Midwest Aftermarket

Best Type of Tonneau Cover for F-150?

So I wanted to poll a group of people about what tonneau cover a buddy of mine should get.

Here’s what happened: he recently picked up a brand new and shiny Ford F-150. And he had never heard of truck bed covers or anything aftermarket for that matter. Obviously, while oogling the new shiny truck, I mentioned to him that I work at an aftermarket truck parts company--pretty obvious to you all on the forums, but in real life, I guess it doesn’t just jump out at everyone I know. Haha! So I tell him I work at Midwest Aftermarket selling said truck accessories, and he starts asking me about F-150 truck bed covers.

Now here’s the thing: I might have hit him with information overload without even realizing it. Thing is, I have reviewed and written about a lot of different tonneau covers, and I have opinions about lots of them--some good, some bad, some justified, others totally based upon looks or just my own dumb opinion (don’t get me started on truck bed covers sealed on the bed rails with hook and loop tape, similar to say some product people sometimes refer to as VelcroŽ, though not necessarily actually VelcroŽ, copyright and ™ and whatever the heck I have to do to not get sued).

I started telling him about all the different kinds of tonneau covers on the market, and I was dropping specific names and brands, and anyway, I think I might have overdone it a bit, because afterwards he just kinda stared at me, not necessarily in a bad way, but in a way that told me I’d just opened up his eyes to a brand new world of aftermarket parts and modifying his truck.

I guess you could say I sometimes forget that many people in the world don’t know what I’m even talking about when I mention tonneau covers. So I thought I’d write him up a primer so he could kinda get the jist of it, but here’s the thing again. I need some outside opinions and tips. My fear is that in writing out a quick introductory guide to F-150 tonneau covers, I might accidently go on a long winded, extremely detailed rant about very specific truck bed covers, when a simple explanation is all that is needed.

So I thought I’d enlist some help from you all. I’m trying to keep it short-ish. Maybe 2 or 3 pages typed, double spaced. I’ll include some pictures probably as examples, so that’ll make it a little longer too.

I’ll have a description of each main type of tonneau cover he might be interested in. But I need to make sure I don’t just give examples of truck bed covers I really like either.

So I hope you’ll take a look at what I’ve got so far and give me some tips of what I can cut out or what I should make sure to add in. If I missed anything major that you think he should consider, especially as a new Ford F-150 owner, I’d love to include that too.

My buddy isn’t really a forum kinda guy, but I thought I’d try to get him on here too, and I figured if I told him you all gave me some tips that I put into this email / preview guide I’m sending him, that wouldn’t hurt. I don’t think he has much experience with forums and such.

So here it goes. This is what I’ve got so far:A Quick Introduction to F-150 Truck Bed Covers

A truck bed cover or tonneau (tawn-o) cover is an aftermarket accessory that sits on your truck’s bed rails and covers your bed and anything you have stowed in it. These covers are designed to seal your truck’s bed against the elements--like rain and snow and even sun damage--and to allow you to secure your equipment underneath it, hiding it from anyone who happens to pass by your truck.

Tonneau covers come in various different styles and some are more secure (and more expensive) than others. Choosing the right truck bed cover for your F-150 depends upon how you plan to use it and how secure you really need it to be. But you should also take into account how the tonneau cover looks on your truck. There’s nothing wrong with picking a particular cover because of the way it looks.

A Quick Guide to Tonneau Covers (Work in Progress) Pictures is a BAK Industries' Vortrak, a new truck bed cover I kinda dig.Types or Styles of Tonneau Covers

Depending on who you talk to or who’s website your on, there could be many different categories of truck bed covers. (Please let me know if I miss any of the major ones, forum guys. Thanks!)

I’ll focus on the main types in this quick guide:

• Soft Roll-up Covers
• Hard Roll-up Covers
• Hard Folding or Tri-Folding Covers
• Retractable Covers
• And Truck Bed Lids

(Do you think I should include camper shells too? That’s not really a tonneau cover, but it might be something up his alley. I’m not totally sure how he’s planning on using the truck, and frankly I’m not sure he is yet either. Haha!)

