Hey, guys.
Adam here with americantrucks.com.
Today, we're taking a quick look at and installing the TruShield Lock & Roll Up Tonneau Cover,
available for the '04 to '14 Styleside F-150.
You should be checking this out for your own truck if you're looking to protect your cargo
from all of the weather elements all year round.
Really good for guys located in those wintry weather areas like we are here on the East
Coast.
We see a lot of snow and rain all year round, so this is perfect for keeping the cargo inside
of the truck bed safe, dry, and protected.
Now, the lock and roll up option here, as it says in the title, is a roll-up tonneau
cover.
There's a ton of other options out there in the category such as tri-folds, quad-folds,
smart folds, smart rolls, so on and so forth.
There's just a ton of different styles and designs.
Now, the roll-up option here, of course, just unlatches with a pull of a string, pops the
two latches on each side, and you just roll it all the way back to the back windshield.
It is as easy as that.
This particular tonneau cover has a weather-resistant vinyl top that is a pretty common material
amongst the options in the market and this one here is one of the more affordable options
in the category.
Now, because it's one of the more affordable options, it's not gonna have all the bells
and whistles that a premium option would have.
It is gonna be a little bit more involved for the installation, but still, it's not
terribly hard.
Some of the other options out there will just drop right on and latch.
This one, you're actually installing one bed rail onto each side.
There are three clamps for each side and you're individually installing the support beams
otherwise known as crossbows across the inside of your bed.
Now, some of the other tonneau covers out there do have those preinstalled to the back
side or the inside of the vinyl itself.
This is gonna be a separate piece.
So, when you unroll your tonneau cover and you're trying to access your bed or if you're
trying to put something larger into the bed, you're gonna have to remove those slots.
With that said, it is just as weather-resistant here.
It might not hold as much weight on top, so if you are located in an area like we are
here that can get a couple feet of snow, you might wanna tuck this away or roll it up before
that snow hits.
With all that said, just about 200 bucks for this particular tonneau cover so that is to
be expected with a more affordable price tag.
That install is gonna get one out of three wrenches on our difficulty meter here.
The only tool you'll need is the Allen key provided in the kit for you.
I do end up using my own hex socket on an impact gun, but they do provide all the hardware
for you.
You don't have or worry about picking up anything extra.
From start to finish, I would say about an hour to get this thing installed.
And again, I'm gonna show you guys every step of the way, so let's get to it.
Tools used for this install were an impact gun and a 3/16 socket or the Allen key provided
in the kit.
First step of the install here we're gonna drop down our tailgate, nice and easy.
We're gonna take our left side bed rail and set it into place.
This is gonna go all the way back.
Now, the bed cap you have here, you wanna line this up with the end of that.
Put it right about in the middle of that, touching the end toward the tailgate.
With that, we're gonna get all three of our clamps and start tightening those down along
the inside of the bed.
Now, setting up these clamps, you wanna remove that hex bolt from the inside of that clamp,
that will give you the most amount of adjustment.
Separate these.
The bottom portion is gonna go under the inside of the bed rail and the upper portion has
a little lip that's gonna sit inside of this bed rail bar.
We'll connect just like this.
And you're gonna wanna put that bolt right back through.
[inaudible 00:03:30] it down through the top, tighten it up by hand, then grab the Allen
key provided in the kit or if you have the appropriate Allen or hex socket which is what
I'm gonna be using, you can tighten this down with a ratchet or impact gun.
Perfect.
Now, we have two more to do on this side and then we'll repeat for the other one.
I'm gonna put one right in the middle.
Now, you can see those indents on the bed rails.
You don't wanna clamp on the indent.
You're gonna need that for the support brace.
So, for the middle, I'm gonna put this just to the right of it.
All right.
Now we're doing the same thing on the other side.
All right.
So, at this point, you wanna put your tonneau cover on the back of the bed rails or the
front of the bed rails rather, toward the back windshield.
Now, as you can see, you wanna have it oriented properly so that this thumbscrew is facing
down at those bed rails.
This little section right here is gonna slide into this open slot on the bed rail.
Now, it's a tight fit.
It might take a little bit of finesse, but you can get it to pop in there.
Once you have that snapped into place, put the thumbscrew back in, and tighten it all
the way down.
All right.
Now, repeat for the other side.
Next up is our crossbow rails.
Now, there's three of them.
These are gonna be support beams.
You can see that there's indents in those side rails that I was mentioning earlier.
You wanna put them into place into that indent on one side.
On the opposite side, it is a little too long, so you have to come wide and slide it in.
Do this for all three.
It's extremely simple.
So again, if we're starting on this side, put this into place, go a little wide, slide
it in.
I kind of trapped myself so I'm gonna hop over.
Next one.
Perfect.
Now, we're gonna unroll our tonneau cover all the way to get it to line up properly.
All right.
Now, we've got this unsnapped.
This secures it back, so you wanna release those latches.
And as you start to unroll it, on the edges here, there's just a little plastic almost
looks like a weatherstripping, you just wanna pop that over top of the bed rail as you feed
it down.
Once you get far enough, as you start unrolling it, it will automatically feed into that slot.
So, we're gonna do the same thing on the other side and then continue to unroll it.
Once you have the weatherstripping on both sides, all the way tucked in, to latch it,
you just push down on each end and click.
To release it, there's a rope right in the middle, pull it and it pops the latch back
up.
You can roll it all the way back to the windshield, secure it, and then you'll be able to drive.
But if you want it latched, just push down, repeat for the other side, and you're good
to go.
That's gonna wrap up my quick review and install of the TruShield Lock & Roll Up tonneau cover
for the '04 to '14 Styleside F-150 and you can get yours right here at americantrucks.com.
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