the acorns and leaves and stuff off.

 

[2020FX4]

STUPID Things like this really make me want to kick some engineer in the nads.... Over n over.

Who in their right mind with any common sense would think this is a good idea......

 

[Ranger_Rocks]

Looks like you extracted a dead animal !!

 

[2020FX4]

Finally got mine taken care of today..... What a PITA!

Before.

After.

 

[reidmefirst]

We finally had a good long rain last night (Iowa has been in a horrible drought still). The cab did not have its normal post-rain musty smell, like at all, so it was indeed the carpet and leaves that was causing the odor issue. Hooray.

 

[2020FX4]

We finally had a good long rain last night (Iowa has been in a horrible drought still). The cab did not have its normal post-rain musty smell, like at all, so it was indeed the carpet and leaves that was causing the odor issue. Hooray.

The mess I pulled out of mine yesterday smelled sooo nasty.... My truck still smelled this morning and I just finished washing out between the bed and cab and cleaning the bed after pulling the sound deadener material through the small holes in the bed.

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