MedicalPhysicist
Well-known member
I thought I'd take a moment and describe what I ended up with for a tonneau cover and rack ... I'm pretty happy with the result and hope others can benefit from my experience.
Our usage is mainly in towing a teardrop trailer, and the ability to include our tandem bike in our adventures. This past spring we spent more than 3 months and 11,400 miles on the road with our beloved '94 GMC C/K1500 extended cab pickup with a 6'7" bed, camping and riding the tandem at every opportunity. That truck gave us great service over the past 28 years or so. This past summer we replaced the GMC with an XLT Powerboost Supercrew with a 6'7" bed.
I had a Leer topper on the GMC but after looking into current toppers when we bought this truck over the summer we decided to go a different direction. As always there are tradeoffs. In favor of the topper is the idea that our tandem, which is a key usage for us, fit inside the topper out of the weather and somewhat secure with the topper locked. Three major cons to the current generation of toppers were:
- Loss of use of the bed camera and the bed lights that are mounted in the CHMSL housing,
- Cost (boy have these things gone up!)
- Availability and extended lead times - it was looking like it might be upwards of 6 months.
In favor of a tonneau cover and rack arrangement were:
- Improved visibility out the rear window,
- the bed camera and high mounted bed light,
- cost compared to a topper (roughly 1/2 to 2/3s the price)
- relative ease of acquisition and installation.
The major strike against is that the tandem will be exposed to the elements while driving, and somewhat less secure (an "attractive nuisance") when left at e.g. a campground when we go hiking or visiting.
Requirements:
1. Want to carry stuff in the bed, protected from weather, and with reasonable security (lockable).
2. Want to carry a bike on a low rack above the tonneau cover.
3. Prefer that the tonneau cover and tailgate operate independently. This means I'm willing to add yet another key, but for me this isn't a big issue. For some folks it is.
Choosing a tonneau cover:
#1 implied a hard tonneau cover for security reasons, recognizing that no cover is 100% weatherproof. But most of the current offerings have pretty good weather protection.
#2 Meant that roll up or folding covers were out of the question because they are incompatible with a low rack, leaving a retractable cover as the only real choice.
#2 Also implied the need for a T-slot based cover to allow attaching a rack. I know that you can buy T-slot rails for some covers, e.g. Truxedo, but I felt for simplicity and to improve the chances of a good outcome that I should focus on the few manufacturers that offer tonneaus with built-in T-slots. That means Retrax, MountainTop, Pace Edwards, and RHR Slyde.
A strike against the retractable covers, of course, is the space consumed in the bed. My truck has the 6'7" bed, so not as serious a problem as if we had a short bed.
After reading user reviews, I concluded that I did not want a "self-retracting" cover, for two reasons:
1. Greater likelihood of failure, and
2. The hassle of the "dog leash" strap used to close those covers.
The simplicity of a cover that I could simply slide open and slide closed appealed to me.
That left me with the Retrax as the sole remaining choice that fit all my requirements.
I visited a couple of local vendors to check out the small display models and chose the Retrax Pro XR instead of the Retrax One XR because for the difference in price it is a more durable offering. For those watching the budget, the Retrax One XR would also be an excellent choice. After watching a number of installation and product review videos, I was comfortable with my choice. The XR suffix means that it has T-slots integrated into the rails, compared to the MX version, which does not.
Tonneau cover vendor:
In the end, I ordered a Retrax Pro XR from Real Truck. I investigated several vendors and found that all offered the same MSRP (local or mail order), and in general that most offered more-or-less competitive advertised prices. In most/all cases, because of restrictions the manufacturers place on the vendors, you get a better price than advertised by contacting the vendor directly. There are two vendors whoI regret contacting because I cannot seem to get off their email spam list - very annoying. I chose Real Truck because a) the price they offered was quite attractive, and b) reputation for fast delivery and good customer service. The final price was $1715 including shipping. Delivery took about a week, including a few delays on the part of the carrier. Everything arrived in good order in two very large packages, drop shipped from Retrax (I think).
