Any truck owner knows that having a good sized truck bed is only half effective if your cargo gets drenched whenever there’s a heavy rain storm. With this in mind, the truck bed or tonneau cover was invented. These types of truck bed covers provide leather or vinyl covering that protects your goods from the damaging element; including rain or excess sun. In addition to protecting your valuables from external factors, these covers also protect other drivers from your cargo flying everywhere.

Trucks are increasingly popular in the United States, with Americans having bought 678,000 more trucks than cars in the year 2014. With such a huge popularity, you know that there will be a large amount of products designed with truck drivers in mind. In this guide, we are going to explain some things to look out for in a truck bed cover as well as the types. Tonneau covers come in two varieties, hard and soft. Let’s take a look at what each entails:

Hard Types

Foldable: While these truck covers are hard, they also have hinges so that you can simply fold them towards your cab when you need to access your cargo. As a matter of fact, for convenience, some of these products can even be opened from the front or back. Hinge: These types work like a door that’s hinged on the cab side of your bed. Simply lift it up and gain access. These can be a bit cumbersome to get a full extension, though these are the easiest to secure.

Soft Types

Rollable: These are often very easy to install. Once installed, you simply unlatch the cover and roll it towards the cab. Sometimes these aren’t as waterproof as other truck bed covers. Retractable: These are a blend of rollable and hard style covers, even though they are a soft type. With the retractable style tonneau, there is a tough metal endoskeleton that lets this type product be rolled into an enclosure that’s positioned near your cab. Some of these are even electronic and can be operated with a remote control.

Truck Bed Covers Best Design Feature Price Rating

TruXedo 271801 TruXport Tonneau Cover This truck bed cover rolls up very easily. $299.00 5/5

Tonno Pro 42-305 Black Tri-fold Truck Tonneau Cover Tonno’s utilization of 6063 aluminum for this cover makes it one of the strongest and most flexible on the market. $ 246.69 9/5

Bestop 16030-01 EZ Fold Truck Tonneau Cover It only takes about five minutes to install this cover. $295.99 7/5

MaxMate Premium TriFold Tonneau Truck Bed Cover You get a lot of features with this product at a very low price. $199.00 8/5

Tyger Auto TG-BC3C1006 Tri-Fold Tonneau Truck Bed Cover This product includes an LED light. $204.63 6/5

TAC 2014-2016 Chevy Silverado/GMC Sierra 5.8′ (69.6 inch) Short Bed Tri-Fold Cover This cover is secured with a very tight fitting twist clamp. $199.00 5/5

Lund 95073 Genesis Tri-Fold Tonneau Cover While it’s not leather, this product has the most leather-like finish out of all of the reviewed truck bed covers. $261.78 7/5

Reviews

1) TruXedo 271801 TruXport Tonneau Cover

When you hear the name TruXedo, you might picture a truck attired in formal wear, but the Truxedo line of products is actually more designed for the rough and tumble road than the ballroom. This truck cover is a rollup-style that is packed with enough features that will let you easily secure your truck’s cargo bed. As a TruXport model of bed cover, this product has some of the easiest to install features of any of the products we’ve feature in this guide.

As a rollup tonneau, you’ll have to simply press two latches at the ends of the truck bed. Once this is done, you’ll be able to roll up the cover in order for you to access the bed’s contents. After it’s rolled, you will even be able to use two attached straps to keep the truck bed cover folded up and your truck bed exposed.

For security, this cover uses three aluminum bars that ensure that the cover maintains a flat profile when it’s spread out over your bed. This ensures that there won’t be additional drag on your vehicle, which can be a problem with tonneau covers. Insofar as installation, this is an easy-to-install device that starts with attaching the driver and passenger side rails. You’ll have to do this with the included C clamps that you’ll have to tighten with a 9/16th wrench. After this is completed, you’ll need to latch the remainder of the truck bed cover with the included heavy duty Velcro.To Buy this product online on Amazon Click Here

2) Tonno Pro 42-305 Black Tri-fold Truck Tonneau Cover

Tonno for Tonneaus is what the manufacturer of this product would like you to think of when you are searching for a new truck bed cover. When it comes to their tonneau products, we think that they are named very aptly. This specific product has some quality construction that we really enjoyed reviewing. This foldable-style truck bed cover utilizes a tri-fold design and an aluminum alloy frame that has remarkable tensile strength. As a matter of fact, Tonno utilized 6063 aluminum in the frame of this product, which is a great metal for the product. The soft material of this truck bed cover is made of marine grade vinyl. This material will resist any weather that you throw at it, and if you happen to be hauling chemicals in your bed, it can withstand those too. Finally, many of these covers wear with age, but the marine grade vinyl that Tonno used in this product is particularly resistant to UV exposure. This material is also secured with four stitch per-inch threading that’s moisture proof so that nothing will be able to get through this truck bed cover once it’s laid on your bed.

You can install this product in about 15 minutes. Simply deploy the nylon straps, which happen to be ballistic-grade, using just your hands. As they are so strong, you’ll be able to securely attach this truck bed cover with ease.To Buy this product online on Amazon Click Here

3) Bestop 16030-01 EZ Fold Truck Tonneau Cover

Our next truck bed cover is a foldable model that offers a lot of built-in versatility for truck owners to enjoy. This model is perfect for those who tend to carry larger loads in their beds and need a tonneau with some great versatility. Morris has produced this line of products under their Bestop line of truck products. Where this cover shines is in its ease of use. You can install this tonneau cover very quickly; as a matter of fact, it’s probably the quickest truck cover to install of the items here in our guide. To install, you’ll have to set the cover on top of your truck’s bed then latch the adjustable clamps that are on its edges to the rim of your truck bed. Once you’ve latched both ends, front and back, and folded the cover, the whole process is complete and should only have taken four or five minutes. This ease of removal and installation is at the core of Bestop’s product; it’s designed to be removed when you need to truck a large object and replaced when it’s gone from your truck bed.

