CNY James

Anybody have a tonneau set up?

I have an F150 Supercrew and want to get a full cap but the price is prohibitive... even if I buy used, I'd be looking at another $500 to have it painted to match my truck. I'd prefer the cap b/c my bike and other belongings would be out of the weather and more secure...

A decent Plan B might be to get a hard tonneau and bars to mount my bike. Interested in personal experiences and/or pictures of your set up.

fietsbob

Define :Tonneau cover . may be too much insider jargon ..

French?

CNY James

no jargon, that's what they're called. if you don't know what it is, you can be sure that you don't have one.

www.tonneaucoversworld.com

wahoonc

We sprung for the full cap...after 7 years of battling with the soft cover. We did get a color matched cap that is the same height as the cab. IIRC it was ~$1200, but it is a good quality Leer. BTW the truck is a 2003 F150 Lariat and momma has no intentions of getting rid of HER truck.

Aaron

turkey9186

A buddy has an F150 with a hard Tonneau cover. His step son welded up bars with three or four fork mounts on each one that are thru bolted at the front and back of the cover. The rear wheels are secured to the bar at the opposite end of the cover with straps. They usually have a road and MTB tandem, and on long trips will have a couple singles also.
You might find the hard cover will cost almost as much as the canopy shell.
FWIW: I have a Thule rack on my 2500HD C/C because of our fifth wheel. The only problem is lifting the bikes on and off.

CNY James

I currently use the Thule 820 Bed Rider (and love it)

just having an easier time finding used tonneaus and of course with less surface area comes less cost of painting to match. Even still I did do some pricing and assuming I got the cover for 300 and paid another 300 to paint it (and we know those are conservative price figures...) I'd still have to cough out another 2-300 to put a quality rack system on it. At that point, you're right I could just go with the full cap.

fietsbob

looks like if you loosen and turn the handle bars sideways, you can lay them down
under those bed cover thingies..

Cab height camper shell and a dummy rain gutter bolted thru it,
and a roof rack becomes practical.

wahoonc

Also an FYI if you go hard tonneau cover and have bikes on it, you can't open it due to the weight. So anything in the bed that needs to be retrieved requires crawling in. We looked at the hard covers before deciding to go with the full cap. Most of our bikes are vintage with bolt on wheels, so the full sized cap works better in our case.

Aaron

CNY James

fooooooock that! maybe I baby my bike too much but it doesn't get laid down anywhere, much less in the back of my truck!

Yeah, I figured that if I went that route, I would be using either my bed for storage OR my cover as a bike rack. Or taking my bikes off to get into my bed. Still liking the full cap option better, if for no other reason than the security factor...

wahoonc

I lock the bikes inside the full cap. There are these handy little hooks in the corners of the bed that will allow you to thread a cable or chain through. We have also used our cap as an impromptu picnic area when a storm popped up and I have camped in it a couple of times when motels were full. Not to say you can't do that with a tonneau cover...

Aaron