Your pickup truck is exposed to a lot of elements and each part can be damaged from the elements. This does not exclude the truck bed and in fact, the truck bed is one of the most vulnerable parts of the truck since its surface is made of a weaker material. For that matter, having a tonneau cover on your truck is an invaluable addition to the functionality of the truck. It protects the truck bed and its contents from the harsh elements, preventing damage and making sure everything stays safe. Buying the tonneau cover takes time – not in ordering, but deciding on which type of tonneau cover to get. So here are some tips for you in buying and installing your tonneau cover:

First, you must decide which tonneau cover to get – there are actually several types you can choose from starting from the basic roll-up soft tonneau covers up to the automatic ones. The most affordable types of covers are the soft types – starting from $200 up to $600 depending on the sub-type. If you’re willing to invest more, you can choose hard tonneau covers which typically cost around $500 to $2000. The soft tonneau covers are generally preferred because they’re more economical and versatile while the hard tonneau covers are more durable and can do more in terms of protection.

There are also a number of sub-types on the soft and hard tonneau covers: soft tonneau covers could be the rolling type, the folding types, snap or Velcro  and much more. Hard bed covers have a wider selection starting from the folding types, retractable, hinge, tool box, fiberglass and much more.

A quick look at these: folding covers could be folded on top of themselves allowing full or partial access to the cover, retractable covers can be retracted up to a canister behind the cab, tool box has a separate compartment for tools, fiberglass is simply one of the most durable cover and the hinge type has a hinge to hold itself up on any of the corners.

Installation isn’t too hard and will generally take less than 2 hours – soft covers may only take minutes and even hard covers will require no mechanical experience to install. Truck bed covers almost always come with instructional manuals to help you through the installation. Once you have your tonneau cover installed, take it for a spin and you’ll see how convenient it is to have a tonneau cover on the truck bed.