Project Canyonero

[WRXtranceformed]

A tonneau is not as useful as you're thinking it's going to be.

I am going to have to disagree, people use their trucks in different ways. It makes the bed actually useable for more than just "crap I am hauling".

I have the Retrax. Yes its pricey (I actually found a brand new one in PA for $300 ) but its a HARD cover that rolls completely out of the way, and locks. I use it infinitely and would never consider a truck without a Retrax or "backflip" style cover. With the locks and cover back, I keep wheels/tires worth $$, golf clubs, etc back there a lot with piece of mind. I also got a tailgate lock, but I think you said yours has that stock. You got 4 guys going golfing/skiing and you want all your gear protected in the parking lot while you grab drinks/lunch? Better having a locking cover.

The Retrax works for me because I have a long bed truck. It eats a decent bit of bed space up top (might be even more on mine because long bed is a long roll up). Its clear underneath, so I can still fit wood in the bed/store stuff under it. Its "close" to waterproof except at the end of the bed where it probably just needs an adjustment.

A couple friends have the bak-flip styles that you quoted and they are nice as well. For a short-bed or smaller truck I would pick up one of those. They lock, are hard, and easy to use. They would be a pain flipping back all those panels on a long bed, as usual pick the one that suits your exact needs.

Hard fiberglass tonneau covers are for the birds, DO NOT GET. Very hard to get stuff out of the bed, can't have anything sticking up tall, and are very hard to remove. Campers are great, but I like having the ability to stand up in the back of the pickup bed. Ya know...and actually use my gooseneck trailer... Hope this helps.

Super helpful thank you dude :thumbup:

[CaptainHenreh]

I always have trucks as secondary vehicles, and often they are either xcabs or single cabs so ""four friends for skiing and beers" isn't happening in any truck I have, because, you know, I use my truck for truck stuff, not for golf. And from that perspective, tonneau covers, no matter the cleverness of the design, are more trouble than they are worth. Just my opinion, from my own experience, worth what you paid for it.

[Jake]

I second DJ's commentary... yes, you can lock stuff in the cab but when you have dirty things that you also don't want stolen (i.e. sets of wheels, golf clubs, etc) it's a very real use case to want the tonneau.

Avoid the fiberglass stuff, they are a pain in the dick to install/remove which you have to do if whatever you're hauling is even an inch taller than the bed walls.

My F150 came with some roll-up vinyl tonneau, that has Velcro securing the sides and a sliding "lock" to keep it down by the tailgate. It could be broken into with a butter knife so I'm kinda-sorta in the market for something better. My bed is only 5'7" so not sure if I want a Retrax versus something like a Bakflip.

Take a look here and reach out to Luke, he's the owner and a sponsor of the F150 forum. He gave me a lot of good info for comparison's sake and I may buy through him if I can't find something used that fits my needs: <!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://www.truckalterations.com/">http://www.truckalterations.com/</a><!-- m -->

[D_Eclipse9916]

I always have trucks as secondary vehicles, and often they are either xcabs or single cabs so ""four friends for skiing and beers" isn't happening in any truck I have, because, you know, I use my truck for truck stuff, not for golf. .

I guess carrying around weight plates and 5LB jugs of protein is more "truckey" than me. (I know you are just joking around/jabbing at Lee) :wink:

In all seriousness, I don't know how you do xcabs or singe cabs. Wifey + dogs + gear on any road trip necessitates a crew cab.

[CaptainHenreh]

Wifey + dogs + gear on any road trip necessitates a crew cab.

I hear what you're saying but "Wife + dog + kids + gear + road trip = Don't Go In A Truck" :dunno:

I mean, like I said. I haven't had a truck as my primary transport since I was 20. It worked great then, but the tonneau cover was way more trouble than it was worth, to me. If I needed to lock something in the truck, I locked it in the truck. But when I needed to haul shit, like mulch or gravel or furniture or whatever, it seemed like I was always denting rails or getting mulch stuck in the rail or spending 20 fucking minutes more than I needed to getting the cover to the point where I could use the truck as a truck. I eventually removed it, because it wasn't worth the time and effort. I mean I'm looking at some of the folding or retractable and I'm thinking, "Well, I know the first time something shifted in the bed and slammed into the cover when I had to break in a hurry I'd be pissed as fuck at my dented-and-bent tonneau panels.

Maybe you'll never haul something big and awkward, that's fine. I'm just making the case that if you have an extended cab and you need to lock things up, lock them up in there. Truck beds are the reason you bought a truck, after all. Why spend money trying to make it less trucky?

[D_Eclipse9916]

Never gotten mulch stuck in any of that and my bed is currently full of loose mulch. :dunno:

Man that cover is totally in the way

[CaptainHenreh]

Never gotten mulch stuck in any of that and my bed is currently full of loose mulch. :dunno:

Man that cover is totally in the way

Just passing along my experience, glad you haven't experienced the same.

I also love that throw pillow cushioning the engine block, btw.

