Just a preliminary review, only had it for 3 days so far...
Got an RSI Smartcap installed on my F-150 this week. The Smartcap is a canopy manufactured in South Africa.
Pros:
- Made of stainless steel, not fiberglass.
- Custom version available for many newer truck models.
- Weighs less than fiberglass, ~200 lbs.
- Integrated rails for attaching racks or other items to the top.
- Very strong, can hold 330 lbs on top while moving, 770 lbs stationary.
- Sides feature gullwing glass panels that flip up, with a small openable window on each side.
- Clamps on, no cutting/drilling.
- Cap ships in 5 parts that are bolted together before installing--it's possible to replace a damaged part without replacing entire cap.
- Many add-on options for mounting boxes for tools or for camping equipment. One is a slide out table--where'd they get the idea for that??
- Has passthrough window opposite the passthrough on truck rear window.
- Has positive pressure roof vent to keep dust from entering the truck bed area.
Cons:
- Expensive, ~$3800
- For me, in rainy Pacific Northwest, roof vent leaks a bit.
- No screens on the opening windows.
- Only comes in black.
- Locks on back hatch and side gullwing windows not openable from inside the cap.
When the Smartcap first started shipping a year or so ago, they came with a T-connector manufactured by Curt to power the CHMSL (third brake light) on the cap. This attached to the back of the trailer connector behind the bumper. On F-150s with integrated trailer brake controller, this T-connector caused problems, and is no longer supplied with the cap. Before purchase, I contacted the North America division of RSI asking about the current state of affairs, was told that the dealer will need to hardwire the stop lamp, and they will know how to do that.
Had the cap shipped to Rack N Road, Bellevue, WA. Took about 3 weeks to arrive. Dropped the truck off Thursday in the morning, and picked it up just before they closed that day (it's Sunday 3 days later as of this writing.) On pickup, I was told "The T-connector was missing, but we had a spare one in the store that we installed." Nice of them to dig one up, but OOPS! With the T-connector installed, the F-150 thinks there's a trailer attached, and disables both blind spot monitoring and backup distance monitoring. Even worse, it pops up warnings on the dash that the trailer left/right signal lights have a fault, every few minutes--usually just after braking. I put calls into the manufacturer and the dealer Friday morning, but have not gotten a response yet. Will update when there's a resolution.
The irony here is that on current Ford trucks there's a disconnected wire in the engine compartment designated to drive the brake light on caps/canopies. The dealer could have run a wire up to this and there would have been no issue. We will see if the dealer steps up to make it right. They seemed like good guys, so I think they will. If not, I can run the wire myself. Meanwhile, I would rather have the brake light non-functional than deal with the errors on the dash, so I crawled under the truck and disconnected the T-connector and plugged the truck harness back into the trailer connector directly.
So, in conclusion, I really like the Smartcap mechanically--it's very well designed for the most part and seems very durable. Electrically, I blame RSI for not being proactive in training their dealers on how to correctly install the brake light wiring.