Each type or style of truck bed cover has different pros and cons. They come in various colors and made of different materials as well. I’m just giving you the most common examples. And while I might suggest that one type is typically more secure than another, there are likely examples where that might not be true. So take that with a grain of salt. This is less of a review and more of a quick run-down of the most common types I could think of off the top of my head.Security & Truck Bed Covers

If you’ve got a lock on your tailgate (you can tell if you have a keyhole next to the handle), all tonneau covers can be locked in place and are somewhat secure if you lock your tailgate. What I mean by this is with the tailgate closed and locked, and your tonneau cover locked, it should be pretty hard for someone to get under your truck bed cover to get to any stuff you might have underneath.

A lot of people purchase tonneau covers for this reason, so they can store various expensive items in their truck’s bed without other people being able to see those items and /or steal them easily. I personally know lots of guys who store their work tools, golf clubs, hunting gear, and other odds and ends in their truck beds under tonneau covers on the daily. You might think of this as being like transforming your entire truck bed into a really big SUV truck or something like that. This stops anyone from easily getting to your stuff.

But just like your truck or car isn’t 100% secure because someone could always try to break in, no tonneau cover is completely secure either. But some are harder to break into than others.

So if security is the biggest deal for you, you should start here.

Now this is just my opinion again (and feel free to disagree with me), but in general I think this is how each type of truck bed cover stacks up concerning security, starting with the least secure.

Vinyl or Soft Roll Up Covers: These covers look great, are typically the least expensive, and are super easy to operate. But since the tops of them are mostly soft material like vinyl, anyone with a knife could easily break in. Furthermore, if you are ever in situations where you might risk dropping something heavy onto your tonneau cover, a soft roll up could easily break.

Hard Roll Up Covers: Hard Roll Ups are more secure than soft because most of the time they have aluminum or other light metal slats that are beneath a softer top layer. This means they should be harder to get into than soft tops, but that doesn’t mean they are the most secure either. I’m always a bit skeptical about hard roll up covers because I’ve seen quite a few of them on the market that either have flimsy looking skeletons underneath that soft top or worse they are secured along your truck bed rails by hook and loop tape. That’s the black tape that resembles something your kids often use to keep their shoes on. And as you well know, it is pretty easy to peel back. In other words, it isn’t very secure.


A close-up of how the Sentry CT hard roll-up cover gets it roll on. Oh, and look who was hiding underneath. It's Kyle from Midwest Aftermarket's YouTube channel!

Now I have seen fairly secure hard roll up covers now, even ones that use that hook and loop system, but happen to have extra locking mechanism installed as well. But in general, I would have to say these covers are not quite as secure as the next few categories.

Tri-Folding Covers: Hard Folding tonneau covers are segmented into three (tri-) or sometimes four (quad-) hard segments. And whereas roll up covers can be rolled up towards the bulkhead or cab of your truck to open them, these ones (shockingly) fold. (I know this seems really obvious, but he seemed kinda clueless. So I’m not sure what is too obvious and what I don’t have to include. Thoughts?)

BAKFlip MX4 with Kyle added in for funsies. The MX4 is a great example of a hard folding tonneau cover.

Since hard folding covers are made of larger hard segments, they are typically more secure than roll ups. However, the seams between the folds are sometimes a bit flimsy, so bear that in mind too.

Midwest Aftermarket

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Retractable Covers: These tonneau covers tend to be made of segmented metal, but each section is much smaller than in a folding cover. These segments are often interlocked to each other, forming a very solid layer when completely rolled out or retracted to cover your whole truck bed. They can be easily rolled up into a canister located at your bulkhead. While retractable covers tend to be very secure, they also take up some of your truck bed space at the front near your cab. So if having all of your truck bed available is a big deal because you haul large items regularly, you might want to avoid retractable covers or at least make sure you know how big that canister is going to be.

See that Retrax One MX retract with ease. Cory and Kyle give this tonneau a big two thumbs up.

