How to Buy a Tonneau Cover for Your Pickup

If you own a pickup truck and you often carry things in its bed, you'll want something to protect those items from theft and the weather. What you need is a tonneau cover.

Difficulty:

Easy

Instructions

Things You'll Need

• Tonneau Covers

Selecting a Tonneau Cover

1. Consider how much money you want to spend for the cover.

2. Decide what style of cover you want. There are solid bed covers and soft covers. The solid bed covers are commonly made of fiberglass. The soft covers are commonly made of vinyl and are the least expensive.

3. Decide what kind of mount you want. For solid bed covers, you have a choice of top mount, flush mount, retractable and multisection. For the soft covers, you have a choice of top mount, tilt up and flush. Your selection will be influenced by what you carry, how often you use the bed to carry items, how often you need to get to the bed and so on.

4. Make certain the cover is easy to install.

5. Choose a cover that's easy to open and remove. Make sure you can do what needs to be done to open it. There are different ways to unlock and lock covers. Be certain you can work the method on the cover you select.

6. Make sure the cover has features that will ensure rainwater or melting snow won't get onto the bed.

7. Be certain the cover fits properly over the bed of your truck.

Finding a Shop That Offers Tonneau Covers

1. Look in the yellow pages under truck parts and accessories, consult with friends who have bought accessories for their trucks, and refer to truck magazines. Get the names of manufacturers of tonneau covers and call them to get the names of shops.

2. Check out the shops' Web sites.

3. Narrow your selection to two or three shops.

4. Visit the shop. Ask the salesperson how long it's been in business. Is it a member of the Truck Cap & Accessories Association?

5. Make certain that the shop has a good assortment of tonneau covers to choose from. You want a good selection of the styles and mounts.

6. Ask the salesperson to point out features of the various covers. If he or she cannot do this, then you know the person isn't knowledgeable about the products carried at the shop.

7. Select the shop you feel most comfortable with.