Truck Covers USA retractable cover — matte finish?

I think I have narrowed it down to the American Roll Cover. But I can’t seem to find a good comparison between the regular finish (which I guess is gloss?) and the matte finish.

If you’ve got one, can you post some pics of it? How do you like it by the way? Every carry gear on top?

Thanks in advance

 

I have a Pace Edwards cover with a matte finish. I went with this because of the matte - if TCUSA had a matte option I probably would have gone with that.

Another reason for the PE cover was the built in Yakima tracks. I do not carry anything directly on the cover - I have crossbars that I can mount bike racks and a basket to.

 

Love mine. Unfortunately truck is pretty dirty and don’t have any photos of the cover clean (plus mine is old). @RainMan_PNW has a new one and might be able to snap a few photos for you. Haven’t carried gear on top but have walked on my cover plenty of times without issues. So that’s 215lbs spread across my footprint. It’ll sag a bit but that’s about it. I installed the optional rails myself and have Yakima towers so can mount a bunch of stuff on top. Toolbox is nice to have and I like not having to open the cover to grab stuff. Just bought a mill the other day so I can fab up a couple pieces to finish up the overhead rack of my Thule tracone. The possibilities with this cover are endless if you have the time and resources. I’d buy one again no questions asked.

 

I like your setup. TCUSA does have a matte finish option for the CrewMax Tundra. It’s the CR402MT. There just isn’t a clear pic of the difference between the two finishes on their website. I like that it is rated for 500lbs.

I’ll probably just go with the matte finish anyway.

 

How long have you had it? Do you strap stuff to it? Has it held up well?

 

I had my first TCUSA cover on my 2008 DC for ~280k of the ~297k miles on it when I traded it in. They didn’t offer the matte back then, and I had one of the very first ones they sold with the Yakima rails installed. So it was a no brainer for me to put one on my new truck.

You can hit my build thread for some photos during install. I’m away from my truck until later Monday if you want any other specific photos. As for comparison of gloss to matte - my new matte one looks a lot like my gloss one did after several years of use and abuse. Which is to say it just doesn’t have the “sheen” that the gloss one had new.

I don’t strap stuff to the cover itself, but plenty of times I’ve used the back edge of the cover to lock things against the tailgate. I have the Yakima rails on my new one, but went with the Rhino rack cross bars because I prefer how their tower mounts to the rail “landing pads” over the Yakima towers (which I always had problems with).

 

I did check out your build thread. Lots of great stuff in there! Question for you: where did you get the bed rails relocate brackets? I emailed TCUSA, and they said they don't have such a thing but to contact the dealer nearest to me about it. Did the brackets to relocate your bed rails not come with the American Roll Cover?

 

Not sure about the TCUSA but my Pace Edwards did not have drop brackets either. I used the ones that BAK sells and they work fine. All they do is drop the bedrail down and then the cover is attached with clamps to the lip of the bed.
https://bakindustries.com/bakflip-cargo-management-rail-relocation-brackets/2015/toyota/tundra

After about a year of using these brackets I removed them and moved the bedrail back up so it was attached to the sides. This was a lot stronger (the extension brackets would flex a lot when I tied things down). By moving the bedrail back up I was able to attach the cover to the bedrail and this also felt more secure. The only downside was that I could not use the cleats that come with the bedrails. My solution was to add some D rings to the track and this set up works a lot better for me.

 

Thanks!

So the bed rails don’t have to move if you get some D-rings? I like that option!

 

Correct. I like the D rings better. The cleats were ok but it was tough to get them tightened down enough.

 

Did you talk to Kim? That’s who I’ve dealt with (though they don’t sell direct - you still have to actually buy through a dealer). My bed rail relocation brackets came from TCUSA and had their past number on them.

that said, they are a pretty simple set of powder-coated flat aluminum. And yes, if you wrench on them, they flex. I don’t really pull on them much since I put d-rings on the floor of my bed - i use those mostly

as for leaving them in the original location, that won’t work with the TCUSA cover. They don’t offer a clamp setup that would anchor the cover to the bed rails and the stock clamps i don’t think would correctly line up. That, and the track “gutter” i don’t think would clear any accessories either.

I’ll try to add a picture later.

 

Pardon the dirty truck (I might wash it next week, but more rain in the forecast), but the matte is a good match to the bed rail plastic


This shows the clamp relative to the rail/gutter of the cover and the relocated track rail. The “normal” position of the track rail is right where the clamp is.

 

I love the matte finish. If TCUSA offered that when I got my cover I would have gotten that. I think that the quality of the TCUSA is better than everything else that I have seen. I also recall that the TCUSA also had the smallest canister and it was the only one on the market that was metal (hopefully they didn't change this).

 

Yes. 9” canister with the rear edge cantered even more to give a little more space (volume) in the bed, and still a metal canister as well.