Truck Bed Lids: I hesitate to call these tonneau covers, but they certainly are truck bed covers, so… semantics? Truck bed lids are typically a single hard metal piece that sits and is secured to the top of your truck bed rails. This is about as secure as you can get because there are no seams or soft parts you could possibly get in through. Truck bed lids are often heavier than other covers though too, and while most of them can be tilted up on a bracket near your truck’s cab, you probably wouldn’t ever want to ride around with them lifted up too much.

UnderCover's Classic Truck Bed Lid shows off how she tilts open, while Kyle pretends to juggle UnderCover and Truck Hero logos.

This means that you can’t really easily haul anything taller than your bed rails around in a truck bed that has a truck bed lid installed on it. But if you never plan to carry anything taller than that, this is a great option. Some truck bed lids are even easy to remove, though you might need a buddy’s help, so that you could haul something larger like furniture.Weather & the Sun

In general, most truck bed covers for your F-150 should be able to seal rain and snow out very easily, and they will definitely prevent your truck bed and anything you store in it from getting any sun damage.

This doesn’t mean that some tonneau covers are more weather-resistant than others and that they don’t drain better too. In general though, the more secure the tonneau covers is in the above section, the better it probably is at keeping rain and moisture out. (Would you all agree with this?)

If you live in an area that gets a lot of snow in the winter (we do) and you plan on leaving your truck out in the snow from time to time, you might want to also consider the weight rating for your tonneau cover. A foot or two of snow can get kinda heavy. And some soft roll up covers might not be up to the task of having that much snow sitting on them for days at a time.

Finally, some of the materials that soft roll up covers are made of can be damaged by the sun over time. Many vinyl tops can be treated regularly with certain chemicals to prevent this from happening, but if you live in a super sunny area (we really don’t), then you might want to take this into account too.Ease of Access & Full Bed Access

The final thing I would consider before just taking the look of the truck bed cover into account is how easy it is to use and whether or not full bed access is important to you.

By Ease of Access, I mean how easy the cover is to open and close. If you plan on opening and closing it all the time, this could be really important. If you plan to leave it closed most of the time, then this probably doesn’t matter that much.

By Full Bed Access, I mean whether or not you can use your entire truck’s bed with the tonneau cover installed. Really here I mean, when you roll up or fold up or retract the truck bed cover, how much of the bed is still taken up by part of the tonneau cover itself. Some styles offer nearly or even complete truck bed access. If you haul big stuff like furniture or heavy equipment or just something that is going to be taller than your truck bed rails and nearly as long as your entire truck bed, then this will be important to your decision of what cover to get.

If you rarely haul anything that won’t fit under your cover or that is as long as your whole truck bed, then this might not be a big deal for you.

So both of these aspects might really depend on you and your F-150 and how you plan to use it.Ease of Access

As far as Ease of Access goes, in my opinion, both Roll-Up Covers (hard and soft) are very easy to open and close as well as Retractables. Many Retractables can simply be unlocked and slide up into their canisters in one fluid motion. Roll-up Covers do have to be rolled up, but some of them you can just give a gentle shove and they might roll nearly up to your back window.

In the middle ground for Ease of Access, I’d put Hard Folding Covers. These covers aren’t hard to open or close. And you certainly won’t need a second person to help you do so. But they just aren’t quite as easy as Roll-Ups or Retractables. The reason is simple: you have to fold them up. Now they don’t tend to have many sections, so it doesn’t take a long time to do, and if you mostly just fold up the final segment, then they are pretty much as easy as the other two.


But when you have to fold them completely up and secure them at your bulkhead, it takes a little longer than roll-ups and retractables, and I think that is worth mentioning. (Am I crazy about this or exaggerating? Just trying to be honest with my buddy. I personally love BAKFlips, so it is hard for me to admit that this might be a flaw because I actually think these folding covers are really great.)


Finally, the hardest for Ease of Access is the Truck Bed Lid. And this isn’t exactly fair. If all you need to do is tilt it up to grab a toolbox that slid to the front of your truck bed, Bed Lids are easy to use. But if you take into account having to get up into the bed or having to remove the bed lid to transport something too big to fit underneath it, then it becomes the clear hardest to use.Full Bed Access

As for Full Bed Access, Roll-up covers and most Tri-Folds offer Full Bed Access or nearly entire truck bed access. So if having full truck bed access is what’s most important to you, probably check out these two types.

