Tonneau cover options?

[gordo5]

I'm not liking the OEM tonneau because I need to be able to take the tonneau off and on fairly frequently by myself. It's a nice piece of equipment if you don't need to take it off, but if you do it's HEAVY!

Any recommendations out there for alternatives? I had a tri-fold vinyl cover on my old s10 and it was great but I've noticed that Extang has a solid fold cover now that would be more secure.

http://www.extang.com/docs/solidfold.html

But I'm not stuck on Extang... Any suggestions are welcome.

If anyone does have any experience with the Extang, I'd love to hear how the rail mounts. Does it use the same mount points as the OEM brackets?

 

[Tech By Trade]

Lol, could just get a gym membership. Might be cheaper, and better for ya in the long run.

 

[Trac Marks]

Not sure if this is helpful or not... Do you have a garage you park in? How about installing a sling to the garage ceiling, allowing you to back in & hoist the cover off by yourself? This is fairly common for Jeep owners. Way less expensive than an extang, which are good covers BTW, but I can't speak to the ST application.

Food for thought:

 

[gordo5]

Lol, could just get a gym membership. Might be cheaper, and better for ya in the long run.

Have you tried to do it yourself there Arnold? It's not just the pounds either (I think it's about 75lbs) but it's an awkward shape. I can't imagine anyone doing it on a regular basis.

 

[gordo5]

Not sure if this is helpful or not... Do you have a garage you park in? How about installing a sling to the garage ceiling, allowing you to back in & hoist the cover off by yourself? This is fairly common for Jeep owners. Way less expensive than an extang, which are good covers BTW, but I can't speak to the ST application.

Good suggestion! My Dad did something like that will a cap he had on a truck. My garage is dominated by motorcycles though so that won't be an option for me.

I got interested in the roll ups, having had some demos I was pretty impressed with how they worked. Unfortunately most of them require a bracket at the front of the bed and the extra four inches that consumed was a deal breaker for me. I need to load a dirt bike in the back and the small bed combined with the gate is *just* long enough. I've ordered an Extang Trifecta and since I've had one of those before I know I'll be happy with that. There are a ton of really neat other options out there, but none that I could use with our short beds.

Just in case anyone else is interested in alternatives, here are some of the others I considered:




http://www.accesscover.net/access-rollup-cover.html?&cat=251

http://www.kcovers.com/drill-less-sporttrac.html#images

http://undercoverinfo.com/new_classic.php

http://www.advantagetruckaccessories.com/hard-hat.html

In the end, the roll up wouldn't work for me and while the hard options were lighter than OEM, they were pricey.

 

[Tech By Trade]

Have you tried to do it yourself there Arnold? It's not just the pounds either (I think it's about 75lbs) but it's an awkward shape. I can't imagine anyone doing it on a regular basis.

Lol, actually did it this weekend to go hunting, Off and on. Its a pretty regular occurrence.

 

[JohnnyO]

I always get a vinyl roll-up tonneau on my trucks for that reason. I got Tonneau Masters covers for this truck and my previous Trac but I'm told they went out of business. The only other vinyl cover I'm aware of is from Lund.