Tonneau Cover 101
Tonneau (pronounced tuh-noh) cover is a product designed to keep the cargo of
a pickup truck bed covered, dry, and out of sight. They can also be known as
“truck bed cover” or “bed cover”. They come in complete kits with the frame,
cover, and all the mounting hardware needed for installation in the box. As
a rule they clamp on which means you will not have to drill or modify your
truck in any way to install one.
Tonneau covers can be a confusing purchase for some buyers simply because
you have so many options to pick from so we would like to take a few minutes
to explain what the differences are and give you our opinion on which covers
work best for certain situations. Tonneau covers can be broken down into
two main categories HARD or SOFT and this is the first thing you need to
decide before making a purchase.
SOFT COVERS
are the most popular choice because of price. Your options on a soft cover
are 1) snap down 2) roll up, or 3) tri fold.
Type 1 Snap Down:
Snap Down covers are the lowest price and will do a good job of keeping your
cargo dry but are the least secure because anyone can unsnap it and out of
the three styles they are the hardest to operate. If you want to cover the
bed with little to no plans of ever opening or taking off the cover and
security is not an issue this will be a good choice for you. You have
several brand / styles to pick from in a snap down cover. We recommend the
EXT SnapDown because the price is great, they offer a huge selection of
models to fit almost every truck, the cover is designed well, and EXT has
a great warranty (10 year tarp / lifetime frame) that they actually stand
behind.
Type 2 Roll Up:
Roll up tonneau covers are the best fit for most truck owners because the
rear frame piece and crossbars roll up with the cover giving you full access
to the bed when opened. They Velcro on both sides so you don’t have to tug /
pull to get the snaps locked down every time you open the cover and you have
to open the tailgate to open the cover so if the tailgate is locked the
cover is locked making it much more secure. If you need to cover your bed
most of the time but will need full access at times this will be a better
choice than the snap down style. The brands / styles you have to pick from
seem to be endless so for this lesson lets focus on the two we believe to be the best.
1.
Access Cover
(aka AGRI-Cover Inc) offers roll up covers five ways now 1) Vanish (named
after its low profile), 2) Access Cover (their best seller) 3) Lorado (an
upscale version of the Access), 4)LiteRider (scaled down version of the
Access) & and a new economy priced cover called TonnoSport. Access also
offers their Access Cover in a toolbox back version that will attach to a
standard 20” wide toolbox and cover everything back (please note that your
toolbox does not seal off the front of the bed very well so these will
probably leak).
2.
Truxedo
is our favorite manufacture of roll up tonneau covers because they offer a
well designed roll up cover to fit every price range. The Truxedo Truxport
is an entry level roll up cover that only costs a few dollars more than a
snap down cover but has the easy access of a roll up. They also build what
we consider to be the best roll up cover available the Truxedo Lo Pro QT
and now Truxedo offers a scaled down version of the Lo Pro called “Edge” to
compete with the pricing of the Access Vanish and Extang RT covers.
Type 3 Tri Fold:
Tri Fold tonneau covers are exactly what you would think. The cover is made
up of 3 panels each covering 1/3rd of your bed that hinge onto
each other. So to open one you drop the tailgate, release the two rear
latches and flip it over twice. At this point you can use the straps to
stow the cover in this position with the front 1/3rd of your bed
still covered or unhook the front two clamps and completely remove the
cover. The best selling feature of a tri fold cover is that it comes
completely assembled. So install is a breeze and when you take it off
everything is made onto the cover so there are no parts to lose. If you
need a cover some of the time but have a need to completely remove it often
a tri fold cover will be your best choice. Not that the other two styles are hard to
install but this one is definitely the easiest. Your options for a Tri Fold
cover are 1) Lund Genesis, 2) Rugged Cover, & 3) Torza Top & 4) EXT
TriFold. If you notice only one of these is listed on our site. That
doesn’t mean that the others are not good covers because they are all pretty
nice but all four are basically the same price and features of the EXT
TriFold
(like the seals and hinges) are noticeable better so to keep things simple
we only list this one brand on our site.
HARD COVERS
are going to cost at least double the price of a soft cover but will be much
more secure so depending on how valuable your cargo is this may be a better
choice for you.
Your choices in a hard cover are folding, retractable, or hinged. The
hinged covers comes as one big piece that is too large to ship out FedEx
(meaning we can’t sell them online) so for this lesson we will only focus on
the other two styles but I will tell you that ARE is your best choice for a
fiberglass and UnderCover for a plastic. We recommend the folding covers
over retractable for two reasons 1) most buyers are not qualified to install
a retractable and 2) the retractable covers are the least water tight and
highest price of any cover you can buy.
