Soft or Hard Tonneau Cover???

I have an Extang Soft cover which includes the lift functionality of the Hard Tonneau and the roll back of the soft. I can also lift the whole cover off in about 2 minutes. The lift aspect is great. The cover frame hinges at the front of the bed and is supported by 2 Gas shocks. Lifts just like the one in the picture above. It looks like your typical snap soft top and can be rolled from gate to cab by unsnapping or I can just lift it off from the hinge point. I have had several guys see mine after getting their Hard top and wish that they had seen mine earlier. Not the right option if you are looking for security but to keep the items in the bed dry and have multi-function uses, it's great. Onoly cost me $300 and I installed it my self. Point of note... do not attempt to assemple and install this in the winter. I found this out the hard way.

I have an Undercover hard tonneau and IMO they are the best thing since sliced bread. They are very light( mine weighs just 58lbs for an 05 Extended Cab standard bed ), extremely strong( you can stand on them ), are very affordable( I paid $570 ), lock for security, and are extremely easy on and off( two split rings at the front come off then just unsnap the struts and it lifts right off - 45 seconds with 2 people - 2 minutes alone ). They even come with a nice little LED utility light now. Amazing how bright those 3 little LED's are when it is dark out.

Only a couple drawbacks of sorts. The 1st is you obviously can't just pop it off at Home Depot if you buy something really big. You do need to remove it at home 1st( you can not drive with these covers up - they must be down and locked due to the easy off method they use - just not safe ). The other is they are not ideal for painting if you want a color matched HT for your truck. They can be painted but there is a lot of prep involved plus the surface is textured. That means metallic paint will look splotchy. The flake will pool in the little pockets of the texture. Solid colors are okay. Pretty $$$ to prep and paint an Undercover though. They come as a semi gloss black and the finish really is tough and lasts. Looks great on most colors as is.

I will never use another tonneau on my trucks. Of course I need the security of the locking feature so the soft covers are out. Of all the hard covers out there, short of the extremely expesnive roll to open ones, the Undercover is the most user friendly.

I am actually surprised no one has mentioned Retrax! I have one on my *please don't kill me* 2004 Ranger and my father has one on his '06 F-150 and they are GREAT! It is a sliding hard top cover. You have the durability of a hard top cover (I can stand on mine), with the accessibility of a soft top. It locks and it is 100% waterproof. It can lock at ANY place on the bed, but where the 3 clamp downs are (~2" a piece) and it looks great.

The only con is that it is pricey. ~$1000 but oh man is it worth it. I have had so many compliments about it and tons of people ask where to get them. I ordered mine straight from Retrax and installed myslef, which took only about an hour and since it is clamped down it takes very little work and is almost impossible to screw up.

I just signed a buyers agreement for an 07 Silverado LTZ today and hope to have it NLT Wednesday and that will be the second thing I put on it after the bed-liner. I have a Rhino liner in my current truck truck but haven't decided if I want to go Line-X or not for my new one.

Good luck with finding a tonneau cover you are happy with, but if you can stand to spend the $$$ I HIGHLY reccomend it. I would post a link but I just signed up to the forums and haven't read the rules yet and don't want to violate on my first post! Just google it.