Let's See Some Softoppers

Great news. Thanks!

 

yea i have that exact set up youre running, just gotta tweak the position of it . I can still fold the topper without compromising my shovel and axe mounts

 

Your truck looks amazing great job!!

 

Thanks man, I should have the truck wrapped soon if I can find a warm few days to do it.

 

I've only seen a few people wrap there trucks it looks pretty cool. What color will you go with? I've seen one in a dark green that looked really nice!

 

Yeah that dude is in Hawaii, if we're talking about the same guy. Pretty cool dude. I'm unsure on the colors. It will have my business design on there too.

 

came across a tan long bed topper for 400.
rear window needs replacement and the canvas was in overall great shape with the exception of a few blemishes.
am i a fool for not buying it?

 

Sounds like a good deal. Rear window costs 64 bucks, so you would still be ahead of the game.

 

Not a bad deal. You may find one cheaper, but they don't show up as often as fiberglass shells.

 

Pretty decent on price. Yes back window is $65+ Give or take. They're def worth the money.

 

Thanks fellas-
Got some thinking to do-
owner was cool he actually said to think it over and get back to him.
I'm leaning towards purchase

 

I spent a lot of time trying to decide between a hard cap and a soft topper and I'm really glad I went with the Softtopper. I looked at Bestop as well in person on another local guy's truck, but in the end I went Soft Topper.



I drove down to Softtopper's shop in Boulder, Colorado and met some of the folks there. They were incredibly nice, do all of their own manufacturing with a lot of really nice equipment, and they employ a lot of local Colorado folks. They had a demo Tacoma and one of the guys came out to show me how it installed, went up and down, and explained the model differences for the 2016+.





They gave me a tour of their shop showing me the various stages of how they build the screens. The employees were pretty passionate about the product and seemed to know all of the ins and outs of the manufacturing process. It must be a fun place to work and everyone had a great attitude about the company.

The picture above is of loads of soft toppers boxed and ready to go out - and they keep a lot of spare/repair parts in stock as well which sold me on the product versus others. I've had hard tops and replacing anything was extremely costly, and I've had soft tonneau covers where the company went out of business and I couldn't get parts period. These guys have been around for about 12 years and they are only growing, which was good to hear.

I was there on a Saturday so aside from the folks putting together orders the shop was fairly quiet...but I did manage to see some really cool stuff. Needless to say that if you also own a Jeep all I can say is keep your eyes peeled on Soft Topper. They have some REALLY cool stuff in the works that they asked me politely to not photograph.

Install was a breeze in my garage, even at cooler temps. Took about 45 minutes and then 20 minutes to add the extra sealant. They will also do install at their shop for around $75-100.

For those concerned that the short cab softtopper sticks up higher than the long bed, they seemed to have corrected that and it sits perfectly level with my cab.

 

Looking good!
What distinctions influenced your dicision?

 

Nice write up and photos. I plan on getting the Softopper in the next few years. Always on the lookout for a good used one in my area.
Thanks pra4sno.

 

After I get back from this upcoming deployment, first thing I am doing when i get into country is eating a big mac and sweet tea from McDonalds and then ordering a Soft Topper!

 

@pra4sno thanks for your write-up. Unfortunately I couldn't view your pictures, but the words reinforced everything I've heard about SoftTopper. I never found the height of the top vs the cab to be objectionable, but from pictures (I've never had a chance to look at one up close on a 3rd Gen) they do seem narrow and short relative to the bed dimensions. And the rear window slopes a lot, eating into valuable interior space if you have a 5' bed. Curious what owners think about this ... I'm not crazy about BestTop's looks either, but width seems better and the support frame fits above the bed rails, again freeing up space.

 

They now have the Grand Mac just for you, man.

 

Between Best Top and Soft Topper?

Material and build quality first and foremost but there were a number of other reasons.

My big beef is the company structure and marketing practices.

Besttop obviously has employees in the states (sales reps, etc.) but their marketing lingo feels like like a bait and switch. Manufacturing is done in Mexico (and China as long as it doesn't have the besttop label on it). Besttop was bought by Kinderhook and Magna international in 2015 as well, signalling some changes. Language like "all best top labelled products are manufactured in North America" should just be a clear "made in mexico".

Softtopper is made at a place I could go walk through, and meet people making my topper. They had bins of replacement parts I can order, all the way down to individual snaps - and they will even do repairs in house.

Lastly, the design of the softtopper fit my needs. I didn't want side windows, and the aesthetics of the besttop's high center ridge looked awkward in person. The panel setup to remove the sides was inconvenient compared to the snaps and rollup design on the soft topper is really slick and easy to use.

 

Support frame on my soft topper is above bed rails and for the third gen the window slopes out at the same angle as the hard toppers I looked at.

The width on the soft topper could be maxed out/wider by about 1 inch in the front; however I'll just drop the cover for more room.

 

I will buy US made goods over imported even if the imported product is a better fit for what I am looking for. In my mind it is all about jobs- lucky in this case the softopper also is a better fit- like the solid fabric sides better.