b1pig
Member
A couple of weeks ago, the wife sent me a photo she took of another truck she saw in a parking lot with a tonneau cover in it. We've been shopping around a while. The one she sent me, looked up and it was still outside of our financial ability.... but since I was looking, I l took a look at a few others that I had been watching. Mainly because, hey.... people are trying to sell stuff right now. Turns out, Bak had a huge discount on their Vortac covers. MSRP has been right around $1300, BUT .... they were showing sale price was mid $700 range. Mine was $860-ish shipped with tax. The day after I made the order, I got an email that they were under a mandatory business shutdown. Two weeks later, it came in. I was going to be alittle pissy about it because the order was billed to my card immediately, but I couldn't get the dang thing for almost two weeks. Money is tight, but we took the stretch because the deal was good. Having to sacrifice other things to make it happen... but that's life I guess.
Anyway. It came in. Took me a little over an hour to install by myself. That included taking it out of the box.
Other than a little twist in the driver's side rail, everything came together pretty well. I'll probably try to shim that rail a little later on. As it is, it opens and closes well. The website says that "additional tabs are optional" to allow positions other than "open" and "closed"..... but mine came with three sets. One installed and two extra pair in the bag. I installed one pair for a halfway open option.
I only had ONE gripe about this thing. Someone was a little lazy in the fabrication. The inner aluminum rails that are in the side rails. Whoever cut the dang things gave zero _____ and didn't bother to de-bur the things after they were cut. I didn't notice it at first and could NOT get the side rails to slot into the canister. I wasted several minutes lifting, twisting in all sorts of directions. I finally set the side rail down and looked at both the canister and the side rail, finally figuring out that there was a LOT of aluminum "flash" which actually blocked up the slots in the extruded rail. That prevented the side rail from sliding INTO the cartridge. Once I cleaned that up, the side rail slid right on with no fuss.
I eyeballed the adjustment. It worked really well as it sits. I'll take a look at it again in a week or two. Depends on how much it gets driven. As long as nothing needs further adjustment, I'll call it good.
Thinking back on it, I probably should NOT have spent the money even though it was like $500+ cheaper on sale.... but having the small sense of security with a locked/covered bed is nice. Also keeping my kids from putting things IN the bed, which will also keep them OUT of the bed.... and I won't get any more scratches down the side of the truck from would-be gymnasts sliding down it.
Now. Time to think about where to take the family on our summer trip.
Anyway. It came in. Took me a little over an hour to install by myself. That included taking it out of the box.
Other than a little twist in the driver's side rail, everything came together pretty well. I'll probably try to shim that rail a little later on. As it is, it opens and closes well. The website says that "additional tabs are optional" to allow positions other than "open" and "closed"..... but mine came with three sets. One installed and two extra pair in the bag. I installed one pair for a halfway open option.
I only had ONE gripe about this thing. Someone was a little lazy in the fabrication. The inner aluminum rails that are in the side rails. Whoever cut the dang things gave zero _____ and didn't bother to de-bur the things after they were cut. I didn't notice it at first and could NOT get the side rails to slot into the canister. I wasted several minutes lifting, twisting in all sorts of directions. I finally set the side rail down and looked at both the canister and the side rail, finally figuring out that there was a LOT of aluminum "flash" which actually blocked up the slots in the extruded rail. That prevented the side rail from sliding INTO the cartridge. Once I cleaned that up, the side rail slid right on with no fuss.
I eyeballed the adjustment. It worked really well as it sits. I'll take a look at it again in a week or two. Depends on how much it gets driven. As long as nothing needs further adjustment, I'll call it good.
Thinking back on it, I probably should NOT have spent the money even though it was like $500+ cheaper on sale.... but having the small sense of security with a locked/covered bed is nice. Also keeping my kids from putting things IN the bed, which will also keep them OUT of the bed.... and I won't get any more scratches down the side of the truck from would-be gymnasts sliding down it.
Now. Time to think about where to take the family on our summer trip.
