Coop
Member
On my last truck I went through a couple covers, First was a Truxedo rolltop. Pretty good cover, but kinda a pain to get tight each time I opened and closed it. Loved the fact that they're based out of Yankton, SD where I spent a lot of time fishing and camping. After a couple years the stitching started to give up and I replaced it with a budget Tyger soft trifold. Pretty good cover, for what it was, and I really liked the way trifolds worked compared to roll tops. For ~$200 on Amazon it was a really good value.
Initially I was looking at the Truxedo Pro x15, but after seeing one in person I saw waves in a brand new install, and wasn't confident that the canvas wouldn't fade / pickup a lot of dust after a year or so. So with the new truck I decided I wanted a trifold, but something that looked a little better than the sit-on-top Tyger. Gator seemed to be decently reviewed, and their EFX cover is nearly a flush mount.
Ordered from Gator, and it arrived very quickly (2 days) with their standard shipping. In the box you've got the cover, rails, 6 aluminum clamps, 4 steel hand tightened clamps for securing the cover to the rails in the front, drain tubes and a roll of 1/2 inch weather stripping.
Cover is made from painted, textured aluminum. Both the top and bottom are aluminum. Feels very sturdy. Being a flat piece of metal, it will likely dent from impacts. Having it coated with bedliner material seems like a good option for protection. The Line-X dealer tells me this would be a couple hundred to do, and they do these all the time.
Rails mount flush to 1/8th of an inch over the side-caps, I installed flush, so it was very simple to line up. Clamps worked well (thank you cordless impact driver) and I ran the tubes through the holes in the front of the sides of the bed. The cover sits on top of the rails, and then you use the four hand clamps to secure the front 1/3 of the cover to the rails. I did not use the weather stripping. I had just had my bedliner shot over the bulkhead so didn't know if it would adhere well yet. I might look for something a little more substantial anyway.
At this point you can fold the cover down to the tailgate. Retractable plastic (appear sturdy) clips keep it in place. I had to loosen the front clamps and slide the cover about 1/4 inch toward the tailgate to get the right overlap. Install took about 20 minutes, for just myself. It was super easy. It would probably take a couple minutes to remove the cover to get full access to the bed.
It looks great. It sits slightly higher than the side-caps, with rubber weather stripping overlapping, but is a very flush appearance. (I'll add some pictures this evening) I can see a little light coming in from the bulkhead, so this will likely leak in a carwash, but will probably stay pretty dry in rain.
When it comes to security, the first thing is out of sight, out of mind. All covers accomplish this, and even a vinyl cover will prevent someone from just walking by and grabbing something out of your bed. Could you break into this with a big screwdriver? Probably. I imagine if you jammed any sort of pry bar in at the tailgate you could break the clips/ bend the rails. With the same effort you could smash a window and have full access. I would feel just as comfortable storing valuables in the bed with this cover as I do out of sight in the cab.
So overall:
Install & Operation- 8/10 For a tonneau on rails it's as easy as it gets. Hardware is very good and getting the placement is easy. Only negative here is you have to fully remove it to have full access to the bed, and you don't have the option to drive at 2/3 open (well you do, but unless you're going under 35 I wouldn't do it).
Appearance - 9/10 This is super subjective, but short of color matched flush mount covers I haven't seen a cover I think looks better. It's a very slick looking cover. Black on My truck looks great. Being painted aluminum you also don't have to worry about fading.
Security - 8/10 While you could break into it with some effort, It'd probably be just as easy to get access to the locks. No one is peeking in, and you're not getting in with a quiet slice of a knife.
Value -10/10 at $569 it's securely in the mid-range of prices. For a hard trifold it's on the low end. For a flush mount, it's well below the competition. If you want a good looking flush mount trifold, this is the lowest price you'll find.
If you're looking at covers from Bak or Lomax, I would recommend taking a look at this cover. It offers a lot of what they do, at a significantly lower price.
Initially I was looking at the Truxedo Pro x15, but after seeing one in person I saw waves in a brand new install, and wasn't confident that the canvas wouldn't fade / pickup a lot of dust after a year or so. So with the new truck I decided I wanted a trifold, but something that looked a little better than the sit-on-top Tyger. Gator seemed to be decently reviewed, and their EFX cover is nearly a flush mount.
Ordered from Gator, and it arrived very quickly (2 days) with their standard shipping. In the box you've got the cover, rails, 6 aluminum clamps, 4 steel hand tightened clamps for securing the cover to the rails in the front, drain tubes and a roll of 1/2 inch weather stripping.
Cover is made from painted, textured aluminum. Both the top and bottom are aluminum. Feels very sturdy. Being a flat piece of metal, it will likely dent from impacts. Having it coated with bedliner material seems like a good option for protection. The Line-X dealer tells me this would be a couple hundred to do, and they do these all the time.
Rails mount flush to 1/8th of an inch over the side-caps, I installed flush, so it was very simple to line up. Clamps worked well (thank you cordless impact driver) and I ran the tubes through the holes in the front of the sides of the bed. The cover sits on top of the rails, and then you use the four hand clamps to secure the front 1/3 of the cover to the rails. I did not use the weather stripping. I had just had my bedliner shot over the bulkhead so didn't know if it would adhere well yet. I might look for something a little more substantial anyway.
At this point you can fold the cover down to the tailgate. Retractable plastic (appear sturdy) clips keep it in place. I had to loosen the front clamps and slide the cover about 1/4 inch toward the tailgate to get the right overlap. Install took about 20 minutes, for just myself. It was super easy. It would probably take a couple minutes to remove the cover to get full access to the bed.
It looks great. It sits slightly higher than the side-caps, with rubber weather stripping overlapping, but is a very flush appearance. (I'll add some pictures this evening) I can see a little light coming in from the bulkhead, so this will likely leak in a carwash, but will probably stay pretty dry in rain.
When it comes to security, the first thing is out of sight, out of mind. All covers accomplish this, and even a vinyl cover will prevent someone from just walking by and grabbing something out of your bed. Could you break into this with a big screwdriver? Probably. I imagine if you jammed any sort of pry bar in at the tailgate you could break the clips/ bend the rails. With the same effort you could smash a window and have full access. I would feel just as comfortable storing valuables in the bed with this cover as I do out of sight in the cab.
So overall:
Install & Operation- 8/10 For a tonneau on rails it's as easy as it gets. Hardware is very good and getting the placement is easy. Only negative here is you have to fully remove it to have full access to the bed, and you don't have the option to drive at 2/3 open (well you do, but unless you're going under 35 I wouldn't do it).
Appearance - 9/10 This is super subjective, but short of color matched flush mount covers I haven't seen a cover I think looks better. It's a very slick looking cover. Black on My truck looks great. Being painted aluminum you also don't have to worry about fading.
Security - 8/10 While you could break into it with some effort, It'd probably be just as easy to get access to the locks. No one is peeking in, and you're not getting in with a quiet slice of a knife.
Value -10/10 at $569 it's securely in the mid-range of prices. For a hard trifold it's on the low end. For a flush mount, it's well below the competition. If you want a good looking flush mount trifold, this is the lowest price you'll find.
If you're looking at covers from Bak or Lomax, I would recommend taking a look at this cover. It offers a lot of what they do, at a significantly lower price.
