Need fas-top soft topper and tonneau cover in one

Bitflogger · Jul 11, 2024

garcia.galili said: ↑

I ended up getting one of these for my new (to me) truck. I've had it on a '17 DCLB for a couple of months now; been meaning to write up a review and haven't gotten to it yet, but in short I'm pretty pleased. I thought initially that I'd just use tonneau mode when I wanted more security (such as it is), but it turns out I run it about 50/50 in tonneau mode vs. topper mode.

There's a couple changes they've made to the design that I don't see reflected in any of their materials or in any videos, mostly in how the tailgate end of the topper works:

All of the materials I've seen show sort of long pleather straps on the back window zippers, with snaps on the end of them that attach to snaps you screw into the latch assembly at the where the rear window closes. They've streamlined that by molding little hooks into the back of the latch assembly plastic, and making the zipper pulls essentially long pieces of p-cord tied in a loop. Now you just loop that p-cord over the hook, and the back window zippers are secured so you can't unzip them without opening the tailgate.

Instead of using the little metal snap clips for the straps at all four corners of the topper, now they're just at the front end, which you never need to unhook unless you are taking the topper totally off. The back end, which you need to undo every time you fold the topper, are now the same style hook as the "G-Hooks" Fas-Top uses to roll up the sides of the topper. There's no snap, they just slide into molded holes on the latch assembly and stay in place due to tension. This seems like a good system that's a lot easier to undo when folding the top. They also now double as straps to hold the topper portion closed if you want to totally remove it, which I've done once to get maximum bed space when moving a large couch.

Some other observations:

The topper seems pretty stable even at highway speeds; sucks in a bit on the sides, but doesn't seem to be going anywhere.

I wasn't sure about the velcro as the only attachment for the topper sides, but it seems to work fine.

At least for me, neither the tonneau nor the topper is fully dry in a heavy rain. I do think tonneau mode is the drier of the two, and neither of them seems too much worse than when I had a hard topper installed without puttying the seams at the front of my truck bed. That's all to say I wouldn't keep like a stack of books or something back there in a storm, but for the stuff I generally have in the bed it's probably good enough. Seems to me like most of the leaking is from the front, and so I do wonder if it's less dry than other soft toppers might be.

The powder coat on the rails, bows, etc doesn't seem great. Mine has big scratches in it just from taking the topper section on and off once, and from general use over the last two months. Don't love that part.

It's a bit of a bummer that you can't drive with it in safari mode like you can other toppers.

Needing to open the tailgate before you can open the back window was a feature I liked for security reasons, but it's also at least somewhat annoying having been used to just lifting the back window on my hard topper. I think it's probably still a worthwhile trade off though.

Click to expand...

Thank you for that information. I'm still undecided including getting the Tacoma and a tent topper but this product seems great for the main reason I'm interested in a pickup again - a mix of work and personal use. Do you have any photos? Especially now it looks with the tonneau rolled and topper up?

Any comments or observations on fuel economy?

Thanks again.

garcia.galili · Jul 11, 2024

TBH, coming from my previous Taco ('06 Access Cab 4cyl 5spd manual), this current truck is kind of a pig no matter what with fuel economy. That said, I do think I'm doing a bit better with this topper than I was with an open bed and TracRack that I had for the first couple months. Like maybe I went from 18-19mpg average to closer to 20+mpg average?

Here's some photos of it on the truck right after I put it on, as well as of the updates to the design that I mentioned. One more thing that wasn't clear to me from any of the install videos is that for the 6' bed length they include three clamps per side instead of two for the install.

deusxanime · Jul 11, 2024

garcia.galili said: ↑

At least for me, neither the tonneau nor the topper is fully dry in a heavy rain. I do think tonneau mode is the drier of the two, and neither of them seems too much worse than when I had a hard topper installed without puttying the seams at the front of my truck bed. That's all to say I wouldn't keep like a stack of books or something back there in a storm, but for the stuff I generally have in the bed it's probably good enough. Seems to me like most of the leaking is from the front, and so I do wonder if it's less dry than other soft toppers might be.

Click to expand...

Even with a hard topper I get a little bit of leaking, especially going through a car wash where there is high pressure water streams being shot at it. Just seems nearly impossible to completely seal up the Tacoma bed. That being said, it is usually just a bit that comes in and goes down the side walls and so if you have a bed mat then it just drizzles under it and as long as you keep stuff on the mat it stays dry.

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Need fas-top soft topper and tonneau cover in one

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Need fas-top soft topper and tonneau cover in one

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