Retractables always take up some space near the front of your bed because the canister has to take up some room. Some retractable canisters take up a foot or a bit more of your truck bed space, so if you just have to have Full Bed Access, probably avoid these.

Finally, Truck Bed Lids do not offer 100% Full Bed Access unless if you remove the truck bed lids. Again, if Full Bed Access is important, consider these factors. Otherwise, truck bed lids and retractables are very secure and great tonneau covers for your F-150.

Midwest Aftermarket

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Aesthetics: Looks



For many of us, the most or at least a very important factor is how the tonneau cover looks on your truck. I’ll just give you some of the most common look aspects that we often consider for each style.Vinyl Top Soft Roll Up Covers

A lot of people like soft roll up covers because of the vinyl look of their tops. They sometimes look kind of like leather and do give your truck a sleek and sort of weathered look, in my opinion. A picture is probably worth way more here than my description, so how about I give you a recommendation in each category with a picture. I’m not saying all the covers pictured are the “best” cover in their category. But they are a good example of that particular style of cover, I happened to have a picture of them, and I think they are all good truck bed covers.

TruXedo's TruXport is a beautiful soft roll-up cover. Cory and Kyle are getting their cowboy while admiring that soft vinyl cover.

Hard Roll Up Covers



If you like the vinyl look, but you need a hard top, these covers are great options. They tend to be more secure than soft roll-ups and more expensive. Most of them have a top layer of vinyl with a metal skeleton underneath.

Truxedo's new Sentry CT is a hard roll-up cover with added style and security features. Both Cory and Kyle are blown away by it's slick features and looks.
Tri-Folding Covers


Folding covers often come in several varieties, including matte black finishes (which are very popular at the moment), fiberglass tops, and glossy black. So you’ll have to really consider these carefully. Heck, there is even a top coated in Line-X on the market now that looks pretty cool. So these covers come in several different styles, and you can probably find one that appeals to you.

BAKFlip MX4 by Truck Hero. At the beach, Kyle often partakes of delicious drinks that come with little umbrellas in them.
Retractables


I want to say every retractable cover I have ever seen looks segmented from the top. Each segment is metal and interlocked to the others, making the cover very secure. But if you don’t like that segmented look, then you probably won’t like a retractable cover. Also, at the bulkhead, there tends to be a separate flat piece that is over the top of the canister.

Retrax One MX is a great Retractable tonneau cover. Kyle is celebrating it by clapping his hands and noticing the model nearby just as the camera captured this photoshopped image.

Truck Bed Lids


These covers almost always curve up at the truck bed rails and then flatten out in a smooth arc over the top of your truck’s bed. They are often paintable or can be paint matched to your truck. Similar to Retractables, if you don’t like the look of a truck bed lid, you probably won’t like any of them, unless if you’re issue is with the paint color or some design on the top of it.

The Undercover Classic is the essence of all things Truck Bed Lid. Cory and Kyle celebrate it by clenching fists and grinning nearby.
Wrapping It Up


That pretty much does it for tonneau covers. So you just need to decide which style you prefer. Weigh out all the options and variables. If security is what you need, then start there. If you want a certain look, start with those images above or come to our website, MidwestAftermarket.com and go to the Tonneau Covers section, and just browse around until you find something you really like. And if you’ve gotta have something that is easy to use or that offers full bed access, definitely take that into account.

I hope this quick guide helps you decide which kind of truck bed cover you need for your new Ford F-150. If you have any questions, just let me know.

And then it goes blah, blah, blah, for a while, and I shoot the crap with him a bit about his family and such. But I’ll leave that part off.

What do you all think? Anything I should add or subtract? Is ease of access really that important? What about security? Do you agree with most of my descriptions and labels or am I way off on some? Let me know, and I’ll revise this for my buddy. I want to make sure he gets the right truck bed cover for him. Already got the sale really locked in, since he’s a friend and I promised him a discount. Haha!

