TLAPs Rolling Hard Tonneau Cover

[CTYankee]

I ordered this tonneau cover from eBay. The day I ordered it, the price was $569 but, a few days later, it jumped to the current $642.00. Both prices include free shipping.

The cover arrived this afternoon and will be installed sometime over the next few days. I'm having my old shop, which is now owned by one of my former employees and a friend of his, do the installation because I want their opinion on how it compares to the current versions of the name brand tonneaus they sell and install. I also want to photo-document the installation so I can post a review here and over on the Maverick Truck Forum.

The tonneau cover will be replacing a Ford drop-in bedliner and what appears to be a Truxedo Truxport soft roll-up. Anyone within driving distance of Auburn, MA who has a 6' bed 19+ Ranger and who wants them should message me. I won't be looking to get much for them; I just hate scrapping stuff like that if someone else can use it.

The TLAPs cover will be installed in combination with a BedRug liner and an UnderCover passenger side swing case.

More to come....

Sponsored

 

[subquark]

I ordered this tonneau cover from eBay. The day I ordered it, the price was $569 but, a few days later, it jumped to the current $642.00. Both prices include free shipping.

The cover arrived this afternoon and will be installed sometime over the next few days. I'm having my old shop, which is now owned by one of my former employees and a friend of his, do the installation because I want their opinion on how it compares to the current versions of the name brand tonneaus they sell and install. I also want to photo-document the installation so I can post a review here and over on the Maverick Truck Forum.

The tonneau cover will be replacing a Ford drop-in bedliner and what appears to be a Truxedo Truxport soft roll-up. Anyone within driving distance of Auburn, MA who has a 6' bed 19+ Ranger and who wants them should message me. I won't be looking to get much for them; I just hate scrapping stuff like that if someone else can use it.

The TLAPs cover will be installed in combination with a BedRug liner and an UnderCover passenger side swing case.

More to come....

Great price and it looks as good as the Bak Revolver X4s I have (actually, I like the look of yours better with the visible slats).

I suppose my only concern there would be winter freezing. Mine freezes shut constantly and is a pain in winter (I park outside ...).

 

[CTYankee]

I suppose my only concern there would be winter freezing. Mine freezes shut constantly and is a pain in winter (I park outside ...).

Mine is garaged and I'm retired so, at the moment, it doesn't spend much time out in the weather. However, I have a classic car that has been undergoing an engine rebuild at a friends shop in CT. When that comes home, the Ranger will have to live outside so we'll see how it likes the cold.

 

[CTYankee]

I got the cover installed today and here is my review of it, along with some other observations.

This was our starting point (Ford drop-in liner and Truxedo Lo Pro soft rollup that's been partially removed already):

Here is what the bed on my 2020 Ranger looks like after only 4-5 years with a drop-in liner:

The first order of business was to install the BedRug replacement liner and the RealTruck swing case:

Next came the hard rollup tonneau cover from eBay. The following pictures show the components and packaging, which all looked like quality items. The contents even included a 14/17mm wrench that wasn't a throw-away tool as so many of these things are.

The picture below shows the latching system. The latch itself is adjustable and seems to be a quality component. My former techs were impressed with the overall quality and felt it exceeded both Truxedo and BAK Industries.

Additional observations:

1. The weatherstripping along both sides of the cover is built into the grooves between slats rather than just taped to the top of the cover.
2. The rails have drains near the front.
3. The product comes with a very thick weatherstrip that, even when compressed, fills the space between the bulkhead and the bed rails.
4. The straps to secure the cover when rolled up have a carabiner style attachment to hook into the posts at the front of the cover and the eyelets that attach the straps to the cover are embedded securely into the strap material; you cannot get a fingernail under them.

I paid $569.00 for this cover (it's now up to $642) on eBay and consider it equivalent in design and build quality to any of the major brand covers. Of course, time will tell as to durability but the prognosis is favorable.

 

[JimmyH]

How has the EBay rollup held up and performed?

 

[CTYankee]

How has the EBay rollup held up and performed?

It's been good, but I do have a couple of things worth noting.

The cover was installed by my former employee who now owns my old shop. Corey's really good and the installation was perfect. When I wanted to close the open cover, I could just give the rolled up section a push and it would literally latch itself.

Then I needed to get some PDR work done and the PDR guy removed the cover to get at one of the areas needing work.

After he reinstalled the cover, I couldn't get it to latch unless I pulled the wire down while closing the cover. I took the truck back over to Corey. We discovered that the latch rod, which is supposed to slide down the fixed piece attached to the rail, was now misaligned. Instead of sliding down the sloped portion o the latch and then popping back under it to complete the latch, it was hitting the top of the sloped section and stopping. Pulling the latch wire allowed it to slide down and complete the latch.

It looks like the sloped piece is soft metal and the attempts to latch it without pulling the wire may have bent the sloped piece, causing further misalignment.

We fixed it basically by shimming the latch rod with a zip tie on the rod between the wire attachment and the black sleeve it moves through. That keeps the rod far enough back to hit the slope and slide down it with enough movement still available to pop out underneath and latch securely.

With that done, I am back to the cover self latching when I give the rolled up section a good shove. Everything else about the cover is holding up well and I am very satisfied. I can't really even blame the cover for the latching issue, since I think that probably had more to do with the reinstallation than the cover itself.

 

[PltFX4]

It's been good, but I do have a couple of things worth noting.

The cover was installed by my former employee who now owns my old shop. Corey's really good and the installation was perfect. When I wanted to close the open cover, I could just give the rolled up section a push and it would literally latch itself.
......

Now for the "acid" test... drive it through a car wash or hose the heck out of it and see how much water gets in.

I have a similar set up (2 saddle bags (side swing cases.), Bed Rug and Line-X) but with a Ford vinyl roll up cover. Similar side rails with Velcro to hold it to the rails. Rails are sloped outward to drain of most water but car wash and melting winter snow does get the Bed Rug wet. In summer sun the bed does get warm and evaporates the water fairly quickly but in winter it can take some time after it gets above freezing (kinda why I had the Line-X installed so a wet BedRug did not rust out the bed too quickly.) Yours being garaged may not have as much of an issue with this.

 

[CTYankee]

Now for the "acid" test... drive it through a car wash or hose the heck out of it and see how much water gets in.

I have a similar set up (2 saddle bags (side swing cases.), Bed Rug and Line-X) but with a Ford vinyl roll up cover. Similar side rails with Velcro to hold it to the rails. Rails are sloped outward to drain of most water but car wash and melting winter snow does get the Bed Rug wet. In summer sun the bed does get warm and evaporates the water fairly quickly but in winter it can take some time after it gets above freezing (kinda why I had the Line-X installed so a wet BedRug did not rust out the bed too quickly.) Yours being garaged may not have as much of an issue with this.

I do get some car wash dampness, but not much. If I wanted to take the time, I could probably track down where some extra weatherstripping might stop it, but it's so minor I haven't bothered. The water channels designed into the cover work pretty well.

When I had the shop we used to tell customers that there's no such thing as a leak-proof tonneau because, if light can get in anywhere, water can get in, and truck beds themselves are not leak-proof. So I haven't worried about it. Some customers do, so we used to have someone get in the bed and close the cover. Anywhere we could see light, we'd point it out to the customer. Some things we could fix and some were just the irregularity of the bed.

I might do more if the truck had to sit outside. I'm retired, so it doesn't even have to sit in a parking lot at work.

Sponsored