Truck Bed Cover


lopaka

New Member
I just bought the tow vehcle, 07 Chevy 2500 Crew Cab Short Bed, ready to install the 5th Wheel hitch, Reese 16K w/slider. Does anyone have experience with bed covers? I was thinking of installing a bed cover for when we are not towing and when we are camping but going to town w/o the 5th wheel attached. Can we use a retractable cover or is a roll-up tonneau the only option?
 

hertig

Senior Member
Re: Truck Bed Cover

I went through this exercise back when I had a trailer. There are (or were then) basically 4 options:
1) cheap-o snap on covers. Cheap and easy and mostly weatherproof, but flimsy and wears out quick and provides no security.
2) Roll up. I had one of the original metal ones on my old truck and it was pretty good, but my hitch was too high to put one on my new truck. It does take up a foot or so of the truck bed, a minor annoyance with my long beds, could be more troublesome with a short bed. And it does take a few inches of clearance inside the bed, so it won't go over some things. Not water tight (leaks a little inside but not bad) and fills with water (has drains, but they plug up easy).
3) Folding. This showed promise. Has most of the advantages and perhaps disadvantages of the rolling cover, but does not take up much of the bed when retracted. Only disadvantage that I can tell over the rolling is that you don't have infinite variablility of the amount of bed exposed. I would have tried this if I hadn't found #4.
4) Custom towing cover with hatches. A fiberglass top with hatches for hitch access and storage. Wonderful. My extended pin box would not fit the cutout (it actually touched the sidewall in sharp turns), but he made me a custom cover for the front 3rd of my bed, with hatches for storage and my generator. Only thing is, I think he quit the business. Miller Mfg, Memphis, MO, 800-554-2956 is what the sticker on my cover says, but that number is not any good now (wants to charge you $5.25 :) )

I'll look and see if I can find any of my notes from that time.
 
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