I would order from Real Truck again.
Cover Installation:
No major issues to speak of, although I needed a friend to help me hoist it into the bed, and enlisted my wife to help manage the rails as the thing went in. It fit correctly right out of the chute and did not require any tweaking to make it fit well. Installation was straightforward. The only minor issue I encountered is that the drain tubes in the bottom of the cannister did not "click twice" into place as the instructions said. I intend to have a conversation with Retrax about that. For the time being, I replaced the supplied rubber O-ring with a small cord of butyl tape, similar to what is used to bed marine hardware. But the fitting still doesn't snap into the hole as I expected it would, but for now it is secure.
Rack:
So that's the tonneau cover. Next up was the rack. I focused most of my research on "the big three" - Yakima, Thule, and Rhino. Our requirement was to be able to mount:
- an existing tandem bike rack,
- an existing Yakima Skybox,
- a future Roadshower,
- easily remove the rack when not in use.
It took quite a bit of digging on each vendor's website to figure out what parts are required - all of them require a) four legs, or towers, b) crossbars, and c) some type of fit kit.
Unless you want to mount a rack on the roof of your Mercedes, Subaru, or Toyota, all three vendor websites are miserable to work with ... you are hard pressed to find documentation on which of each of the three components is needed for this application. The info can be found, but it is buried quite deeply. The RHRswag and E-trailer websites both had reasonable explanations of the kit necessary for each. (Personally, I avoid E-trailer at all costs due to a past entirely miserable customer service experience.) By looking closely at the retailers' websites, I discovered that the rack manufacturers supply a packaged kit with everything needed for mounting a rack on T-slots, but you would never ever know that from looking at the manufacturer's websites.
The Choice:
All three require a "foot" that is attached to the T-slot, and into which the leg snaps. Thule was quickly eliminated as a possibility since it requires a tool to remove the rack from the foot. So much for quick and easy removal. Otherwise, all three are very similar in most regards. I chose to go with Rhino Rack because, although I have some Yakima stuff already, I've always been impressed with how spendy it is. The Rhino stuff was about $100 cheaper, and as far as I can tell of similar quality throughout. So Rhino it is.
The components I used were:
- RLT-600 Quick Mount legs
- 71" Vortex cross bars
- RLT600 Fit Kit
- 20mm Leg spacers
Those last were required to create clearance for the "handle" of the Retrax tonneau cover to pass cleanly underneath the crossbars. I discovered this issue via a few online video reviews.
Vendor:
As above, pricing among the several vendors I investigated was extremely close, if not exact. So in the end, I chose to buy from my local Rack Attack store. As it turned out, Rhino sells a kit consisting of the four legs, the fit kit, and four locks, all bundled together. I added the Vortex cross bars, the 20mm spacers, and a "T-slot kit" to be used to attach my tandem rack to the Vortex bars. All up, the price was just shy of $600, not including our existing tandem bike rack or Skybox.
Installation:
Once again, no issues were encountered in assembling the rack, which took about 45 minutes mainly because I took my time to make sure everything was "just so". I am satisfied with the result.
Results:
Everything looks and works very much as advertised. I have not yet mounted the tandem on the rack, but expect no issues doing so since the tandem rack we are using is a known quantity.
If the weather is decent tomorrow I'll snap a few pics. You wouldn't have thought it would take as much research and thought as it did, but as anyone who has explored the topper/tonneau cover/rack marketplace, there are a myriad of choices. As in most things, the key is in having a crisp understanding of your particular requirements and priorities.
That's my story and I'm sticking to it.
How long is your Skybox? I have a Thule motion XT XXL. It's 91.5" long and my '23 has the 67" bed. So my dilemma is, if i get the RetraxPro XR and get low profile crossbars like yours, then the Thule will hang past the truck bed 24-26". Will that look weird or be dangerous? But spending $600 versus $1500 for the yakima overhaul HD, is making me rethink all of this. I'm at a loss lol.
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