Installed New Retrax Cover

[dsbhunter]

Last night I installed the new cover. I took my time and read and re-read the instructions. Total time to install about 90 minutes. The cover looks great, operates great, my only issue is how much of the already small bed I gave up.
Don't get me wrong, I knew this in advance and was ok with it.

The only installation hitch I had was with the "L" brackets that bolt on to the front of the bed (by the window). I read in another thread that you must make sure you put the driver side one on the driver side of the front bed and the other on the passenger side of the front bed. My two "L" brackets didn't have any label and they look exactly the same. So I installed them and then attempted to put on the cover.
The holes did not align and then I thought maybe to switch the "L" brackets.
Well I switched the "L" brackets and everything aligned and went in very nicely. So there must be some truth to a driver side one and a passenger side one. Because they aligned very nicely after I switched them.

I will be putting on the tail gate seal and the pop n lock this weekend.

Again, the cover looks great, functions very well. There is a slight noise on the highway at 60 or 65 MPH, but it is really no big deal, or I should say not a deal breaker by any means.

The other cover I considered very hard was the bakflip. I went with the Retrax because the bakflip required you to close the tailgate first then the cover. And it leaned against the back window when fully opened. Not really a huge issues but I needed some reason to rule it out (LOL)

I will let everyone know in about a month or two how I feel about my purchase, as my wife said, for that kind of money, you will like it!!!
You got to love her!!!!

DB

[breakfastchef]

The Retrax is a great cover. You will, inevitably, have an 'oh s$#t' moment when you put an object in the bed that is +16 high and you cannot close the cover. Such is life with tonneaus. Otherwise, it still looks good, performs very well. and the bed is quite secure with a locking mechanism. Hope you enjoy it!

[Truckin']

Yep, we had the Oh s*@# moment the first summer when we went to the Yellowstone area. We'd just bought a new cooler. Not only was it about 2 inches too high to fit under the tonneau, preventing us from taking it with us on our daily outings, it was about an inch too tall to fit inside the campsite bear box. That meant we had no choice but to violate the bear rules of the campground and leave it in our tent trailer.

Other than that, we really haven't had anything that we wanted that I can think of that we couldn't haul in the bed. We still love our Retrax.

I look forward to seeing what you think in a few weeks.

[Tcape]

I installled the Retrax several weeks ago on my '08 RTL. Couldn't be more pleased. It does make some fluttering noise above 45 mph, but that hasn't been an issue for me. And I have found that any items over 16" or so won't fit under the cover. All covers have their drawbacks. To me, the Retrax has fewer than any of them. I've sure enjoyed mine.

FYI....I didn't install the drain tubes. And even when I wash my truck and spray the hose full-force on the Retrax cover, I get VERY little water in the bed. Actually, I get more water in the lock cover than I do in the bed. Outstanding cover...IMHO.

[derek77]

If I had an item that was 15 1/2" tall, is there any part of it that wouldn't fit under the Retrax? Just curious.....

[supersnout]

DON'T DO WHAT I DID!!

My Retrax cover was pre-installed when I bought it, so I know nothing about setup etc..

So this Saturday I was showing off my truck to my family. With the gate down, I pulled the Retrax cover to the Closed position, and stupid me pulled too hard and half the retrax cover came out of it's rails. Holy crap!!

Back in place. Hopefully I didn't break it!