• Written by Jay Ryan

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Let’s set the scene. It’s Friday night. You and the boys are at Chilis pounding virgin margaritas and going halfsies on a triple dipper. Life is good. You and the fellas wrap up your shenanigans and rumble bumble stumble to the parking lot. The visage of your brand spanking new Chevy Silverado, that you just purchased a week prior at Paris Chevrolet where your Chevy dreams come true, appears across the parking lot. Bathed in the moonlight, you pinch yourself thinking, damn I got the best deal imaginable on this Chevy Silverado, those guys at the Chevy house sure are awesome. You approach closer but something is amiss. What in the wide world of sports?! My taxidermied jackalope has been burgled from the back of my truck, you exclaim in subdued agony. My great great grandfather brought it back from the war overseas! IT’S IRREPLACEABLE! How could I have been such a fool and not have had a bedcover installed by Off-Road King? Curse the gods!

I’ve heard this story a hundred times and it never gets any easier seeing a grown man sobbing in convulsions over something so easy to prevent, the theft of a taxidermied jackalope. It doesn’t have to be this way. 

Fortunately for you there is a local establishment that specializes in truck accessories, including but not limited to the aforementioned bedcover. There are many and more options when it comes time to tackle this situation. We’ll start with the basics. Soft bed cover. Gross. This can be broken into by a bad attitude. It keeps your stuff dryish sometimes maybe. They can come in the folding form or the roll up form. Their longevity is questionable but they will do the job of technically covering your bed. Jay does not recommend this but I’m a dad so I’m used to not being listened to. 

Moving up the ladder if you will, we have the classic hard folding. This can come in three panels or four but that is dependent on the length of your truck bed. My personal favorite over the years has come to be the Undercover Ultraflex from, you guessed it, Undercover. This is a hard cover with carpet on the bottom side of the panels to give it a nice look and cut down on road noise. It keeps the weather out and your stuff secure. Sure, anybody can break into anything but this is going to at least slow them down. It does not have a lock built in but rather uses the tailgate lock which is ubiquitous amongst trucks built today so you’re gucci for security fam. This unit can be folded into a couple configurations so you can still use your truck bed, which is one of the top ten reasons you purchased a truck in the first place. There are tons of this style of cover. Rough Country makes one, Lo Max, Bak Industries, Extang, Pace Edwards, I could go on. But what if you don’t want a folding cover. You’re in luck brother.

Another option is for a retractable bed cover. These come in two basic options, manual or power. The only difference besides price comes down to do you want to press a button to open your cover or would you like to use your arms like a caveman? It’s a question as old as time. Retrax has options for the power or manual constructed in either aluminum or polycarbonate (hard plastic). The poly cover is more resistant to impacts compared to the aluminum because…..metal dents. Like, if you get caught in a hail storm with the aluminum cover it’s gonna look like a fat girl’s thighs got hit with a bag of nickels. This will happen with any aluminum cover but the folding ones are a bit more resistant so keep that in mind. Furthermore, the retractable covers are built with a canister that holds the cover when it is in its retracted position. This equates to losing a little bit of room in your truck bed, usually 10ish inches or so, so keep that in mind as well. 

Then there is the cover we have all seen for years, the single hinge cover. I don’t like these. They’re heavy, they’re expensive, the hinges are stupid sometimes, you have to get them painted to match and it doesn’t always come out right, they’re a pain in the ass to get here undamaged, I could go on. Oh yeah, you can’t carry a washing machine in your truck bed without removing the cover! However, they are pretty damn secure. Most of these are made from fiberglass so good luck getting in there in a hurry if you get the uncontrollable urge to burgle, but some models these days are made from a hard plastic. They typically have a beefy latch/lock system too. Again, nothing is thief proof but this will unmotivate someone from taking your shit. 

So ladies and gentlemen, that is a glimpse at some options to help prevent taxidermied jackalope theft from your truck bed at Chilis on a Friday. Do yourself a favor and save yourself from heartache and the pain associated with the loss of irreplaceable family heirlooms. Come see your boy at Off-Road King and I’ll make sure you get covered! You can’t see me but I’m doing the double pistol thing with my hands. K love you bye.