Like the Tonno Pro 42-305, the Bestop 16030-01 EZ has a tri-fold design that makes folding and extending the cover simple. Once you’ve folded the cover and it’s close to the cab, you can use the included straps to secure it to your truck bed. To add to its inherent durability, this cover also has an anodized aluminum construction in its support beams that makes it flexible and strong simultaneously.To Buy this product online on Amazon Click Here

4) MaxMate Premium TriFold Tonneau Truck Bed Cover

MaxMate makes a series of very affordable truck bed covers. Their design philosophy seems to entail crafting products that have premium functionality at a lower cost. In addition to bed covers, this company also designs step bars and other truck accessories. A nice add-in that comes with this tonneau is a bundled magnetic LED light. The product itself is comprised of a very weather-tight vinyl that will keep out the majority of the elements. Like a few of the products that we tackled in this guide, removing the MaxMate Premium TriFold Tonneau Truck Bed Cover is purposely made easy so that you can load and unload your truck when you need to. Like many of the other products in this guide, the truck bed’s frame is comprised of anodized aluminum that’s flexible and strong. These frame bars are also coated in a powdered epoxy that’ll make them more moisture and weatherproof. This is a very easy-to-install product, but you may have to do some bed drilling in the event that you have an over the bed-rail style of truck liner. Outside of this situation, you can install this truck bed cover with very minimal tools.

Just place the cover atop your truck bed’s sides, secure the rear clamp assembly onto the rim of your truck bed using a wrench, fold it down twice, and clamp on the attachments in the front to the cab side of your truck bed.To Buy this product online on Amazon Click Here

5) Tyger Auto TG-BC3C1006 Tri-Fold Tonneau Truck Bed Cover

Our next truck bed cover, the Tyger Auto TG-BC3C1006 Tri-Fold, is another relatively low-priced option for those who own a truck but don’t want to spend $300 to cover its bed. This cover utilizes a tri-fold design to deliver great ease-of-access to all of the cargo within the bed of your truck. The material that this cover is made of is vinyl and Tyger has done a great job of flattening the shape of this product so that there is a ten percent to 13 percent improvement on gas economy due to the improvement that this cover provides to your truck’s aerodynamics. Installation of this truck bed cover is amazingly easy. You’ll need no tools and it’s quick; the whole process should take you less than ten minutes. The first thing you’ll need to do is install the cab-side clamps. These clamps are hand-screwed into position and take only a few minutes and a little bit of elbow grease to fully attach. Once you’ve gotten both attached firmly, install the rear clamps under the rail lip as well. Once again, you’ll need no tools for this portion and the cover should be installed securely. With this cover, we noticed that it’s not 100 percent weatherproof and rain can get in under a torrential downfall where water splashes back up under the cover. This is a slight negative about an overall great product.To Buy this product online on Amazon Click Here

6) TAC 2014-2016 Chevy Silverado/GMC Sierra 5.8′ (69.6 inch) Short Bed Tri-Fold Cover

Our next product is the TAC Chevy Silverado/GMC Sierra truck bed cover. While this product is specifically designed for a particular set of vehicles, it’s not at all diminished by the exclusivity. Truck bed covers have to fit precisely or there is a chance of moisture seepage during rain storms or sand/particle seepage during stiff winds; as a matter of fact, you should always be 100 percent sure that the tonneau cover you purchase is completely compatible with the make and model of your particular truck. Internally, this truck bed cover has an aluminum frame that’s powder coated to resist the elements. Where this particular product shines is in its weatherproofing. The bed cover has tight rubber sealing around its lip so that water or loose particles have no way of getting into the bed of the truck when it’s secured. Similarly to the Tyger product, this truck bed cover uses an easy-to-install twist clamp method to secure it to your truck’s bed rails. This version of the technology is actually more secure in our estimation and provides a layer of protection from unscrupulous individuals.To Buy this product online on Amazon Click Here

7) Lund 95073 Genesis Tri-Fold Tonneau Cover

The final product on your list, the Lund 95073 Genesis Tri-Fold Tonneau Cover, is another great tri-fold that does a great job at securing your cargo. Out of all the products that we’ve reviewed in this guide, this particular truck bed cover has the most leather-like material that really looks good. This faux leather vinyl is also very tough and resistant to abrasions and cuts; making this the second toughest truck bed cover behind the Tonno product. The design of this cover is great on gas mileage, which is a major benefit that using a well-designed truck bed cover delivers. In addition to this, this is a very secure cover that employs a very secure clamping system underneath the cover itself that locks it firmly into place. The combination of the cut-resistant fabric (it’s treated on both sides) and the strong, hand tightened, clamp locking system makes this one of the most secure products that we’ve featured here.To Buy this product online on Amazon Click Here

Conclusion

Our list of truck bed covers has seven absolutely great bed covers that’ll protect everything that you need to haul. While they all shine for various reasons, if we had to pick one that stands slightly ahead of the rest for quality construction and overall function, we’d pick the Tonno Pro 42-305 Black Tri-fold Truck Tonneau Cover. This product has an excellent construction that uses a strong aluminum alloy, is virtually weatherproof due to its amazing stitching, and even stands up to chemical and UV damage. When it comes to straight bang for your buck, we really like the MaxMate Premium TriFold Tonneau Truck Bed Cover. It’s cheaper than the majority of its counterparts on this list, but still has a great construction, easy installation, and has an amazing ten year warranty that really illustrates how much faith MaxMate has in the product.