truck bed covers all input and opinions welcome

Rob Keeble

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GTA Ontario Canada
Am looking at getting a truck. It will be a F150 supercrew 4x4 with the v6 ecoboost engine. I have had little say in this vehicle as i wanted to rather get rid of the trailer and rather get a proper rv. :deadhorse:
But on this one the boss has spoken.

So what say yea all about truck covers. Canopy is out i am told by the boss. :(

I have never had a truck in my life before so i am in for some learning. Trying to keep as much technology out of this buy and keep it as simple as possible and as cheap as possible.

The box is only going to be 5.5 inch long, because swimbo wants a supercrew cab. (She is thinking of grandkids and i am saying truck will be long gone before that happens .....sometimes :huh:

Only thing i do know is she has promised she will drive when we towing if we have this vehicle. (yeah i will make sure we fully insured :rofl: including life cover;).)

At present i have looked at the folding type

Bak Flip but then i found another crowd that seems to have superior product they called Fold A cover .

I dont have any experience whatsoever so i am hoping some of you pros that use a pickup can advise me on bed covers. If you can call 5ft 5 inch a box. More like a kiddies sandpit in my view. :eek:

thanks for any input and experiences.
 
So why doesn't she want a canopy? Maybe once she has the right style canopy she wouldn't be so against them. The LOLM drives an S10 with a 1 height canopy & flip up to open windows On sides & back & she says that it has good visibility all around. Also most trucks have much better mirrors than they used to.

I wouldn't have it without a canopy with big windows that hinge up to open on both sides & the back, Once you have one you'll never look back. Even better cab high at the front & going higher at the back for better visibility. With this you can reach anything at the front with ease. Make sure to get the truck that sets down closer to the ground like the trucks did before they went crazy & jacked them all up high. The jacked up ones really wear on you as time goes by. I found this out just being a auto detailer.

I sure hope the bed is longer than 5.5 Inches......Ha Ha!!!!

Get a student driver sign to put on the front & back of the rig when she is towing.

If you haven't already done it & this is a tandem axle trailer wire a blinker light up between the front & back axle on the side of the trailer this is a great help when trying to get over for that exit the snuck up on you, for the person that has just passed the back end of your trailer & can't see the back blinker anymore. Also carry a set of binoculars to for the shotgun rider to look down the road to find that exit ahead of time so you have more room to get over.
 
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Rob
Let's get the terminology straight. Do you mean a tonneau cover that just sits flat on the sides of your box, or what I call a truck cap, which is same height as your cab, colour-matched, fitted to your model of truck and is actually useful for putting stuff in?
No serious truck-driving country boy I know has a flat cover on his pickup. If he did, he got rid of it the first time he had to take the lawn mower somewhere and had to drive around with the thing sticking up. Do you see where I'm going here? :D

Just my opinion. I've had a lot of pickup trucks.

Good luck tomorrow, btw. :thumb:

Peter
 
Hi Rob, i'm on my 2nd bakflip and love them. My 1st was on a 6.6 ft tundra, it was aluminum and would hold 400 lbs on top of it. It was great for moving sheetrock, plywood. I had pop up hold downs in the stake pockets and could bungee the load on top. Had that one for 4 years with no problem. The one I have now is on a tacoma, this one is called fibermax. Made with fiberglass instead of aluminum. Its lighter, can still hold a few hundred pounds. The problem is the tacoma does not have stake pockets so there is no way to tie anything down. The best part of a backflip is the entire thing opens against the back of the cab so you have the entire truck open and it only takes a second to open. Good luck.
 
Curious what you want a bed cover for? That might drive the design choice a bit maybe... I have pretty limited experience with them - more experience with the in-bed toolbox setup but you've already killed most of the bed length with the supercrew so probably don't want one of those...

Sure you can't talk her down into just a supercab? At least you'd get a 6.5' box which is big enough to be useful once you drop the tailgate... and you can fit the hypothetical young ones in it for a good 10 years or so...


Just looked at the config and the "power group" now has a "• Power Tailgate Lock" - what the heck!? Power tailgate lock!?! Either I'm getting old and grumpy or that's just crazy.
 
I have a PVC tonneau cover (hard shell and lighter to take off than fiberglass and about as strong and half the cost) It works OK most of the time it only weights 65lbs so even me and Linda can take it off if needed and it locks down. Problem I have with it is the height. I can load the organ up in the back and have it covered it lacks about 3 inchs so cant take the organ out if there is ANY dought of rain. I have had toppers and that is what I will go back to next time.
I do like the cover for gas mileage help.
Oh and I went with the extended cab (not a 4 door) and back side opening open all the way to the side of the bed and I like that ALOT and there is plenty of room in back. My Aunt has same type with the 4 door and I cant see that it is worth the bed lose to me.
 
Odd man out here. I hate pickup bed covers. Had a soft tonneau on my old Toyota for a while. Sun and ozone wore it out in about three years, and I never replaced it. 'Twas a PITA to remove and roll up every time I wanted to haul dirt, sand, mulch, or whatever, and wouldn't have been secure enough to be a theft deterrent. The hinge up hard covers have to be either removed or tied down to haul anything. I'd rather just 'go naked' and have a usable truck.

OTOH, my neighbor has an F-150 with a lockable hard cover, and he loves it - but the only thing that he's ever hauled in that truck is his golf clubs.

So far as cab-high canopies go - if you really need a cab-high canopy, just get a Tahoe or a Suburban instead of a pickup.

But that's just my opinion...I could be wrong.:D
 
i wouldnt get a super crew either. just the cab and a half size, and if you get a topper i would get the side windows to open up like bart said.. for my use i dont like the flip tops..a real cover matched tot he truck is my choice.
 
