subject: Tips Whenever Looking At A Truck Bed Cover [print this page] Tips Whenever Looking At A Truck Bed Cover
Online shopping is a quick means to easy comparison of features and facts. Owner reviews are for reading and help in the quest to compare the covers and reach a decision about the best type and model that would work best for your purposes. All those owner reviews make it far simpler to guess what the installation and owner experiences will be like, good or bad. Consult suppliers of tonneaus like AutoAnything and you can read many reviews of bed cover models and see what owners think, often in no uncertain terms. Especially enlightening are the comments about installation.
Any bed cover serves to hide cargo from prying eyes. Hard covers do more. Only the most determined thief can get beyond the locked hard tonneau since it really will takes some tools and likely some violence to break into most hard covers. In some cases, like the retractable versions the cover itself is an aluminum sheet that nobody is going to easily get past. Combine a locked cover with a locked tailgate and you have serious load protection.
Ease of use of covers depends partly on features of the design. Access brand covers use a hook and loop seal method that beats snaps in some ways. Snap closure is found on many soft tonneaus. With Access covers the cover is fixed in place to close and then it is tightened only after being secured. That makes for much easier closing than trying to tighten the cover and get that last snap closed at the same time...
Virtually no covers require drilling for installation anymore. Rather, the cover mounts just clamp in place and that makes installing faster and less trouble as well as eliminating the aggravation of putting holes through an expensive bed and damaging the paint at the same time too. What happens usually is the side rails clamp in place and then the front and rear seals go on and that gets the cover ready to go. Notice reviews to find the really easy to install covers for the best results with the least effort. As the weight goes up, so often does the difficulty of getting the thing in place...
No tonneau can keep every bit of water out, but some come close. It's partly the seal system that's responsible for how well the cover waterproofs. Seals are of different sorts, especially the critical side seals. For soft covers especially the seals are critical since the cover must not only be put in place be tightened as well. Systems on soft covers that allow fastening the cover in place and then tightening it afterwards are easier to use. Check online for reviews of the cover you are considering and likely you will quickly find what actual owners think about how it works to seal and keep out water and dirt.
Pickup truck covers need not be expensive to be useful and handy to have. Soft pickup truck covers cost little but are still durable, easy to install and provide full bed access better than many more expensive models. Soft covers are worth a look for bed protection at a low to moderate price.
