Tonneau cover experiences and recommendations

[grnspot110]

My last pickup had a soft cover, never could get it tight enough to quit flapping & a knife would make it unsecure!

I went with an Extang solid fold: Extang - America's Best Selling Tonneau Covers

It folds up & two hand nuts will take it off easily.

 

[check]

I have, and highly recommend, a metal roll-up cover. It occupies about an 8" square at the top and front end of the truck bed. These are far more secure than the soft covers, much nicer looking and can be either manual or power operation.

Sonds good. How much did yours cost?

 

[Quebecguy]

I bought a Bakflip tonneau cover for my Silverado and I'm very happy with it. It was easy to install in well under an hour and fits well. It seems to be very secure too although I'm sure a determined thief could get into the truck box if he really wanted to do so. It is not 100% waterproof but a few drips don't bother me. As far as that goes, the truck box itself is not totally waterproof. It cost me Canadian $1,200 taxes and shipping included which would be roughly US $850 - 900.

BAK Industries BAKFlip G2 Tonneau Cover Canada Partsengine

 

[sklunk]

Depends on how much you want to use the tonneau. Just be aware that most of the roll-up ones have some sort of rail that has to stay attached to the inside of your bed even when you have the cover open. Also many of the hard covers have drain tubes that need to be routed down along the inside corner of the bed to the drain holes.

On the other hand the "tri-fold" styles are usually removable and once you take them off there is nothing left attached to the bed. This is great if you have to haul something that will be near the edges of the bed rails. They come both soft and hard. I have an Extang Trifecta and love it. The only thing I might have changed is maybe a hard one would be more secure. But the hard ones have 2 seams where they fold and sometimes they are prone to leaking (they even have a shorter warranty period probably because of this). You can Google some of the brands but here are some quick links for tri-folds to get you started:

Extang Trifecta (soft)
Extang Solidfold (hard)
Leer Trilogy (hard)

P.S. -- Personally I don't recommend the solid one-piece tonneaus. They are very nice, secure, and come painted to match your truck but you can't haul anything taller than the bed sides. They are also very heavy so you don't want to be installing/uninstalling them often.

 

[check]

My last pickup had a soft cover, never could get it tight enough to quit flapping & a knife would make it unsecure!

I went with an Extang solid fold: Extang - America's Best Selling Tonneau Covers

It folds up & two hand nuts will take it off easily.

My Truxedo soft cover does not flap in the wind - if you "cinch up" the velcro sides before you go on a high speed trip.

 

[JJZ 109]

2 years plus so far on a TonnoPro tri fold. It's been a good cover with no issues. Easy on the checkbook initial purchase. Easy on, easy off and lightweight.

 

[Industrial Toys]

I have the three piece folding style. None of these are perfect for snow and ice. No wonder most of them come from CA! I had the canister type, but it was the BIGGEST PITA! Took up too much room in a typical shorter box. The folding one comes off in a couple of minutes and you can usually find a place to stick it along with your load if need be. And no screws.

Mine actually got quite battered by hail recently and will be replaced. Never thought aluminum would be that sensitive. Sorry, I can't remember the name, but as much as I like it, I am not too impressed with the quality of plastic fittings and weather stripping.

 

[dodge man]

I haven't had a cover on my current truck but have had several in the past. I also like either the trifold covers or that kind that are hard but roll up in a box in the front of the bed, almost like a window shade. The soft ones are OK but in the winter they can be a real ***** to get reattached.

 

[GLyford]

My current truck had an Access roll-up on it when I bought it used, not sure which model.

I find it much more useful than running either a bed toolbox (supercab, so I don't need the room for tools) or a cap (hard to get at everything, and can't use it as an open bed, but I did like the volume of storage that was mostly dry and secure-ish). I have no interest in a hard tonneau, they just never appealed to me as sort of the worst of all possible options as far as usability goes.

The access covers look sharp, keep stuff out-of-sight, out-of-mind (like straps and such) and keep people from using your truck bed as a trashcan in store parking lots, yet rolled up I can haul everything I need to: appliances, building materials, construction debris, straw bales, compost and bark mulch. While in theory anyone with a knife could pop through it and give it a look-see, it hasn't happened in the three years I have owned the truck.

Given a bare truck to start over, I would get another Access cover, or at the very least, another roll-up.

 

[bigtiller]

I have a role-up cover. The only negative thing about is the dust. With the bed being covered all the time, it never gets highway speed winds to blow it out and it never gets washed from a good rain.

Several times a year I have to roll it up, unload the bed, wash it out, dry it and reload.