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Tonneau covers and lumber racks

There was a time where a person that needed a lumber rack or ladder rack could only consider a toolbox as a way to lock up their valuables in their trucks and still get to use their all important lumber or ladder rack on their truck. All across the America you'd see plumbers, electricians, handymen and average Joe's driving their pickup trucks with a solid rack on the back and a cross the bed toolbox mounted on top of it. The problem however, is that most of their tools didn't fit in the cross the bed toolbox and the lions share of their bed remained exposed to the elements and worse yet, thieves. So, it made sense for tonneau manufacturers to consider solving this dilemma by producing a tonneau cover that would work in conjunction with a lumber rack.

At first we saw a company called ProRack take the lead on the issue, but they only made racks to work with soft tonneau covers that rolled up. The problem is that soft tonneau covers don't really offer security as they can easily be cut through with a blade. Consider this: Would you be content if your front door was made of thin vinyl? Neither would I! We then saw companies like Pace Edwards take a stab at a solution with their retractable tonneau covers by introducing something called the Explorer rail system.

This solution provided a unique set of rails to be installed with their retractable tonneau covers, but alas, their rack system was extremely expensive, their tonneau's took up half the space of a toolbox in the back of the bed and covered valuable assets of the truck bed such as corner tie downs in the bed as well as stake hole pockets. The rails tended to follow the truck lines and therefore didn't run parallel either, which is a significant problem as well. To be honest, they get an A for effort, but score less in terms of function, design and price.

The ultimate solution would lie in a product that offered total security in the way of a hard locking tonneau cover, seamless integration with a sliding ladder rack or lumber rack, full access to your truck bed when you required it, the ability to remove or add the rack in seconds, full access to assets like stake hole pockets and tie downs, no drill installation and a price that would be kinder to the pocket than if you had to buy an old school rack and toolbox. The solution.........the BakFlip CS.

The BakFlip CS hard folding tonneau cover and ladder rack combination flips, stacks, slides, locks and does pretty much everything but wash the dishes. It's truly the ultimate solution for anyone that needs a ladder rack and the security provided by a solid tonneau cover.

BAK Industries also produces a retractable tonneau covers that works extremely well with stake pocket mount ladder racks. One of the best selling racks on the market is the Trac Rac.
This particular lumber rack is favored by contarctors around the world for its sturdy nature and sleek looks. Companies like DeWalt as well as other OEM's use this ladder rack system because it's regarded by many as the best. So, BAK Industries decided to make their RollBak all aluminum, heavy duty retractable tonneau cover work seamlessly with the TracRac. The way we did it was to ensure that the RollBak lay flush inside the bed so that it didn't interfere with the TracRac, as well as ensuring that it allowed full access to stake pockets. The idea worked and RollBak retractable tonneau covers have now become the choice retractable tonneau cover for TracRac users everywhere.