Truck Aero, Bed cover DIY tonneau?

[Daniel]

I used some decking sealer to help with water protection. But because the sealer sinks into the wood it made some of the paint come off.

You could probably get by with 1/4 to 1/2 inch plywood if you support it. The furring strips are cheap $1 per 8' board, for supports & they are light. My cover can support my weight (180 lbs) but that is laying down. I don't think I would want to risk standing on it.

You just need a strong support toward the cab & sturdy henge's there. Make sure you reinforce the plywood where the henge are.

I am most likely going to cover it with a Sunbrella canvas material. I can pick up enough to do the job on Ebay for under $20. Will go with red or black.

I am also looking into some sort of hood lift / strut to make the half closer to the cab easier to open.

[makindue]

Originally Posted by Daniel

I used some decking sealer to help with water protection. But because the sealer sinks into the wood it made some of the paint come off.

You could probably get by with 1/4 to 1/2 inch plywood if you support it. The furring strips are cheap $1 per 8' board, for supports & they are light. My cover can support my weight (180 lbs) but that is laying down. I don't think I would want to risk standing on it.

You just need a strong support toward the cab & sturdy henge's there. Make sure you reinforce the plywood where the henge are.

I am most likely going to cover it with a Sunbrella canvas material. I can pick up enough to do the job on Ebay for under $20. Will go with red or black.

I am also looking into some sort of hood lift / strut to make the half closer to the cab easier to open.

I suggest it is goo to look at red one.

[knickick]

Originally Posted by ac7ss

I have a cheap version of this cover. (2 pieces of 1/2 inch plywood, hinged in the front with a special bolt to hold them down.) Did you ever do an ABA test with the cover? I thought from the first part of the post that you were going to make it arched in the front.

I will post some pics of the "poor man's hard tonneau cover" in a few days. (Total cost: $30 more or less.)

You will see the modified bolts that I used. A piece of angle iron welded to a nut, allows for blind fastening, very secure. The leading edge is held down with a bungie cord stretched across the bed hooked over the J hooks in one of the detail shots. Place the un-anchored end to the front! I originaly tried to do it to the rear, but every time I used the brakes I had to climb under it to get whatever was in the back.

Still working on uploading the photos...

I will wait for the photos that you will post. I need some observation to it.

[ac7ss]

Glad I stumbled on this again. I never did get the photos, I sold the truck and recycled the cover.

The cover has a ~2' section in the front that is secured with bungee cords underneath. This was hinged to a bolt down 4' section. The entire thing was sized to fit the outer width and length of the truck bed and sat on top of the rails.

The rear section had 4 holes drilled into it just inboard of the sides of the bed.

Through these I dropped large bolts (1/2 inch by 5 inch).

I welded angle iron to nuts to fit these bolts. nut -> [||]_| <- angle

This allowed me to hook the lip of the bed by touch and not have to reach underneath to do the bolt-down.

I still have the bolts and nuts, I will attempt to photo them in the next couple of days.

PS: I live in the "Pacific NorthWet" and never treated the plywood. More than 2 years in the weather, it's just dark, not even sagging.

[gfunkpimpin]

sicky dude im tryin to make one for my sport trac

Originally Posted by Chris D.

Heres my perposed mockup..

I have also been thinking of making this so it bows upward a bit against the cab..

what do you think of this?
I could still make it hinge in the middle, mite be a fun challenge