Pickup trucks are one of the most popular vehicles, mainly due to their functionality and versatility. Unlike other cars, a truck has a truck bed at the back where you can place different kinds of items and transport them. As a matter of fact, many truck owners love to personalize and cover their truck beds, using tonneau covers. If you’re a truck owner, it’s one of the best truck accessories you should consider.
For you to understand better what is a tonneau cover, we’ll discuss everything you need to know. This includes its description, why it’s called as such, the different types of cover you can get, and the purposes they serve. With this, you can get all the information you need to realize that your truck needs one.
What Is a Tonneau Cover?
A tonneau cover is a flat material installed on the top of a truck bed. It’s a cover that fits over the bed and is designed to secure and protect the items in the bed. It’s a popular accessory and comes in many different kinds, materials, and designs. For instance, they can be either soft or hard and made of steel, vinyl, aluminum, or fiberglass. You can also place it along the sides of the truck box, bulkhead, and tailgate or be top mounted.
Why Is It Called a “Tonneau” Cover?
A tonneau cover is also called a truck bed cover, a box cover, and a pickup bed cover. Its “tonneau” name is a French word that means “barrel” or “cask” and can be traced back to the early 20th century.
Back then, cars usually had open and round back compartments, those with passenger seats, like a barrel. This is where the nickname “tonneau” came from. Early car manufacturers would include tonneau covers to protect the seats when not being used. Later on, racers used tonneau covers to reduce drag and increase the speed of their cars.
Although car designs have changed and improved over the years, tonneau covers are used in pickup trucks for the same reasons and more.
Different Types of Tonneau Covers
There are many types of tonneau covers you can find in the market, which makes it pretty overwhelming when choosing one. First of all, tonneau covers can be divided into two main categories, based on their material:
- Soft Covers: These are commonly made with vinyl materials and are flexible, light, and usually less expensive. Although they’re extremely popular in the market, they tend to be less secure than hardcovers.
- Hard Covers: These are made of harder or tougher materials like steel, hard plastic, aluminum, or fiberglass. They provide great security but are heavier and more expensive than soft covers.
Within these two categories, there are many different types of tonneau covers:
Retractable Tonneau Cover
This is a cover that retracts toward the back of the truck, on itself. It opens and closes easily, usually with just a click of a button. You can also leave it open at various positions or opening sizes.
Retractable tonneau covers are usually made of aluminum or fiberglass, making them durable enough to provide good security on the items on the truck bed. They provide excellent water resistance since they have rails that are designed to funnel the water out of the truck so the bed and cargo are kept dry.
Although they’re not 100% waterproof, they have good quality and strength, making them quite expensive.
Roll-Up/Rollable Tonneau Cover
Roll-up covers are the most popular type of tonneau covers and work like a mat. They roll up into a tube in front of the bed, which makes them easy to tidy up and store when not in use. They’re easy to open so they’re a good choice for truck owners who need constant and easy access to their truck beds and the cargo.
Although they’re less expensive, especially the soft roll-up ones, they don’t provide the same security and weather protection as the other types.
Folding/Foldable Tonneau Cover
This is a cover type that’s designed to fold into sections, usually up to 3 or 4, hence the name. One foldable tonneau cover can cover the whole truck bed or one section at a time. This is extremely advantageous if you only want to access part of the bed without removing the entire cover.
One-Piece Solid Tonneau Cover
This is probably the best type of cover that can keep the most water out of the truck bed. A one-piece cover is made from one single piece of material, which can be either fiberglass or ABS plastic. It’s like a trunk lid so it offers great sealed, protected coverage.
It’s supported on hinges and has a single pivot at the bulkhead, which makes it easy to open it. This design gives it a sleek and smooth appearance, enhancing the overall appearance of the truck.
Snap-On Tonneau Cover
This cover snaps onto the truck bud using clamps that are attached to the bed or the frame. It can cover the whole bed and allows you to easily access any part of it just by unclamping just that part. It’s very easy and straightforward to use and is probably the cheapest choice among all cover types.
Snap-on covers are usually made from durable vinyl and come with frames that are installed along the edges of the truck bed. You’ll just have to snap the cover onto the frame to create a barrier between your cargo and the elements.
Uses of Tonneau Covers
Here are the specific uses tonneau covers serve:
Protection
Tonneau covers securely protect the truck bed and the contents from elements, like rain, snow, dirt, and more. This is extremely important when you need to carry and transport valuable items that you can’t risk getting damaged.
Additionally, with a cover, it would be harder or impossible for other people to access your truck bed without your permission. This keeps your items safe from thieves.
Appearance
A tonneau cover also improves the overall appearance of the truck. Since it’s usually made of materials that look sleek, the truck would look more streamlined and polished. You can even paint it to match your truck’s body.
Fuel Efficiency
Tonneau covers improve the aerodynamics of trucks. With an improved aerodynamic profile, there’s a reduction in drag, which in turn improves the overall fuel efficiency. Although the difference is minimal, it’s still a contributing factor to consider getting a tonneau cover.
Conclusion
A tonneau cover is an extremely beneficial accessory for your truck. With all the information we discussed above, we hope we helped you understand what is a tonneau cover. If you usually have cargo to transport, it’s best to get one for your truck bed.
If you’d like to canvass some products, you can check out our collection with a wide variety of tonneau covers like rollable and folding covers. We offer high-quality products and services!