[D_Eclipse9916]

Can you tell that this week is a slow week at work?

[WRXtranceformed]

Yeah different strokes I suppose for how you're using it. As a "daily" that's going to get a lot of versatile use out of it, the tonneau makes a lot of sense for my needs. With one on there, it would make a REALLY good road trip vehicle since you can fit 4 people comfortably inside plus more junk than you could throw even in a big SUV. And it's all safe and dry.

I'm leaning more toward the Extang, because Justin is right I don't know exactly how often I will take it off but when I do it will be nice to make it a quick job with no leftover rails or brackets to get in the way. DJ is right I do have a tailgate lock so that should work fine.

Case in point, just doin truck thangs today and testing the payload limits with our new "hardwood" floors:



Handled it like a champ even if we might have been a little over capacity with both of us and some light luggage in the car :oops:

[JustinG]

Man....I really like these things....

Moving to "The other side of town" may force me to buy a truck

[WRXtranceformed]

Man....I really like these things....

Moving to "The other side of town" may force me to buy a truck

:thumbup:

Here's the Solid Fold 2.0 installation video. It's only 1:30.....haha

[youtube]Mpt_RR2Suus[/youtube]

[JustinG]

only concern with that one is that the panel closest to the truck cab doesn't fold up? I know some do, so if you wanna utilize the full size of the bed it has to be removed?

[WRXtranceformed]

only concern with that one is that the panel closest to the truck cab doesn't fold up? I know some do, so if you wanna utilize the full size of the bed it has to be removed?

Correct. There are some options that fold up onto the rear glass (BakFlip, etc.) to open up more of the bed, I just don't like the idea of my rear window being blocked by the cover. Another pro of the easy install / uninstall since I don't really want a Bakflip style cover....just take it off and toss it in the bed with whatever you are carrying if you had to

[JustinG]

yea, if it is that easy to remove I guess it wont be that big of a deal.

[Apoc]

I found you a new paint job, Lee.

[WRXtranceformed]

Fog lights are in, HID kit had issues with the anti flicker capacitor. TRS is awesome to deal with and after troubleshooting with my installer they concluded it was a capacitor issue and not an install problem. I'm really glad I didnt tackle this myself because it would have turned into a multi-week deal.

My installer is putting in a set of ballasts / wiring that he uses on all of his finicky euro and Dodge installs that he confirmed works fine on my truck. Made the executive decision to send back the entire Morimoto kit minus the bulbs which I will keep and use with his kit (which also doesn't have an in-line capacitor, it's built into the ballasts which is nice). And it's cheaper which is an added bonus.

Took some before pics last night so I'll post up the before/afters tonight! Should be done early this afternoon.

[WRXtranceformed]

All is well! Lights look incredible! The 6500K Morimoto bulbs don't exactly match exactly color wise with the fogs like I hoped but I'm not upset about it. The fact that they are 35W and in projectors makes the headlight output warmer and the fogs are what they are because they are LED.

The before shots -

OEM projector low beams and fogs:

OEM projector low beams:



Night output before, OEM projector and fogs:

Night output before, OEM projectors


And the afters!

Installed shots:



Evolution Auto 35W ballasts / harness + Morimoto 6500K bulbs:


With Morimoto fogs (that cutoff though!! The color looks identical in the pics but the fogs have a bluer hue to them):




Night output after, HID lows:


Night output after, HID lows and fogs:



Just Morimoto fogs:


Parking lights:


Couldn't be happier with the results, and it's nice to know there's another high quality HID kit option out there for this truck!

[ScottyB]

damn, nice! i love that unless you were told, you'd have no idea that's not factory. super clean work my man.

[Sully]

I could never imagine having one of those flip cover things. I have a soft roll up cover and it works fine for me. Yea, it could be broken into but I've never really had that problem. Dunno, maybe just where I live and/or park. I also don't really ever put anything in there thats worth anything. Alright, I don't really ever put anything in there...or drive it. But I feel like I would need the ability to roll it up out of the way. Those giant panels would annoy the shit out of me. Just my opinion.

[WRXtranceformed]

Thanks Scott! Yeah I was really, really happy with how they turned out! Interestingly, there is no DRL fuse now in these trucks so there's no easy way to deactivate it (per earlier in this thread where I mentioned that the low beams operate as DRLs in these trucks). I don't want to put too much stress / cycling on the ballasts and bulbs, so I a) deactivated "lights on" when unlocking the truck and b) have started to deactivate the lights manually every time I get in the truck. The light knob is spring loaded so it always bounces back to Auto lights which is kind of annoying because every time I start the car up and move it into D or R, the lights come on. Some people have gone as far as to disassemble the knob and remove the "return" spring in it so that they can truly manually control the lights.

Regarding the tonneau yeah I can see the versatility of the soft covers but security is important to me because I would potentially be putting valuable stuff back there (ie golf clubs). We live in a nice area but did have a rash of car break ins a while back, plus the added security will be nice when we use this to travel.