Tonneau or Shell?

[Bill]

This is a great thread! I'm looking for similar advice, as we consider replacing the old faithful Explorer in the next couple years.

I have a friend (we convinced him to buy a 3326, by the way) who tows with a Tundra that has a really nice-looking hard tonneau cover. I love it, and it is the way I would go instantly - except that the tonneau cover prevents access to the stake pockets. We occasionally carry two Old Town kayaks, and they are long and wide. With a pickup, I think we would need to install at least the rear half of a rack system into the rear stake pockets, so that's a problem.

I would like some sort of lockable tonneau cover, because I would like to secure various items from casual theft - Honda generator, Engle cooler, etc. I know that a shell can provide both lockable storage and kayak-carrying - but then I occasionally need to transport something tall, so I would have to rent a utility trailer for that.

So far, the Explorer has met our needs - it carries the kayaks on the roof, and it carries the valuable goodies inside - so a new Explorer might very well be in our future. But we haven't tried to carry gasoline for the generator in the Explorer yet, and my wife is not going to tolerate any kind of gasoline smell in either the TV or the TM. With my 2002 TM, I fabricated a gas-can carrier for the rear bumper
http://www.trailmanorowners.com/foru...ead.php?t=1378
but that doesn't look qute as easy with the new-fangled bumper.

So I'd love to hear comments on my quandry. Specifically, does a foldable or fabric tonneau cover permit access to the rear stake pockets, even when closed? Does anyone make an offset rack mounting thingie that drops into the stake pocket, but then has a sideways offset at the top of the stake pocket, so that the tonneau can close over the top of the stake-pocket mount?

Thanks for any advice.

Bill

Originally Posted by Bill

This is a great thread! I'm looking for similar advice, as we consider replacing the old faithful Explorer in the next couple years.

I have a friend (we convinced him to buy a 3326, by the way) who tows with a Tundra that has a really nice-looking hard tonneau cover. I love it, and it is the way I would go instantly - except that the tonneau cover prevents access to the stake pockets. We occasionally carry two Old Town kayaks, and they are long and wide. With a pickup, I think we would need to install at least the rear half of a rack system into the rear stake pockets, so that's a problem.

I would like some sort of lockable tonneau cover, because I would like to secure various items from casual theft - Honda generator, Engle cooler, etc. I know that a shell can provide both lockable storage and kayak-carrying - but then I occasionally need to transport something tall, so I would have to rent a utility trailer for that.

http://www.trailmanorowners.com/foru...ead.php?t=1378
but that doesn't look qute as easy with the new-fangled bumper.

So I'd love to hear comments on my quandry. Specifically, does a foldable or fabric tonneau cover permit access to the rear stake pockets, even when closed? Does anyone make an offset rack mounting thingie that drops into the stake pocket, but then has a sideways offset at the top of the stake pocket, so that the tonneau can close over the top of the stake-pocket mount?

Thanks for any advice.

Bill

Bill, this is the reason that we went with the Trac Rac system. If you have regular tonneau cover, then you can't use your stake pockets, or have a lip mounted rack system. Even though the Trac Racs slides mount in the stake pockets, you really don't need them any more since the Trac Racs mount on the slides. You can get a couple of extra accessories for the system also, like hold downs and such. Plus the add on tonneau cover.....that sold it for us. But it is quite expensive. We have about $1600 in ours.....that includes the bed rail slides, Trac Racs, front rack cantilever, looking knobs, extra hold downs, and tonneau cover. Hope it lasts a long time.

Chap

[rtcassel]

Originally Posted by Bluegrass

I don't have a tonneau at the moment but have been looking at the Undercover brand. http://www.undercoverinfo.com It is one piece and made of composite which means I can actually stand on it, and best of all only weighs 58 pounds so it is easy to remove and hang on the garage wall when I want to haul tree trimmings or furniture.

I am very happy with the Undercover. I stand on it to wash the top of the cab. We have never had a moisture problem; we usually carry a box of books back there on trips with no problems. It is difficult to get at stuff up near the cab. The strength comes from molded-in cross bracing that extends into the bed about 2 inches, so you lose some depth except in the small areas between the braces. I wish that my truck bed was deeper so that I could consider getting the Yamaha EF2400i generator; it's deep enough for the EF1000i. It's best to have two people to remove the Undercover.

We tow with a 2000 Tundra. Several years ago we switched from a shell to a solid tonneau, primarily due to visability concerns.

I don't know how deep your truck bed is. The 2000 bed is very shallow and we found that not everything will fit due to height.

