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By Mike Batchelor
TruXedo Lo Profile Tonneau Cover
Very few add-ons affect a pickup truck more than a tonneau cover. A
well made tonneau cover can improve the appearance, functionality, versatility
and fuel economy of your rig. This is also one of the most popular upgrades
to pickup trucks. This popularity has enticed so many companies into
building tonneau covers that there are now more varieties of covers
out there than there are trucks! There are hard shell covers (usually
made of fiberglass), retractable covers and perhaps most commonly –
soft tonneau covers.
Usually made of vinyl, soft covers are the most popular for a number
of reasons. While less durable than most retractable or hard shell covers
they are generally less expensive and much more flexible. Need to haul
your parent’s old refrigerator to your garage to hold beer and
night crawlers? If you have a hard tonneau cover you better save one
of those beers for you buddy because you are going to need him to help
you take the bulky and heavy cover off so you can get the fridge in
the bed of your rig.
With a soft tonneau cover all you usually need to do is unhook the
cover and roll it up. Putting them back in place, however, has often
been a problem since many soft tonneau covers employ attachment mechanisms
that are a little less than user friendly. Our 2002 Dodge Ram 4X4 had
a Mopar soft tonneau cover installed when we bought it. It looked great
but it wasn’t terribly easy to use. Unsnapping the cover meant
removing and storing the large aluminum cross braces and putting it
back on required the strength of Sampson to get the plastic seal back
together. This top finally bit the dust in a hail storm and we gave
our friends at Shur-Co
a call and they promptly shipped out one of their TruXedo Lo-Profile
Tonneau covers.
Our TruXedo Lo-Profile Tonneau Cover was made of durable black vinyl
coated fabric but it also comes in six other colors. Everything we needed
to get started was included in the box so we unpacked it and started
to install. The installation process absolutely couldn’t have
been simpler. All we had to do was mount the rails and set the cover.
It helped to have someone hold the rails in place while we tightened
the retainer clips but otherwise this was a one person job and in less
than 20 minutes we had the whole thing in place and we were ready to
roll.
| TruXedo
Lo-Profile Tonneau Cover |
| Time: |
20 Minutes |
| Tools Needed: |
Ratchet and socket |
| Difficulty: |
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Starting with an uncovered bed
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Set the side rails in place
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Tighten the rail retainer clips
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Yes, installation was that easy |
Set the cover in place and you are ready to roll |
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Once in place the TruXedo Lo-Profile Tonneau Cover looked terrific.
It was designed to fit low and flat across the bed so at it’s
highest point it sits up less than an inch. Like most vinyl tonneau
covers the material had a leather-like appearance and also like most
tonneau covers it was a great place for dust to settle so it doesn’t
look clean very often. Shur-Co also sells Pro-TeX Soft Tonneau Protectant
Spray that cleans and protects the vinyl from the sun’s rays.
Where the TruXedo Lo-Profile Tonneau Cover really shines though is
usability. To unlock the cover simply flip a lever on the underside
of the cover and roll it back. The support beams are built into the
top so there is no need to store them and no way to loose them. Once
you get the top rolled all the way up you can lock it in place with
the attached straps. When it is time to cover the bed again just unroll
the cover and snap the end in place. In less than 30 seconds you are
on the road rather than wrestling with the tonneau cover.
Instead of snaps the sides of the TruXedo Tonneau Cover are held in
place with Velcro. The Velcro strips float in their channels so that
the top can automatically adjust itself as it expands and shrinks in
the sun. This, combined with a spring loaded tension control system
ensures a tight fit without any fuss.
After using our tonneau cover for several months we experienced absolutely
no problems with it. The cover sealed our bed from the elements through
torrential downpours and completely resisted any pooling of water on
the top. The latching mechanism never even hiccupped and continued to
be on of the easiest to use we have ever experienced. All-in-all had
no questions about the durability of the TruXedo cover.
At a little over $400 for our Dodge Ram the TruXedo Lo-Profile cover
sits near the top end of the price spectrum for soft covers. For the
money you get a tonneau cover that is easy to use and looks good doing
it.
A hail storm got the better of our old Mopar tonneau cover |
This is the latch that locks the cover closed. To open the
cover just flip the latch and roll the cover up. |
The cover was easy to use - even for our "vertically
challenged" installer. |
In less than 30 seconds the bed is covered and you are ready
to roll.
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AutoAnything has several customer reviews on Truxedo tonneau cover products including customer reviews on the TruXedo Lo Profile Tonneau Cover and also offers several folding tonneau covers and other types of name brand tonneau covers online. (Advertisement)
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