Cap or tonneau or nothing?

Never owned a truck (yet) but I'm thinking I will drive the truck for a year without anything covering the bed to see what would fit my needs best.

I'm leaning towards a cap just because of increased cargo capacity when the whole family loads up for a road trip. Do you guys find that it's a pain in the ass though when you have to carry something oversized or even go to the landscape yard to grab a yard of mulch?

 

I went with a folding tonneau so that I could open it up or remove it entirely without too much trouble. That way if I need to haul furniture or motorcycles, it can be done. If you just plan on storing stuff in there and not hauling anything then a camper shell would do. Around here the price of a camper shell can cost up to $3000. A nice folding tonneau cover from Bakflip or Undercover Flex ranges from $700 to $1000. I went with the Undercover Flex because when its folded up it doesn't rub against the back glass. It's great for hauling mulch since it doesn't fly all over the highway :]

 

Thanks for the reply. I was thinking of a tri-fold or a roll n' lock with a bed rug. Good point about storing stuff with the cap.

 

I was looking for a cap, but found a bed cover reasonably cheap. Used it for one extended road trip and sold it soon after. Storing stuff for 3 people and a dog for a week long trip got VERY tight. Being it was also over the Christmas holiday meant we were probably bringing home more than we hauled out.
It worked, it kept stuff dry ( driving rain and snow) but it was a hassle having to rearrange all the time.

The cover, is gone, I'm looking for a cap/shell, I'll find one in due time.

 

But how would you get around the re-arranging with the cap? I agree it adds more storage space for sure. I see the deal breaker of the cap being getting to the back of it and having to crawl in the bed for anything.

 

I have owned 9 or 10 pickups. I ended up putting shells on all of them because I wanted to be able to lock up and/or protect from the weather stuff that I carried. The shells also came in handy on hunting and fishing trips to sleep under. Of course, I have owned a trailer for years to allow me to carry larger things.

 

I have had both tonneau covers and cap's on my trucks. On my Tacoma I started out with a Fold-A-Cover G4 Elite. It's an awesome cover given that it's very secure and flexible. I recently, however, installed an A.R.E. cap on my truck since I wanted more storage space in the bed.

 

I have Retrax, Google/ you tube it. Has its positives and negatives like anything else.

 

Either a "bed drawer" or side opening windows on the cap are options I'm floating around with right now.

The problem I had was not accessibility but capacity and size of single items in bed. With bed cover there was a height limitation of about 16-18" to allow cover to close and lock.

 

Law of averages.....

My personal needs/use for a having a cap far outweigh the needs for needing the open space w/out a cap. The few instances I've needed to haul something large, I've simply phoned a friend.

 

Bad picture of it, but if you have a garage you can rig up a pulley system and suspend it from the ceiling when not in use. You can also put the canopy on your truck or take it off ALONE in about 5-10 mins. Easy Peasy. Keep an eye out for a used one. You can always get them for a grand or less. Colour-matched if you're patient. Mine in this pic is attached to 550 cord by a HD roof rack thats on the canopy but if you dont have one just slide a couple 2x4's under the canopy with eye hook on either end to tie off to a rope/cord/cable.



Really it depends what you're going to use your truck for though. I don't like tonneau covers. Everything I seem to put in the back is taller than the shallow little 18" box. Canopy or nothing for me. Usually nothing, with the canopy in the garage ready for road trips.

 

Canopies are easy to throw on and off. Even if you get a buddy or neighbour to pop by it literally takes 5 mins ratchet work and all. It's not worth stressing over. If you need to do some landscaping pop it off.

 

Totally depends on the truck use. I've had open trucks and they were fine for me. This time I wanted some occasional dry space and keeping debris from trees and such out, so I went with a tri fold tonneau.

Fast one person removal for hauling bikes and kayaks or that lawn store trip.

Easy 2/3 open for the random larger object.

While I don't road trip the truck normally, recently I did do a 5 hr (each way) and it kept our luggage dry in a couple of monsoons.

You'll have to decide how you most use the truck. Mine essentially being for local use, and security not actually a factor, the tonneau works fine.

 

On all of my previous trucks I didn't have anything - for the Tacoma I got the access limited and am very happy with it. I think if I did a little more research I would have bought a soft topper since it seems like a decent compromise. I will probably end up getting one in the near future.

 

+1

 

Have had soft tonneau in the past and currently hard tonneau.
Strongly suggest OEM bed mat or do your own horse stall mat over a bed rug.

 

Because of cost? Durability?

 

I am saving for a Softopper.
Cheaper than a cap, weighs less, can be taken on and off in minutes, no worry about buying a pulley system or finding a place for it to fit in a garage (my garage is not tall enough for one).

I hate tonneaus. I've never owned one though, it's just they are a pain in the butt in my mind let alone in practice. I only have a cap on my F250 when I need it, the rest of the time it is off. Any time I want to put things in my bed I just want to put them back there. a tonneau makes that process take 3 times as long. Plus most of what I throw in there will be taller than the cap. They are also incredibly expensive. I'm not sure why people like them or why they were invented. Just my little rant on that.

If I did have the larger garage that would fit a pulley, I would probably be looking into a fiberglass cap. Probably a used on though because they are horribly expensive. I like the look of them but also like that they provide better visibility when they are on vs something like a softoper. Softopers look cool but I bet it's a pain when driving (idk, I'll figure out when I get one).

 

I nabbed my camper for 200 on CL, gonna color match it soon, Snugtop Xtra Vision fully loaded (2500 new lol), love the look and has proven quite useful

 

I am that friend that gets called. If I need to haul anything covered I just use Ol' Mans first gen Tundra with a cap. When he needs to haul anything over-sized he uses my Tacoma.

Would I love a cap? Heck yes. But I find I haul more over-sized stuff than anything else.