We like the visability and security of the tonneau and the ability to access the bed from the side but have to trade that for height. Check the tallest item you plan to stow before you decide.

Originally Posted by rtcassel

I wish that my truck bed was deeper so that I could consider getting the Yamaha EF2400i generator; it's deep enough for the EF1000i. It's best to have two people to remove it.

Thanks for that info, Tim. I'm considering a propane converted EF24001i but haven't decided for sure. Maybe it will fit in the rear of the 3124kb. I'll check that out.

[TREXHUNTERS]

Racks w/tonneau:
The "Trac Rac" bed rack system was the only one I saw when in the market that allowed a tonneau. At the time the tonneau that it paired with was a foldable one made by Peragon. Now, I believe the TracRac guys make their own tonneau to go with the racs. I didn't go with this system at the time because I didn't like the Peragon cover because it seemed to fold down into the bed.

Not sure if there are new ones that will provide access to the pockets. The issue is the mounting rail.

An alternative for carrying kayaks,canoes, with a tonneau is to mount 2 racks on the cab (if you have a double cab) or 1 rack on the cab and 1 on the hitch ala swagman like bike hitch that slides on the WDH shaft. Assuming you're towing your TM. If not there are many hitch options. We went with 2 yakima racks (Q clips with bars) that we use on our double cab. We carry 14' kayaks and a 17' canoe with no problems.

Bed Depth:
Our 05 Tundra bed is 20" deep (to the top of the rail). Depending on how the tonneau is mounted, you need to either subtract or add a little to get your useable bed depth.

[fcatwo]

We've had pickup caps before and didn't like the crawl-in problem so we ordered our Tundra's color-matched fiberglass cap with lockable, top-hinged, full-length windows on each side so we can just reach in to get stuff near the front. The side windows are also very handy with a TM when you've set up without unhitching and the front of the TM is so close to the back of the cap that you can't open it. The opening side windows add about $100.00 each to the cap's cost but I wouldn't own another cap that didn't have at least one side that opened.

We also added "tracks" to the top of the cap that accomodate our Thule car-top rack. Most of the fiberglass caps are pretty sturdy and should easily carry all the kayaks or other stuff you'll want to put up there. Our "SnugTop" cap has bracing (probably plywood) encapsulated within it's roof that is intended for mounting racks. IMO your rack's weight limit would be the limiting factor rather than the cap's.

If you've read this far I may as well add that if I had it to do over I would specify clear glass for the cap windows. The combination of a dark back glass in the truck plus dark front and back glass in the cap significantly reduces vision to the rear on all but the brightest days - not a problem of course if the TM is back there and blocking your view anyway.

I'm a shell guy. We have a Leer cap on the back of our Ford F150 SuperCrew and have no problems with backing or vision. In many ways it's a lot like driving our old Suburban. The cap makes it convienient for us to haul a couple of canoes on top - our whole reason for buying a TM. Our bed is short enough (5.5') that we don't have the trouble reaching things way forward that you might experience with a longer bed. - camp2canoe

P.S. Joseph - I have a caveat with reference to the aluminum cheapie caps. We loaded a garden tiller into the back of a friend's Toyota with a loss leader aluminum cap and had to tilt the handles back to take it fit. When we let go of the handles the tiller popped upright and (you've guessed it) the handles went right through the thin aluminum roof of the cap!

Hey Camp2canoe...

Thanks for sharing the info about the garden tiller. oops LOL. I would much rather have a fiberglass topper color matched to the truck. Had one in the past. Worked well at the time. But times change.... and one does what one can...

Happy Camping!

Originally Posted by camp2canoe

I'm a shell guy. We have a Leer cap on the back of our Ford F150 SuperCrew and have no problems with backing or vision. In many ways it's a lot like driving our old Suburban. The cap makes it convienient for us to haul a couple of canoes on top - our whole reason for buying a TM. Our bed is short enough (5.5') that we don't have the trouble reaching things way forward that you might experience with a longer bed. - camp2canoe . . .

I'm a shell guy also! I just had a Leer 100R bed shell, or cap, mounted on my Dodge Ram 1500 yesterday. I ordered the cap with top-mounted tracks so that I could attach racks to it. The cap's paint matches my pickup's paint very well. It cost me less than what I recall the SnugTop cap for my F-150 cost me over 10 years ago. The Leer cap's door closes more tightly on my truck's bed than did that of the SnugTop also.

The images in my rear view mirror are slightly darker because of the additional glass surfaces added by the cap. My rear-vision camera system, however, allows me to see clearly what's behind. These camera systems may be an excellent complement for all trucks with a bed cap.