Tonneau Covers and bedliners. What’s right for you?
Tonneau covers come in all shapes and sizes and so too do America's favorite and most commonly added truck bed accessory, the bedliner. The problem is that not all tonneau covers and bedliners seem to be a match made in heaven. So let's consider which bedliner to opt for before buying your tonneau cover. Recognizing that there are a few fundamental basics that most people require when shopping for the perfect bedliner for their pickup truck. The most popular bedliners are drop in bedliners that are made from Polyethylene plastic. They are black and can be picked up at any dealership for somewhere between $130 and $200, depending on how savvy a shopper you are. the fact is that very few features separate the most expensive drop in bedliner from the least expensive. No matter how you might try to persuade me otherwise, a drop in bedliner is simply a piece of plastic, vacuum molded to fit the shape of a pickup truck bed. Most of the drop in bedliners like these will offer no obstruction to being able to install a tonneau cover, except of course if it's an over the rail style of bedliner. To complicate matters, even drop in bedliner companies offer two styles of bedliners. One that fits neatly inside the truck bed and snaps under the side rails and one that is supposed to protect your top edges of your truck rails. The problem is that they really don't do that, but rather actually end up wearing the paint away and warping in the sun. The latter is a terrible idea if you're going to add a tonneau cover to your truck, as most tonneau covers install by way of clamping or attaching to the side rails of your truck bed and when you have an over the rail drop in liner installed, you lose access to the side rails. hence, a messy tonneau installation.
The spray on bedliner is a great choice when it comes to tonneau covers. They work perfectly with any tonneau cover that fits over the rail like a TiltBak, Undercover or ARE tonneau cover. They also work perfectly with any BAK Industries tonneau cover. Sometimes however, when a spray on bedliner is sprayed over the rail it can complicate installations on tonneau covers that a critical to the size of your truck beds inside dimensions. BAk Industries tonneau covers all work great, regardless, because BAK makes accommodation and leaves tolerances to ensure a perfect fit, but tonneau covers like Agricover rolling covers do not and you should be careful not to add bed rail protection if you're considering a tonneau cover like that.
If you install an under the rail bedliner and still need bed rail protection, ProCaps ABS bedcaps are contoured to fit your truck rails very precisely and are always an excellent choice. They will work with almost any tonneau cover and will not flair out when clamped to. ProCaps follow exact contours and will offer you side rail protection from your tonneau wearing on your paint as well.
Another bedliner which I like is the BedRug. Although it looks like carpet, Bed Rug is actually a synthetic plastic which is soft to the knees, well insulated, hard wearing and compliments a tonneau cover very nicely.
Other solutions are rubber bed mats that needless to say are inexpensive and will work with any tonneau cover.
There are a few tailgate protector issues which plague certain tonneau covers. Specifically, one piece tonneau covers like Undercover, Leer, SnugTop, ARE etc., all require that you remove the factory spoiler-type tailgate cap that's found many Chevy and Dodge Trucks.
The good news is that if you're considering buying one of these types of truck bed covers and you have a Chevy or Dodge truck with a spoiler type tailgate cap, BAK Industries makes a great, smooth replace tailgate cap in the way of their ProCaps tailgate caps. These are very accurate fitting, cover any holes that are left after removing the factory piece and are guaranteed for life!
