Installing the best bed cover

[ajosephngs]

Fedex guy called and I raced home to meet him as he unloaded a pallet from diamondback truck covers. It’s been snowy here this winter and I’ve been cursing myself for not doing this sooner. Whole experience with diamondback has bee awesome. I went with the HD hard cover for a bunch of reasons. It’s really tough, I don’t really like soft covers, its weatherproof, I can lock up my camera gear and cargo, I can park my atv on top sideways so I can haul it without the tailgate down, it looks awesome, and it’s the least limiting hard cover I could find when I need to haunt taller items.

 

[ajosephngs]

How it arrived

 

[ajosephngs]

Unboxing

 

[ajosephngs]

Installing the center bar, notice the ‘gutters’ for carting water off the cover. It’s just 4 clamps that tighten to the bed rail. Start with them loose so you can move the cover panels into place

 

[ajosephngs]

Add the back panel by slipping it onto the hinges. I did this alone. A second set of hands is helpful here. Position the cover where you want it and tighten the center bar.

 

[ajosephngs]

Install the gas rams.

 

[ajosephngs]

Put the back panel in place and adjust the locking bars and it’s done. I did need the wife to help press the top to compress the weather seals while I sniffed everything up. Took about 30 minutes with kids stealing my tools and running around on top of the cover.

It rained hard last night and this morning. The bed is bone dry!

 

[BeauxXL1200]

Man that thing looks good and is obviously strong.

Install the gas rams. View attachment 16918

 

[ajosephngs]

Quick note: the cover locks down tight the bed rails. Snug enough that you need to release it when opening the tailgate. That what it’s popped up slightly in the last pictures.

 

[ajosephngs]

The rails on the top are an add on. I don’t know if it was a good idea or not but the rails are there to accept 9 foot folding ramps and a overtralevel bar when parking at quad or dirt bike on top. Says it’s rated for 1500 lbs.

 

[troutspinner]

Very nice. I seen this setup at the Pa Outdoor Show last week and was impressed with it. I have to admit though, side loading an ATV looks like it could be a little intimidating.

 

[ajosephngs]

 

[ajosephngs]

The arch in the ramps helps take some of the angle off the second half. When it’s not raining and muddy and snowy I’ll sack up and drive up there.

 

[ajosephngs]

Some shots of the locking access on both front and rear panels

 

[whododat]

That looks awesome. Good luck with it.

 

[Drewsky510]

This is awesome, thank you for sharing all of your pics!

 

[Gtbrown]

Great thread, thanks for the awesome pictures.

 

[SupremeWill]

Where is the picture with the quad loaded??

 

[Username1]

has anyone installed the mopar soft cover? I want a soft rollup and I looked at the weather tech and Mopar. I like the weather tech cause it looks like you can tighten it when it gets older and stretches a bit but I like the mopar cause the release latch seems longer lasting than a string. any comments on the water resistance of both of them?

 

[SupremeWill]

has anyone installed the mopar soft cover? I want a soft rollup and I looked at the weather tech and Mopar. I like the weather tech cause it looks like you can tighten it when it gets older and stretches a bit but I like the mopar cause the release latch seems longer lasting than a string. any comments on the water resistance of both of them?

I did a crazy amount of research on soft covers before my wife decided we were getting a hard cover. From my research and talking to people the best soft roll up i found was the truxedo lo pro. It is self adjusting and the vinyl holds up better than the canvas on the pro x15 over time. Plus their latches are better on the lo pro than the truxport.