Where do you store the tonneau cover when not using it?

[Gavin Allan]

i have been hauling bulk mulch and topsoil with my '10 limited, and I am interested in what other folks do with their tonneau covers when they are not using them. Currently I have mine folded together and secured with the built-in bungees, and leaning against the wall in the garage, but it is in the way, and I am worried that it will get damaged or the seals will get torn or compression sets, etc. I was thinking of rigging up a hoist or something to hang it from the ceiling to keep it from getting damaged. However I don't see a good way to hook a hoist to it.



Any ideas?

 

[Robert Thomas]

Damn thing is to heavy to move. I store mine on the back of the ST. I already have so much hanging for the ceiling plaster is starting to fall. I can offer no help.

 

[Doctor CAD]

I stack mine up against the garage wall. I figure if someone really wants to steal it, they must be pretty strong to be able to carry it away, and I don't want to mess with them!!!



Mine has been knocked over, kicked, hit with a lawn tractor and covered in sand and dirt and in 10 years has never leaked or look bad. That plastic is tough stuff.

 

[Adrian Hovestad]

Gavin.

Gavin. This is how I do it.

Google " storing bicycle from the ceiling"

You will see a hoisting system with hooks. Replace the hooks with a piece of 1/4 inch thick

by 1 1/2 inch wide flat bar Steel or Aluminum .Drill two holes ,one for hook bolt on one end.

The other 7/16 dia. for the hinge / lock pin of the tonneau cover.

Fold the rear section of the cover first, than retract the lock pins and keep them retracted.

Unlock the front section of the cover, lift it a little and slide it back a couple inches.

Flip the center locking hinged pieces from a down position to a up position .

Unlock the pins from a retracted position to the extended position and slide the flat bar at the end of the rope onto the pins. hoist the cover up for storing.

The spread of the ropes coming from the ceiling should be 49inches or less.Make sure you find wood behind the gyprock ceiling to mount the lagbolts.

Good luck,

Adrian.

 

[Richard L]

Gavin,

What's the harm in just leaving it on the bed? Ya, your hauling around an additional 70 lbs, but if you don't have room to store it, attached to the bed is about as convenient as it get. In the case of the Sport Trac, it seems to get about the same gas mileage whether you have the cover on or off?



...Rich

 

[TRACket Paul]

Use two cheap ratchet straps (Harbor Freight) around the cover, which will give you hooks for the hoist.

 

[EddieS'04]

I have the Truxedo Lo-Pro. I roll it up....

 

[CountyMounty]

I rarely take my off but when I have in the past I would either just lean it up in the garage or if I knew it would be off for a long time I would wrap it up in a tarp and place it behind the garage. My rubber seal is falling off mine in the front now so as soon as I get a chance I will have to take it off (it is so darn heavy) and try to fix it. If I was going to have it off very often I would definitely come up with a way to suspend from my garage ceiling.

 

[Gavin Allan]

Thanks for the ideas. Adrian- thanks for the step by step. I am going to have to walk through it to understand, but it sounds like what I am looking for.

Rich- I don't want to leave it in the bed when I am hauling this stuff. For sure it will get in the way, and I will scratch the hell out of it with a shovel and/or break my back moving it around to get the mulch, dirt, or gravel out from behind it.



Why are these covers so damn heavy??? :fire:



Ford should have done a roll-up hard cover (like a roll top desk) on these things as standard equipment.

 

[Les C]

w/3 Sport Tracs in our family the tonneau cover has only been off my '01 once. However, many times we fold the cover back on the '01 & '05 when hauling something. A tonneau cover gets you out of hauling stuff for other people too sometimes, just saying. Or even out of other people asking to borrow your Sport Trac when they're moving. Oh, by the way we have a custom made 6x10 utility trailer painted [black] to match [2] of our [3] Sport Tracs for serious hauling. And don't get me wrong, when someone asks, I do loan my '01 Sport Trac & trailer under one condition, that I drive it. So they get a truck, trailer & driver in the deal.

 

[Gavin Allan]

Good points, Les. I really need to unload that pile of brush and limbs off the trailer and just use it for hauling!!!

 

[blksn8k]

The hoist sounds like an easier way to remove and re-install the cover but I was wondering the same thing as Rich. If I need to haul something like mulch that fits inside the bed, worst case I might fold the back half forward when I go to load or unload but the cover only gets removed if the load is too high, like my ATV. In that case I just lean it against something in the garage until I'm finished hauling whatever is too tall. In the six years I have owned my Trac I have probably had the cover off about one time each year.

 

[Gavin Allan]

The problem with leaving the cover on is the Bobcat's scoop is much wider than 1/2 of the bed. I don't want mulch dumped all over the half of the cover that is folded back.

 

[Richard L]

One of the things I discovered about storing the tonneau cover is that you can stand it up on it's side, opened to a 90 degree angle and it fits snugly against the walls in the corner of the garage without taking up hardly any space...:grin: :supercool:



...Rich