Type 1 Folding:
That we have experience with your choices in a hard folding cover are 1) EXT
HardFold , 2) Fold-A-Cover, 3) BAK
BAKFlip, & 4) Advance Cover. If you notice only one of these is listed on
our site and I will explain why. The Advance cover is poorly designed so we
just don't sell it, the BAK BAKFlip is a good design and on most trucks works
well but the company that makes it has virtually no support so good luck
getting replacement parts if you break something, the Fold-A-Cover is a
great cover and works well on every truck we have put one on but we recommend
the EXT HardFold over it because it is so simple. Everything is made onto
the cover so putting it on / taking it off is a simple 5 minute job with no
tools required and when you take it off all the parts are made onto the
cover so there is nothing to lose. Both are great covers there are pro's /
con's both ways but we believe the HardFold to be a better cover at a
lower price.
Type 2 Retractable:
Out of all the styles of truck bed covers retractable is the hardest to
install properly and if you don’t get it just
right the cover will not function properly, will leak (more than normal),
and could cause unfixable damage to the cover. If you haven’t already
noticed they are also the most expensive tonneau covers you can buy.
Having said that, there is a very loyal customer base for this style of
cover (our owner Phil wont have anything else). If you need a secure
hard cover most of the time but an exposed bed some (like for pulling
gooseneck and or 5th wheel trailers) a retractable cover is one
of your best choices. That we have experience with there are three brands of
retractable covers 1) Roll-N-Lock 2) Retrax & 3) Pace Edwards (technically
BAK makes one also but we don’t consider it a usable product). Roll-N-Lock
is actually a great cover if installed properly but out of the three it is
the hardest to get right so if this is what you plan on purchasing I would
recommend you pay a little extra and buy it from a local installer that has
ample experience with this line. I will warn you of one problem we found.
If you leave the cover rolled up for an extended period of time (like a
month) the aluminum on the underside of the cover will rub lines in the
vinyl on top and the powers that be at Roll-N-Lock choose not to warranty
this defect. 2) Retrax is a fairly new tonneau manufacture and until
recently they sold the majority of their products direct so distributors like
us will have less experience with this line that the others. It is a great
concept (all aluminum cover with no vinyl covering) and on the couple kits
we have had the opportunity to do they seem to function well. We recommend
the Pace Edwards line over the other two (more specifically the Full Metal JackRabbit and Bedlocker) because they are very well designed virtually
indestructible covers that are much easier to install than the other two
brands. I can’t say that we have never had a warranty issue with a Pace
Edwards product but their tech support is great and they have always pulled
through on any problem we came across.
Frequent Tonneau Cover Questions
Is it water tight?
Pickup truck beds were never designed to be water tight and obviously the
cover only seals the top edge of the bed so NO buying a tonneau cover is not
going to keep every drop of water out of your bed. All beds have a tailgate
which has a large crack between it and the bed that will allow some water in
(more if parked facing downhill) and most beds also have holes somewhere
else (like the stake pockets, factory Ford bed caps, or where the front
bulkhead meets the bedsides). Having said that the covers listed above if
properly installed will slow the amount of water allowed into your bed to
small drops which will never fill the grooves of your bed high enough to
soak your cargo. If your goal is to keep every drop of water out simply
buying a tonneau cover is not going to do the job but the cover combined
with a tailgate seal kit, some properly positioned foam seals, and a little
silicone will make you water tight.
Will it work with a bed liner? Yes tonneau covers work fine
with under the rail plastic bed liners, all spray on bed liners and most bed
caps but over the rail bed liners that block access to the inside lip of the
bed will cause a problem. Some covers will still work with an over the rail
bed liner if you cut holes in the liner for the clamps to go through but others that
mount to the inside lip of the bed will not.
MAP PRICING:
If you have done much looking online you have probably noticed tonneau
covers are the exact same price on every site you go to (down to the
penny). That is because most tonneau cover manufactures set a Minimum
Advertised Price for their product line that
prevents sellers from showing that product under a certain price.
Personally we at Got-Chrome believe this practice to be un-American so you
will see us do things like put “Call for Best Price” or list the product
without the manufacture’s name just so we can provide you with the best
pricing possible. We may not be able to show all of our best deals online
but Got-Chrome.com is one of the most experienced tonneau cover
distributers anywhere and if you are interested in one of the products
described above we can save you a lot of money.