Truck bed Covers: A hard tonneau or retractable - which is best for you

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A hard tonneau or retractable - which is best for you

It’s a fact that truck owner use tonneau covers to add style, cover their gear, save gas and keep junk out of the bed. But, if your main concern is to keep the stuff you store in the bed from getting stolen then you shouldn’t even consider a soft tonneau cover. Though soft tonneaus are the cheapest bed coverage option out there, hard tonneau covers and retractable tonneaus offer the protection you need and will ultimately pay for them by keeping your gear safe and sound.
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When it comes to hard tonneau covers, they’re one of the most popular styles on the road. Considered to be the choice among the truck customization community and anyone who puts sleek looks above all else, hard tonneaus are more than just fortresses for your expensive equipment. What’s more, there are numerous ways to use a hard tonneau cover for utilitarian purposes and plenty of no-frills models that give you hard-tonneau-security without all of the custom-color matched pricing. Plus, hard tonneaus meld securely to your bed and wrap over the bed rails, making it so even the most cunning of thieves would need lots of time and an assortment of tools to get at your gear.
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If hard tonneau covers have a drawback, it’s that they’re hard to remove when you need to haul a monster load. Unfortunately, you’ll never have full access to entire bed without taking the cover completely off. And, you’ll have to do whenever your load is taller than the edge of your bed. Because most hard tonneaus weight in at more than 100lbs., it’s not an easy or fast job. Bottom line – when it comes to security and looks, a hard tonneau cover is the way to roll, but, if you regularly haul big and/or tall loads it may be more of hassle than its worth.
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So your next option would be a retractable cover. You can think of retractable tonneau covers as a rolling garage door for your truck’s bed. More often than not, these bed covers operate manually with an easy pull of the strap and lock at several positions along the bedrail and finally at the end at the tailgate. The panels of a retractable tonneau cover are most often crafted from resilient materials such as aluminum that can really take a pounding and yet keep on working right. There are even a few retractable tonneau covers that can be opened and closed using a handy remote. At the end of the day, whether you open your retractable tonneau manually or with a remote, it only takes a few seconds to get relatively unobstructed access to your truck’s bed.
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For every upside there is, of course, a downside and the same is true for retractable tonneau covers. First and foremost, the installation of a retractable tonneau is quite a bit more difficult. Your bed’s rails must be shimmed to level before the cover will operate as smoothly as it is designed. The entire cover must roll into a heavy canister that sits behind your cab’s rear window. This type of canister can collect moisture and if and when it does it needs to be drained and draining requires drilling holes for the drainage lines. What’s more, that canister is pretty big, especially with longer beds and the space it encroaches on is space you’ll never be able to use for bed storage. With the exception of long, flat cargo that slides in along the bed floor, the front foot or so of your carrying capacity is for the most part lost. While a hard tonneau cover gives you back all of the bed space after some complex disconnecting of hardware and heavy lifting, a retractable tonneau cover never quite gets you back to your full bed length, unless you have the time or wherewithal to completely unscrew the canister, remove the rails, and unhook the drainage tubes – no thanks.
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At the end of the day, if it’s rare that you carry loads bigger than the box of your bed and want a cover to secure expensive items that will tuck away, a hard tonneau cover is the way to go. If hauling around bulkier gear and want the fastest access to the most space more, a retractable tonneau cover is the choice. Finally, either way you go, you’re sure to be delighted that you didn’t throw away cash on a soft tonneau, only to have it be cut open and your gear no residing in the hands of the unrighteous.

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