Thanks in advance.

nineball

i went with an mx4 as it had the best options from my point of view.

didn't want a soft cover as they are easy to get into, any yahoo could slice it on a whim and overtime they all sag.

thought about a rollup hard cover but most reviews said they had problems in the winter with ice and snow, and it's a pretty big thing when rolled up and reduces the amount of useable space.

liked the idea of the solid, one piece fiberglass covers but they offer limited access to the bed when fully extended.

the mx4 was solid, offered great protection from the elements and yahoos, looked good on the truck, was easy to install, can open up in sections as needed (sometimes i need it all the way for bulk mulch, sometimes i just need to get in the back), it locks in multiple positions and will protect the rear window when fully opened. it doesn't have a built in lock but as you noted it does "lock" when i lock the tailgate. to me it was the best solution overall, and i have been quite happy with it. the only thing i would like to have different would be the wire releases for sections 1, 3 and 4. it's kinda of a pain to operate and after a year mine are already showing signs of stretching out and forming into loops where it was once a taught line. not sure how that will change as time passes.

Midwest Aftermarket

Excellent points, nineball. I might have to mention to my buddy your findings that hard rollup covers might have problems in the winter. Definitely a good point about how they roll up and take up space too.

I love that MX4. I think it looks slick and is a solid tonneau cover. I think your one thing issue is important too. That wire overtime will likely stretch out. This is likely something worth considering with most tri-folds. Then again, could I say that the springs in a canister for a retractable might wear out too? Nevertheless, some excellent points to consider.

Really glad you like your MX4 though. I've been really impressed with the products BAK has put out over the years. I think they are a very solid tonneau cover manufacturer.

What's everyone else think? Has anyone else heard of issues with hard rollup covers in Winter? I'm kinda new to hard roll-ups, so I definitely want to be able to tell my buddy if he should avoid them. I just think they seem like a nice compromise between a hard folding or retractable and a soft top vinyl? Am I wrong?

Icthyus

I have the retrax pro retractable cover. Pretty incredible in almost every aspect. The cover can withstand over 500 pounds on top of it, and offers the best protection (in my opinion) to break-ins. The only con is if you do not mount it correctly... the rails can be mounted off ever so slightly, the sliding slats will sometimes get off-kilter, and you have to "un-jam" it. But anything pending the owner's own negligence (and even that sometimes) is covered under a lifetime guarantee for the pro series. Biggest downside is cost... They are not cheap in the slightest, but craigslist and facebook marketplace could be a place to look for one; however, I don't know why anyone would ever get rid of theirs... Just my two-cents

bigden75

I have the Ford hard flip tonneau, (installed and included in my deal). I had a soft cover on my previous truck, I wouldn't go back to a soft cover. Granted the only issue or gripe I have with mine is that I need to open the tailgate to close the last flap on the cover. Not a deal breaker for me. Plus the hard cover looks much sharper than the soft cover. That is my 2 cents. Lots of options out there.

Loucifer

I've had a truxedo lo-pro on my last two trucks and it's the best for my lifestyle... I don't store any valuables in the bed but I do like to keep my stuff semi-dry. I also like the fact that the cover will roll all the way up so I can fully use the bed in the matter of seconds. I'm thinking the prox15 might be my the next purchase with that matte black and only a 1/2 inch high! Also can't beat that lifetime warranty.

Trashhand

same i have the lo pro qt for 2 years now and it will be transferred to my next truck. got my uncle on that bandwagon also. for my use, where i need complete bed space it works great. folds up in seconds and is very secure. looks great and handles snow and a car wash no problem. still looks as good as new. another poster commented on soft roll ups sagging, but i don't see how thats ever going to happen with this one, as it has a few support rods that cross the bed to prevent that. also the soft roll ups have tension screws which u can adjust to make it more taut if u have to

riplipper

Read where a few are crawling in their trucks to retrieve stuff. I had an extra extendable boat hook that I keep in the bed
Attwood Marine boat hook.

Another trick I got from a friend was to keep laundry basket or two in the bed for grocery bags. Keeps things from moving and works as a great tote to haul in the groceries.