Truck caps

[DeeFiamore]

Is it safe towing a fgrv with a cap on the truck bed? And is there a particular brand of truck cap that is better than the others? Thank you for your thoughts.

D

[Jack L]

I did not want a cap so I got a Leer fiberglass touneau cover. I Really like it. Lots of people tow with a cap too. A cap does restrict rear vision but only a little and it gives you more cargo capacity. Molded fiberglass is best, as always.

[Yvon Chayer]

I have a Leer model 122 on my 2010 silverado 8 feet bed and i love it
The height of 122 model allows to move without being a 4 legs in the box
and does not exceed the height of my bigfoot

[Orlen Wolf]

I've towed for many years with a pickup with topper and also with Aerostar vans, Broncos as well as regular sedans.

I've used my current tow vehicle, a Dodge RAM 1500 Quad Cab, both with and without a topper and noticed no difference in towing between the two configurations. My topper is an ARE fiberglass unit with the combination hatch/center door and two metal side hatches. This has proven to be an excellent combination both as a tow vehicle and work truck. The combination now has over 150,000 miles on the clock. The ARE topper was a bit more expensive than others I looked at and had to be special ordered (with a several week delay in delivery) but the wait was worth it.

73 Orlen

[Scott H]

Love my topper.
It'll cost you almost as much as yer egg though! Mine was over 2K. The "win doors" are a worthy upgrade, at least on one side.

[mary and bob]

I have an ARE cap on my 2012 Dodge Ram quad cab. Same height as the cab, same color. Wish I'd thought to get the side windows that can be flipped up from outside. To buy them now is close to $400 each.

[David B.]

Originally Posted by DeeFiamore

Is it safe towing a fgrv with a cap on the truck bed? And is there a particular brand of truck cap that is better than the others? Thank you for your thoughts.

D

A cap will protect the frontal area of your trailer from bugs and debris, and protect precious cargo.
Dave & Paula

[David B.]

Here are some pictures that didn't come through.
Dave & Paula

[Mary F]

We have an ARE cap on our bright blue (Egoboost) gas hawg. It's great, with double windoors, and the windoors have sliders with screens. Love it.

[Carol H]

I have a fiberglass tonneau cover and while I love the look I am not so big on the practicality of it. A big pain to remove in order to carry large tall items in the bed of truck. If I was to get get another tonneau cover (and will be shortly for a different truck) would go for the Bak Flip type.

[Marsha D]

We went with a truck cap so we could take our canoe with us, as well as have a safe place to store other items.

[vintageracer]

Originally Posted by Jack L

I did not want a cap so I got a Leer fiberglass touneau cover. I Really like it. Lots of people tow with a cap too. A cap does restrict rear vision but only a little and it gives you more cargo capacity. Molded fiberglass is best, as always.

Jack I respectfully disagree with you when the discussion is specific to "Hard Tonneau Covers" for the bed of your truck and your assertion that "Fiberglass Is Best".

I have an "ARE" brand molded fiberglass tonneau cover on one truck and an "Undercover" brand injection molded tonneau covers on my 2 other another trucks. Hands down the injection molded Undercover brand injection molded tonneau cover is a MUCH better hard tonneau cover in my opinion than any fiberglass hard tonneau cover for multiple reasons.

The Undercover cap is much lighter at least 2/3's or more LESS in weight. It takes 2 minutes or less to remove/replace the Undercover brand tonneau cover from my truck with a very well designed method for attachment Last but not least 3 people can stand on the Undercover tonneau cap with no damage at all to the cover. You can't do that with a any fiberglass bed cap or fiberglass tonneau cover!

Why would I want to stand on the tonneau cover? Sure makes it nice at the drive in or on the 4th of July with a yard chair sitting up high on the tonneau cover watching the fireworks.

Yes my Undercover brand is a black molded tonneau cover and not a color matching to the truck. I like the contrast myself. Undercover now sells color matching covers if you desire.

