Wind???
I once was sitting at a stop light on a very windy day and saw a fiberglass cover let loose from its latch by the tailgate and flip forward. Once it hit the cab of the truck, it cracked in half at the top of the cab and folded over the top of the truck. Not a pretty site. I would go withe the soft covers, just all around nicer cover.
I just joined this site after reading this outlandish claim. I've had two hard fiberglass tonneaus (one ARE and one Century) and need to point out a few things to people before they get a bad taste for hard tonneaus based on what jr37 claimed:
A. Hard tonneaus weigh in the neighborhood of 100 pounds (give or take depending on vendor and length).
B. Hard tonneaus don't lightly open with a finger. If you take the lift assist struts off, hard tonneaus are a pain to lift open. Even with the struts, they take a good initial lift to get it open.
C. Hard tonneaus can't open at a right angle. Even bad struts and arms restrict opening beyond even 45-degrees. Even if you strip a hard tonneau down for paint, the hinge doesn't exceed 45-degrees. There is no way they would stand straight up and then fold beyond the cab.
D. Hard tonneaus don't need the latch. I had a professor at MTU with a latch that froze open years ago on his ARE hard tonneau and he hasn't fixed it as the tonneau remains fully shut with no issues. I drove my truck from Detroit to Traverse City with my ARE tonneau with no latch. I bought it off a wrecked truck and had to get a new latch assembly from the dealer for $40. BTW, I drove highway speed (70-80MPH) all the way home on a very windy day and had no issues. I lived to tell about it right here.
E. Hard tonneaus are strong. I've had people sit and walk on both of my tonneaus with no cracking or any issues. My brother crawled across his through the slider several times when he locked the keys in his truck. Also, I've had plenty of feet of heavy Keweenaw snow on my tonneaus that would make any wind load look very insignificant.
F. Hard tonneaus are tough. I got my ARE hard tonneau off a wrecked truck that hit a power pole at 45+ MPH. The truck was majorly messed up. The tonneau didn't have scratch on it. It stayed on the truck and didn't decapitate the driver or fly through the air and kill innocent bystanders.
G. Hard tonneaus are a quality product. They cost around $1100 new. They aren't chintzy pieces of junk. They are a real quality product that has been carefully designed, tested, and people love them and are willing to pay big bucks for them.
With all of this information, there is NO way that wind alone could possibly fold one of these heavy hard tonneaus beyond 90-degrees over the cab of a truck and crack it in half. I don't want to stir things up here, I just can't believe that someone would claim something like this. I've had two hard tonneaus, my brother has a hard tonneau (ARE), my dad has a hard tonneau (ARE), my buddy has had three hard tonneaus (ARE, Astro, and Leer), his old man has had two hard tonneaus (ARE), his grandpa has a hard tonneau (Jason). None of us has EVER even had one bounce when unlatched. We love them! I got mine first and then everyone followed. They are great! Especially when you find them used for reasonable prices. I got my first ARE off that wrecked truck for $125 (quite a steal!) and had it painted for $360. I'll conclude by saying very plainly that there is no way that a tonneau would fail in the manner that jr37 described.
Back on topic: John, nice ride! That truck is real nice!
