temp tonneau cover idea for winter

[gone9]

I am fairly new to ecomodding but since purchasing my semi soft tri fold tonneau cover it has already paid itself off with the fuel savings. My dilemma is winter. The kind I bought is three folding frame with a leathery type cover. It will not hold the snow. The joints are plastic . I was thinking of this for a temp winter tonneau because: keeps bed clear, even with snow it will probably help a little on highway portions, cheap and easy.

I was thinking plywood with like coroplast stapled to it to cover the topside. I already have 1 holt drilled on each corner of top bed rail from previous owners camper shell. They sell 4x8 sheets cheap close to me. I could paint/caulk the outside edges or even try to fold over the edges to reduce plywood exposure?

probably 40$ worth of material that is available on the way home from work and I have various 2x4 I could just throw two in the center for extra support.

Am I thinking to much into this?

I can't stomach the cost of the one piece bed covers yet and the foldable one is nice for the 5th wheel.


*I am working on finding another front bumper to copy big daves air dam since my bumper is 4 bolts. So I can remove in winter and run in summer.
I can't do much else because of the trucks utility purposes with the trailer, camping, etc but the tonneau cover alone has netted me 1-1.5 consistently on road trips.

[kach22i]

Do you have any kind of a frame that runs the width of the bed?

Here was my project:
https://ecomodder.com/forum/showthre...ast-24019.html

I leave it off most of the summer because I put bicycles in the back on weekends.

Has lasted the past 5-6 years now and still holding up to the winter.

I put it back on just a couple of days ago, a little faded, a little rust on some of the screws but otherwise good to go.

[gone9]

I like that a lot. I could just get like 4 pieces of angle iron and put a notch on each end to sit on top of the bed rails. Where did you get your coroplast? Home Depot only has white sheets. Online from what I have found is $$ understandably. Unless you can paint that type of plastic?

get any snow in the area? I don't know the strength of corplast supporting 3ft of snow if I have maybe 4 cross bars across a 6.5ft bed.

[mpg_numbers_guy]

Originally Posted by justinooo9

Where did you get your coroplast? Home Depot only has white sheets.

Rustoleum spray paint on Home Depot white coroplast holds up well. I've used it for several months on my Civic and the paint has held up fine to dirt roads and all kinds of weather.

[kach22i]

Originally Posted by justinooo9

Where did you get your coroplast?

Try a local sign maker or plastic supply store.

My local printing shop also does some lawn and window signs, they had it in stock. I have a long term relationship with them as I'm their architect, they wanted $35-$50 for the 4'x8' sheet but gave me the employee discount and it was $25-$30 if I recall correctly. I still think it was overpriced, but you always pay more for less weight, and it does not weigh anything to speak of.

I would gladly pay double for the aluminum skinned plastic/coroplast sign material as I imagine it would look better, last longer and hold a screw better.

There are several waves and buckling in my coroplast that if it were a nicer truck would annoy me.

I'd imagine that aluminum skinned sign material would need fewer spars below it as well. If you are making your own spars this could be a cost consideration.

If you use plywood, get exterior grade. Add in the cost and time for paint plus installment difficulty because of weight. Not so attractive anymore and my plastic cover has never given me a splinter.

[kach22i]

Originally Posted by mpg_numbers_guy

Rustoleum spray paint on Home Depot white coroplast holds up well. I've used it for several months on my Civic and the paint has held up fine to dirt roads and all kinds of weather.

I'd lean towards some sort of vinyl self-adhesive film covering.

Just get it in the color you want, much easier.

Black goes with everything.

EDIT:

You can epoxy resin coat/paint rigid insulation (extruded polystyrene), be it inches thick or even thin Fan-Fold insulation. No need to use fiberglass cloth if you get the mix right and if you like taking risks or experimenting. It may crack on you, then you have zero strength, just like that - no shell.

Downside, that much epoxy resin/hardener and graphite power additive to make it glossy black is not cheap.

[freebeard]

Polymetal? It's expensive (tiered pricing) but it's prefinished. Stiff as 5/8" plywood. You could brake it on the diagonals to make a shallow pyramid to shed water.

[kach22i]

Originally Posted by freebeard

Polymetal? It's expensive (tiered pricing) but it's prefinished. Stiff as 5/8" plywood. You could brake it on the diagonals to make a shallow pyramid to shed water.

What happens to all the old signs, don't they get recycled?

Try a recycler or dumpster outside of a sign shop.

To cover my hovercraft and trailer I use old vinyl coated fabric sign banners, some so large I have to fold them in half. Between my wife and myself we always seem to know someone in the business. I've used them to cover my flat garage roof too, great quality compared to Harbor Freight, they last years and years.

Just an example of using quality used material in lieu of buying stuff at a store.

The big sheets of acrylic I've used on my rear truck spoiler, roof wing and hovercraft came from the side of a building. I asked the owner if I could clear his side yard out and have it, and he said yes.

NOTE: Do not steal anything, ask first.

One of the townships near me goes around taking all the building contractors and architects lawn signs as they are against the ordinance and require permits. They have a warehouse full of them, the owners can come in and claim them before they are disposed of. Almost nobody takes the time to collect their signs - free stuff they don't ask for ID, just one less thing for them to move later.

[Hersbird]

I'd be surprised if your current cover couldn't hold quite a bit of snow. I have a 15' diameter above ground Walmart pool I left the cover on accidently during out first snowfall. The pool is drained and I was trying to keep leaves out. 4-5" of really wet heavy snow that was backbreaking to shovel piled up on top of it and sagged it but the flimsy blue plastic held all that weight not even collapsing down inside. I wouldn't let 2 feet pile up (although it is cool to leave light fluffy snow on there and see how it forms it's own aero cap) but brushing it off after each snowfall will probably hold up fine.