I need a bed cover for an 04' short bed. I'd like the following features:
Great fit to sides and tailgate
Paintable to body color (or comes in fiberglass matched to body color)
Lockable

If there are other features that I should look for please let me know.

It seems that A.R.E. makes a nice cover.

I'd appreciate any suggestions as well as what I should expect to pay.

Thanks.

 

I have a fiberglass tonneau cover on my truck. It looks great but there are some problems. First, I never realized how many things are too tall to allow the cover to close. Second, the latching mechanism is poor. It really needs a mechnaism that does not require the cover to be perfectly closed to get each corner to latch. Normally, only one corner will latch and then it takes extra slamming to get the other corner to latch. It should have some kind of lever-binding which depends on the handle to latch it rather than slamming it down hoping that both corners will catch. If I had to do it over, I'd get a cab-height cover.

 

As the title says, I've got a Snug Lid SL. It's great. The top is perfectly matched in color to the rest of the tuck. It is really sleek and has no bumps or bulges for the lock and keyhole, which you can kinda see in the picture in the link I put there. Closing it isn't a problem either (after I learned how to do it easily ). I just lower it down to where it's touching the bed, press down to compress the gasket, and listen for four clicks. After I hear them, the top is closed! I've been to the car wash many times, and water never gets in past the gaskets either.

Two last things. The whole mechanism CLAMPS into your bed, so no drilling. If you get it and don't like it, you could take everything off and you'd never know it was there. Also, just the top comes off easily if you know you're going to need to haul something tall. It is a little heavy though, so you'll need two strong people to lift it on and off. My dad and I can handle it pretty well.

 

Oh, you have a lot of choices there. We carry a number of them from *******'s, TrailFX, APC, FMPI, and UnderCover. And that's just the hard covers.

Remember there are also the roll up covers from PaceEdwards, Roll N Lock and BAK, and a huge number of soft covers as well.

Of the hard covers, I personally prefer the UnderCover @ $640. It's a polymer cover that is much lighter than fiberglass (read easier to remove), can be painted, and requires no drilling to install either. Also the way closes over the tailgate effectively locks the gate too. I had a *******'s cover on an older GMC, and it was a pain.

 

I have the UnderCover and have very happy with it. It is easy to remove, my son (11) and I do it frequently to haul a 5th wheel trailer.

Mine was about $550. in 1993 (originally purchased for an 03 1500).

 

I've narrowed the search down to the ARE LSII and SnugLid SL

HighTen - I'm glad to hear you like your Snuglid. From their website it's hard to tell where they put their locks.
Are they on the top or back?
Are the lock keyholes protected from the elements?
Is the keyholes are covered, is the cover black or color matched?
Does the frame rail continue across the back of the bed (inside the tailgate) or do the rails stop on the side of the bed?

Sorry for the all the questions but I'd like to pull the trigger before the end of the week.

Thanks,
Ron

 

Jason mfg. also makes nice hard cover

 

Click on my photos for a picture Hairys Daytona Beach of it...kinda far off but you can see it fits well

 

No problem. I like discussing our trucks and their parts. That's what this forum is for, right?

Anyway, the keyhole is on top pointing up. It's just like the keyhole on our trucks where that tiny metal part slides away when you insert the key. There's no cover over that. That's the only protection against water and stuff and honestly, I was concerned about that. However, it has rained and snowed and froze a lot here in the past weeks and I've always been able to open it. So, all you see is a small silver circle (probably a little larger in diameter than a quarter) that sticks up less than 1/8" above the lid.

The clamp in frame rails only go along the sides of the bed. I've poked around them and they lock in well, IMO. I found this picture on the internet (sorry about it being a ford ). It shows the lid better and you can barely see the keyhole in the back center of the lid.

One more thing. I just want to say once again that the lid can be taken off by two people, but it is pretty heavy. Just thinking about it, I'd guess I was holding about 50-60 lbs in my hands? The snuglid is really great, but it is heavy.

 

Hairy - Your cap looks like a good fit. Thanks for the pic. Bike week is right around the corner.

HT - I occationally have to haul a bike in the bed so easy removal of the lid would be a definite plus. Is it just a few cotter pin's? What's the routine?

 

Goggleyed, there are two gas struts that help open the top that you have to disconnect. Those just pop off a spherical joint-pretty easy. The top attaches to the truck in two more places. They are in the bed, right behind the cab where the top hinges. On each side there is a bolt, covered with a plastic ****, that you unscrew-really easy too. Disconnecting the top takes about 2 minutes so lifting it off the bed is the hardest part because of the heft only. You just have to lift it straight up about 5", then take it away!

This truck is a road truck. Two wheel drive because it's just for taking trips and pulling our TT. We don't "haul" large objects often so we've only had to take the top off once. If you're going to be taking it off on a regular basis, I think it would be a big pain. If we were taking it on and off more often, a lighter top would really be much better.

 

I have the ARE LSII on my truck and really like it. It has twist style latch so you don't have to slam it for it to latch. Just close it and turn the handle. I like this feature because most of the time I really don't need it to be locked. It never seems to fail that my hands are full of something. Nice to not have to find me keys every time I want to get into it. The handle and the key hole are on the back of the cover. I have not had any problems with ice or rain with mine. It is designed so that when it is closed, you can't open the tail gate. The only down side I can see would be the ease of taking it off. You have to take the complete assembly off, including the mounting rails. In other words, you can't just take the cover off and leave the rails attached to the truck.






Not the best picutes but the best I have at the moment.

 

Thanks for the feedback.

It doesn't sound like there is an easy solution. Each cover has it's advantages. I'm going to take a look at the LSII again tomorrow night to see how much of a pain it is to remove everything. Decisions, Decisions....