Gator Hard Tri-Fold Woes

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packhawk1

packhawk1

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Truxedo cover on mine, and like some have found the clamps, while are good, don't seem to hold the rails securely. I have even put a nut on the back side on the bolt threads, and the clamps still tend to work loose.
There is just not enough rail lip on the Ranger's bed for the clamp to get a good grip.
I am seriously thinking of just running some stainless steel self tapping screws through the tonneau rails into the Ranger bed lip, maybe one every foot. If nothing else, that will stop the rails from shifting or coming loose.

Totally agree, there just doesn't seem to be a good spot on the ranger rail lip where the clamp can bite down hard. I had an uncle over to have a look at it; he's owned ford trucks his whole life and he seemed kind of perplexed at the design of the bed rails. He suggested using some kind of loctite on the bolts but I'm hesitant to do that.

I'm not sure exactly what you mean about running some self tapping screws in there, but if you do decide to do that I'd love to see pictures and hear about how that worked for you!
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packhawk1

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My Ranger came with the Ford roll up tonneau cover. Those clamps wouldn't stay on either. Not only that, but it was hardly water tight either.

I did some research & replaced that cover with a Lear quad fold hard cover. I've had no troubles with the clamps after first retightening them as instructed to do so. And it is much more water resistant.

Glad you solved your problem! I think I'm going to try everything I can short of buying a whole new cover. It wasn't exactly cheap!
 

Blue_Ranger

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Glad you got your problem solved. Is there any chance you still have the link to those online instructions you found??
I wish I did. I just did a Google search and read about every post and watched every video. What worked for me is you have to make sure the clamp covers the rounded bump on the tonneau cover rails fully. I had some partial or just off and they kept popping off. Once I put them on that bump, no more issues (so far).
 
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packhawk1

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I'll try to get a decent picture that at least shows where the clamps should be on the tonneau rails.
awesome thanks! I’m going to post some pictures of how I have the clamps on currently. Definitely seems to be a correlation with the cold and the squeaking. Was -5 last night when I drove home after being parked outside but today was not nearly as noisy after being parked in a garage all night.
 


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packhawk1

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Can you show a picture of the current clamp installed?
Here are some photos of the clamps as they are right now. Not the best photos but they definitely don’t seem to be as noisy after being parked inside all night

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a33maxi

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Truxedo cover on mine, and like some have found the clamps, while are good, don't seem to hold the rails securely. I have even put a nut on the back side on the bolt threads, and the clamps still tend to work loose.
There is just not enough rail lip on the Ranger's bed for the clamp to get a good grip.
I am seriously thinking of just running some stainless steel self tapping screws through the tonneau rails into the Ranger bed lip, maybe one every foot. If nothing else, that will stop the rails from shifting or coming loose.
Do you have the Lo Pro (between the rails) or the Truxport (over the rails)? I've had the Truxport for about a month so far and no issues, but I'll have to keep an eye on the clamps going forward.
 

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Well just picked up my Truck. Rattle fixed! Turns out it was the rear shocks not the tonneau cover.
My rear shocks were loose. ? When I replaced the spongy Fx4s I had some issues with missing bushings and when I re-installed the last time I forgot to torque them to spec. ?
Luckily Crossroads Ford in Apex ROCKS as they tightened them up and didn't jab me for fixing something not under warranty!
Anyway it wasn't my cover and no more rattle!
 
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Do you have the Lo Pro (between the rails) or the Truxport (over the rails)? I've had the Truxport for about a month so far and no issues, but I'll have to keep an eye on the clamps going forward.
I have the LowPro...guess that does make a difference. Not too much problem with water getting in...a bit, but 99.9% stays out.
It's the rails that attach to the inside of the bed rails. They tend to shift , up especially at the rear, like they're coming loose. Clamp is still tight, but rail simply "slides" up.
Damn Ford bed rail lips are just too short...an extra 1/2 inch would do it. Clamps that are supplied are good, just not enough bed rail lip to get a good permanent hold.
 

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Did anyone else notice how thin the bed rail metal is when using clamps, you can literally bend it with your finger and the clamps definitely indent it.
 

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The clamps are the problem. Our Ranger has the Quad hard fold and besides the clamps, the cover has been great. The issue we had was the rear of the bed not sitting flush. We have the slightest lift on our cover no matter what we tried with clamps. Definitely need an extra set of hands. What we did was put a ton of pressure towards the actual rail while the other tightened the clamps down. It is nearly flush now but not perfect. I do not feel the rails were made to work as smooth with these trucks as they do with others. We are swapping to Diamondback here soon on ours and hopefully that will be better.
 

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i have the lund trifold soft cover. its the exact same thing as the ford trifold soft besides not having the ford logo. it uses a metal bracket attached to the side wall in each front corner where you attach some of the clamps. i have had zero issues.
 

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I don't have the hard cover but I have the Gator SFX soft tri-fold and it leaves much to be desired in the fitment category. It's too short to reach from bulkhead to end of tailgate so from the factory it would leak like a sieve - had to buy some rubber tailgate seal to close the massive gap.
They really need to make the soft tri-fold cover about 1" longer. It's possible to get it to seal across the tailgate and not leak, but it takes a bit of fiddling to get the alignment just right.
 

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I have an Access soft cover on my Ranger and have the same problem with the rail and clamps. I found that I had to have the teeth on the clamp meshed with the teeth of the cover rail and then torque the ever loving hell out of the bolts. So far, so good.
 

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I have an Access soft cover on my Ranger and have the same problem with the rail and clamps. I found that I had to have the teeth on the clamp meshed with the teeth of the cover rail and then torque the ever loving hell out of the bolts. So far, so good.
I'm getting rid of the clamps on my LoPro altogather. Went to Lowes and got a pack of #14 hex head self tapping screws. As soon as weather warms up a bit, just going to take everything off, and re-do by just screwing the side rails to the bed lip. 6 per side, and I dare the rail to shift after I get done !!!
Nothing wrong with the cover or the clamps, just the narrow bed lip that Ford could have made 1/2 inch longer and a bit thicker.
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