Tri fold or Hard Tonneau?

I often have shit in the back of my truck that I want covered up. Weighed options between shell vs tonneau, and I'm 98% sure tonneau won. Now tri fold or hard?

Can you give me your experiences?

I like the usability of the tri fold for many different purposes, but are they really leak proof?

I kind of lean towards hard, knowing it'll be leak proof, and I just have to unbolt it when I need the room (once every year or two?).

Tonneaus I've considered:

Tri:
Extang Encore
BAK Bakflip G2

Hard:
Undercover Elite (black plastic for no scratch worries)
Snugtop snuglid (colormatch)
Leer 700 (colormatch)

Thanks for any and all help

 

Extang Solid Fold 2.0

 

If you wanna stay dry go to the Sahara desert.

 

^This.

Is truth.

Easy on, easy off, solid, waterproof (if you get all the seals and line it up straight).

 

And you don't have to unbolt the SolidFold. Comes off in about a minute, goes back on in 3 (takes longer in a long bed, too).

 

Not to thread hijack, but how does the Encore compare in use to the Toyota OEM trifold?

 

Undercover SE on @j102 truck.

 

I have a tonneau pro trifold and don't even have the extra seal strips at the head of the bed or across top of tailgate. There is about 1/8th inch gap and it still only barely gets anything in there if driving thru a monsoon waterfall rainstorm. Anything that does get in stays under bedmat and drains out. I did add a strap to the front corners using the bedrail cleats and frame of the cover. Also did same thing with some in the center and left the clamps on back section for quick access (after tailgate is unlocked) I did this because wind on frwy would work front clamps off the bracket in the bedrail. Almost lost it on the frwy a couple of times. Other than that I love it. Fold it up however much for what you need to do or remove it in 5 minutes due to the extra safety strapping. Pick it up and stash in garage if not needed without taking up a bunch of space.

 

There was a Leer hardcover on my truck when I bought it. Whatever model was the high end that fit a 2gen long bed.

It worked well, locked, etc.

I traded it in on an Extang Trifold (not lockable, not water proof) in about a week. I had to have something I could remove easily by myself to allow transport of stuff like bikes, kayaks, appliances, etc.

 

Looks great on black, but with that big lip overhanging the sides of the bed i think it would look like shit on Barcelona Red

 

It just looks like it covers the bedrail caps and not any more. Wouldn't make a difference on red. You'll just see the rest of the bedrail cover.


edit - it'd be red cover, black strip of bedrail cover then red bedside if it didn't go down far enough to cover bedrail cap. With red cover and red truck I don't think you'd see the black bedrail cap but that would mean getting it color matched or painted to match truck which = mo money.

 

Bakflip G2. It can fold all the way up to Windows, so you can use the whole bed in a pinch. Of course you can't see out the back when you do this, but that's okay, you got the back up camera.

 

I have to see over mine...RC so no bkup cam It wasn't that bad tho.

 

Have had undercover on an F150. A Retrax on a Tundra. If we were going to do it on the Taco, it would be The UnderCover Flex tri fold.

 

The reason I like a folding cover is because it is easier to manage if for some reason I need to remove the cover away from home for unexpected reasons. At least I could still haul something along with the cover folded on or off the truck.

 

Seconded! I just got one used and it's a great piece of kit and looks the part too. I wouldn't suggest the hard tonneau because it really limits your use of the bed. Mine is 98% waterproof, with the only water that gets through being the small gap at the tailgate.

 

Can you explain "all the seals" to me? Does the system not come with all the necessary seals for $800+?

 

It does come with cab rail seals. You will have to buy weatherstripping separately, but it's only $26 or something like that. You can often get them both for 20% off at AutoAnything, especially if you get a sales rep in a chat session.

I've got install details buried in my build thread (click the truck). Wasn't hard to do at all.

I like that nothing has to be permanently installed; it utilizes the bed rails very well. No drilling either. Just make sure you have a really good torx for the cab rail - they torque those screws down within an inch of their lives.

 

trifold
I'd never get a hard one. To me they remove almost all usability out of the bed, even more than a cap.
At least with a trifold if you are out driving around and see something you want to pick up, you usually can't fit it in with a hard cover. Trifold you can at least pop off quickly, fold up and throw it in the bed or back seat usually with whatever you're picking up.

 

Look at Fold-a-Cover G4 Elite, I have one and love it.