I am with jim. I have a 10 yr old Silverado and no tool box or cover. Before that i had an S10 with a tool box and before thart an S10 with a fu.ll shell. Naked is the way i prefer easier to haul stuff and if it can't go in the bed like my golf clubs i put em in the back seat. imho.
 
We love our crewcab, the back seat folds down to make a sweet platform for the dog{dogs when we had 2}, plenty of room for bow & gun cases, camping gear even guitars and amps..no, not all at the same time :D Even enough room to {semi} stretch out for a roadside nap or unexpected overnighter.

We have the soft snap on cover and are happy with it. A guy that worked with my wife gave it to her {when he traded his truck in} a year after we bought the truck{year 2000} and it's still holding up well for it's age. First thing I did after mounting it, was to take it all back off, and I cut it down a 1/2" on all four frame sections, it's a breeze to snap on now, even in the cold. Takes maybe 20 seconds to take off the cover and 2 support rods for larger load capacity,and maybe 1 to 2 minutes to button her back up. We like it for long hauls when the weather may change, keeping things dry is nice when needed :D

On a side note, we also bought the truck with a bed-liner already installed...lil bit afraid to pull it out to see what lurks below :eek::rofl:
 
...On a side note, we also bought the truck with a bed-liner already installed...lil bit afraid to pull it out to see what lurks below :eek::rofl:

Those plastic slide in bed liners are another thing I hate. They're slippery, and anything other than gravel or mulch slides around. Carrying wood with the tailgate down can lead to losing it unless you cross-tie it. They can also promote rusting. Their shifting around scuffs the paint; they leak when it rains, so water gets (and stays) under them, causing rusting of the scuffed bare areas. I don't know why they ever became popular.

I much prefer the Line-X brand of spray-in liner. Durable and skid resistant. After ten years in my Toyota truck, it still looked like new. First thing I did when I bought my Ranger was get rid of the plastic liner and have Line-X installed. Don't want a truck without it!
 
You can always buy one later if you really think you need it. Better than buying up front and tossing it out. I always think of trucks as hauling things you can't put in a traditional SUV/car. Why does it need a topper? Valuable stuff can usually be put in the crew cab and no one is going to steal a pallet of stove pellets or sheets of plywood (which won't fit under it anyways). Save your money for now and enjoy the new ride. :wave:
 
OK, I looked them up online to see what you were talking about. I was confusing it with the ones that are flush with the bed of the truck. I don't think I've ever seen one or maybe I assumed they were related to camping. I don't think they are popular out West where it never rains. Out of curiosity, what is their main purpose? Is for weather protection (again a naive desert dweller :huh:)
 
FWIW

HI Rob. I have a very nice three folding tonneau cover by Trifecta on my Ranger. It is totally waterproof, easy to fold back or even to remove if you need the room. I got a lock on my tailgate, and said something to the dealer about people cutting through the tonneau to steal stuff. He said he's never heard of that happening (we are in Canada, after all!) It's a very good, tidy looking cover for the bed. IIRC, it cost around $500.

Oh, I have a can of protective spray that I apply twice a year. When I have carried stuff like my snowblower or lawnmower, the folded cover gives you a 4' clear box. If you're not using your truck for constant hauling of large loads, a tonneau would suit you well, and it keeps litter out of the box. It is better than a rigid cover because it can be folded out of the way. (My neighbour has a rigid cover on his Ranger.)
 
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What Roger said. We don't own a car just trucks. Wife has a crew cab and I have a standard cab Silverado. We have the three fold tonneau covers on both. It keeps everything in the bed dry even at 70 mph. We have the spray on bed liners on both, RinoLiner is the name I think. They say the tonneau covers save gas, can't speak for that as I put them on when they were new.
 
I have an f150 Extend cab.. half sized back seat.. while I love the truck, it has taken a little to get used to the size of it... I had a Ford Ranger, with a camper top, that I used to haul my show booth and inventory... it was a lot smaller than the F150. I don't have a cover for the bed, but sure wish I did... hauling my booth in the rain is a pain... it's near impossible to tie a tarp down well enough to keep thing dry.

I think if you did put a canopy over the bed, it would be almost like driving a large SUV... visibility is reduced some, but not so much as to be inconvenient... If you put a soft cover over the back, you'll get sag and moisture on things in the bed... even if it's water resistant.... the hard pop-up covers will be more secure, but will limit your hauling, unless you plan ahead and take it off if you have something tall to carry... but so will the canopy.

BTW, I agree with you about the proper RV... I do not like hauling a trailer and a camp trailer would be especially trying for me.
 
My old standard cab, 8' bed Dodge has never had a cover because I mostly haul mulch and tree trimmings back and forth to the recycle yard. Any kind of cover would limit my main use of the truck. We did take it on a couple of long trips and ended wrapping our stuff up in sturdy tarps. It worked, but was a PIA. My previous truck was a Chevy 1 ton that usually had a slightly more than cab high shell on it. It was more secure and dry for longer trips, but inconvenient (heavy) to remove and store if I needed the truck for hauling. It also carried an 11.5' slide in camper that slept 6 for vacations. When we lived in Alaska that camper got year round use. Next truck will get a spray on bed liner and either a hinged tilt up or tonneau cover. Not sure which. That Bakflip looks pretty cool. It would be high on my list.
 
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Still waiting on the "What do you mean" response, but mine (2010 F-150 crew cab) came with a bed cover. Injection molded ABS I'm guessing since I bought it used. Mileage is improved, has an LED light...next to worthless...and a good lock. Removes in 3 minutes with Stacey on the other side. Would not buy another truck without one.
 
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