Check CL. All my tonneau covers were purchased used on CL for $200 or less. In each situation all 3 tonneau covers retailed new for well over $1,000.

Yes a tonneau cover or a bed cap will help increase the fuel mileage of your truck. No air to grab.

For years on my oldest truck I previously had a full fiberglass cap with windows. Worked good. I ultimately replace that fiberglass cap with the ARE fiberglass tonneau cover referenced that was already color matched to my truck and purchased off CL used. Although I lost a lot of covered storage going to the tonneau cover I like the tonneau cover concept MUCH better than the fiberglass cap concept. Much easier to see out the back of the truck as you mentioned and I rarely needed the extra storage provided by the fiberglass cap anyway.

Talk about a REAL PITA. Try to take off and re-install when you need to haul something TALL a fiberglass bed cap especially one with windows. They are HEAVY! Something to consider for those looking at a fiberglass "Cap" for their truck.

Here is a link to the Undercover brand of Tonneau covers I mentioned above. Buy em used on CL. They show up for sale all the time on CL.

UnderCover-Americas #1 Selling Hard Covers

[Glenn Baglo]

Originally Posted by Marsha D

We went with a truck cap so we could take our canoe with us, as well as have a safe place to store other items.

Those rack bars should either both be on the cab or both be on the truck cap.
On rough roads, the cab of the truck twists one way and the bed the other, stressing the canoe.

[Jon in AZ]

Over the years I have tried four different types of caps: wood frame with aluminum skin, insulated steel frame with aluminum skin and rear camper door, steel frameless (GEM), and fiberglass. I have had both cab height and raised height. I liked the fiberglass, raised height cap best. It was also cheapest, as I got it used.

I installed gutter mounts (all 4 on the shell- Glenn is correct) and a rack to carry two kayaks.

I agree the flip-open side window(s) would be really nice for accessing cargo in the front of the bed. I always had large, screened sliders for ventilation because I slept in the pickup bed (pre-Scamp!).

[DeeFiamore]

Very helpful information. Thank you. And thank you for pics. Glenn, I didn't know that about the canoe racks.

Anyone familiar with ranch caps? ranchfiberglass.com

[Timber Wolf]

El cheapo ($75), very, very used aluminum topper here. I had to plug some holes in it with JB Weld (stuff is great) but other than new weather stripping between it and the box and an extra key that has been it. It does have the side opening "windoors" and I WOULD NOT be without them. But then I have an older pickup that you can still actually reach over the side of the box on. PreScamp I built a platform over the wheel wells and tossed a double mattress under it. We slept back there many nights and other than no room for the dog and me banging the top every time I turned over it was fine. Now I would not be without the semi-secure and weather tight room it provides. I have no issues with seeing out of it as most of the sides are glass anyway.

A nice tonneau might do as well for my purposes but on the front hinged ones I don't like only having access from the back. I saw one on a truck bed the other day somewhere that had a parallel-hinge-bar arrangement. The cover appeared to lift more or less straight up or maybe up and back but stayed parallel to the bed. That might work for me but would still block some of the side access but not all. Maybe on my next truck, if somebody will build one you don't have to be 7' tall to reach over the bed sides.. Anybody get the feeling I think the bed sides on the new trucks are to tall?

[Marinab]

I bought a cap so my dog would be safe.



Sent from my iPad using Fiberglass RV

[Ed Harris]

When I bought my Swiss Cap Cover it had sliders with screens on the sides but I wanted Windoors instead.

I called Swiss Top and they said "Come on Down!" and I did ,they are in Patriot Indiana which is not all that far from me,at least no further than where I often camp so…….



The 1 guy at the factory that day and I removed the windows and installed the Windoors in about an hour and I was on my way back home!



The top has been a lot more rugged and reliable than I thought it would be and I have had it on 2 different trucks so far too.



I also like the rear French Doors better than a flip up window and tail gate or single door a lot of them use and this top is great to work out of.



I also have several slide outs in the bed to bring the stuff to me.