Best Hard Tonneau Cover

Most of the point of a tonneau cover, and even more of the point of getting a hard one, is the protection they offer from the elements and the weather.

Where soft tonneau covers are the equivalent of a tent on the back of your pick-up, a hard tonneau cover is equivalent to a small cabin.

That means any hard tonneau cover is likely to be better when it comes to weather protection than a softer equivalent. The Gator Recoil Retractable Truck Bed Tonneau Cover has that quality in spades.

Designed to be especially hard-wearing in all types of weather, the retractable design of the Gator Recoil means it’s also especially convenient, strong, resilient and durable.

Where the Gator Recoil bucks the trend is in its lightness.

Here’s the thing. Hard tonneau covers are generally less favored in America because hardness tends to equate to heaviness. If you’re going to make the tonneau cover particularly durable and weatherproof on top of that, you more or less expect it to weigh almost as much as the truck bed itself.

The Gator Recoil has no…erm…truck with that idea. Yes, it’s rugged, yes, it’s durable, and yes, by being retractable rather than folding, it refuses to be diminished between uses.

But it’s a big piece of aluminum, which means it combines hard-working strength with an extraordinary lightness for a piece of metal. Hard, light, and extremely protective is a combination that makes for a great hard tonneau cover.

Add an easy fit to this equation – it famously takes only 30 minutes to go from box to truck bed with no drilling required – and you begin to see why the Gator Recoil is a favorite among hard tonneau cover fans.

It doesn’t stop there. You can precisely lock off the Gator Recoil at various points along the truck bed rail.

What does that mean? It means you needn’t cover the whole truck bed, leaving smaller cargos to rattle around and potentially get damaged. You can lock off the Gator Recoil closer to them, and minimize the likelihood of harm.

The Gator Recoil is a quick and easy tonneau to fit, but obviously, be sure you fit it exactly, otherwise you’ll limit the effectiveness of its weatherproofing. And likewise, the idea of it is to keep things underneath it – if you stack up cargo on top of it, the strength of a thin piece of aluminum will be severely tested.

But for its strength, its lightness, the cleverness of its multiple lock-off points, its protection from the elements, and the two-year guarantee that backs it, the Gator Recoil does more than enough to earn its top spot on our list.

Let’s jump from a retractable to a folding tonneau cover with barely a blink. BAK has a strong reputation in the industry and two entries on our list.

The G2 Hard Folding Truck bed Tonneau Cover is made up of a series of aluminum panels for that metal’s trademark combination of strength and lightness, so you’re not hauling heavy metal when you try to use it.

In fact, it adds a certain puppydog eagerness and obedience to its operation – you can work it from either side of the truck bed with a set of quick-release cables.

Added to that, a combination of those aluminum panels and an automatic latching system make the G2 one of the easiest tonneau covers to work with.

You have to choose the model you use, based on the age and model of your truck, and make sure you get the right length of tonneau cover, as G2 gives you a handful to choose from.

But choose the right model and the G2 comes into its own, with an optional utility storage box. Easily fitted inside your truck’s bed rails, it will keep your cargo safe from all kinds of weather – including harsh sun.

The cover has been treated to resist the harmful effects of UV radiation, so it comes into its own in the sunshine states. But should you venture into areas of pestilential rain, the panels are also connected by EPDM rubber seals.

Rain or shine, the G2 will be trying its best to keep your cargo safe and protected. If you load up on top of it, do it carefully and you can safely put around 300 pounds of weight on top before the G2 starts to feel the strain.

Somewhat heavier than the Gator Recoil at 35 pounds, it uses that strength to give you top loading options.

The flexibility of the G2 means you can easily fold it for access to the whole of your truck bed, then re-fold to keep your cargo safe.

It’s also easy to remove altogether if and when you feel the need. Remove two wing nuts and bam! The G2 can be gone until you need it again. BAK’s position in the market is brought to the fore by the fact that you get a 3-year warranty with the G2.

If it has a weakness, it’s that the connecting and operating systems that make it your truck’s best friend are prone to rust, meaning for instance that the automatic release cables can stop working before that first three years are up.

But overall, the combination of strength, lightness, ease of access and those quick-release options make the G2 a highly attractive option for the right truck.

The BAKFlip MX4 features a lot of elements that will be familiar from the BAKFlip G2, but comes in a tri-fold option.

As with the G2, you have to choose the right model and the appropriate length of truck bed, because the MX4 is available to cover a wide range of trucks.

But if you get this choice right, you access the combination of aluminum for lightness and strength rubber seals and hardcore weatherproofing that are a hallmark of the brand.

The load bearing gets a boost here though – carefully distributed, the MX4 will take 400 pounds on top.

As with the G2, you can also get full access to the truck bed while keeping your cargo safe. In all weathers.

The pleasure of which is if there’s ever a need to drive with the tonneau cover halfway folded, the MX4 asks no questions, but lets you do that without any difficulty.

And again, similarly to the G2, it’s rarely the cover itself that becomes an issue over time for the MX4.

The subsystems and automatic quick-release systems though can be prone to rusting, and can give your MX4 less of a lifetime than it would otherwise have.

As you might expect though, the warranty of the G2 gets an upgrade here. For the MX4, BAK offers a 5-year hassle-free warranty, meaning you’re pretty much guaranteed to get at least 5 years of solid coverage from your MX4 tonneau cover.

Undercover has been making waves and headlines recently with its patented X-effect design, and it also brings advanced polymers to the party for impressive strength and durability with little of the heaviness and cost of fiberglass alternatives.

As with some of the other tonneau covers on our list, the Undercover…erm…cover is easy to install, boasting a fitting time of under 30 minutes with zero drilling.

And once it’s on, it has quick-release mechanisms to help you take it off again in under a minute.

The first tonneau cover on our list to shun the might of aluminum, the Undercover is made of acrylonitrile butadiene styrene (ABS) polymers – you’re glad you asked, aren’t you? – bringing hardcore chemistry to the service of truck drivers.

Treated with an anti-scratch coating, it brings multi-point sealing, stainless steel locks and an over-the-tailgate fit to your truck.

The result? An easy-fit, strong, durable tonneau cover that’s quick to remove as necessary and gives you the access you need to your truck bed.

One extra handy feature on the Undercover model is LED lighting, letting you see all the way along the truck bed in the dark without draining power from your battery.

All this is backed by a 5-year warranty, so as with the BAK models, you should be able to truck on down the road hassle-free with the Undercover tonneau cover on back, without any worries over rusting or replacement.

Another warrior for the cause of advanced polymers, the Extang 2.0 features many – though not all – of the elements you’ve come to expect from the best hard tonneau covers. Let’s take a run-down.

Easy-fit? Check.

It arrives fully constructed, so all you have to do is click, snap, do a little wrench work, and leave your drill to get lonely. Half an hour is more than enough time to cover your truck bed in the Extang 2.0.

Weather-resistance? Yep, it comes pre-treated against rain, dents and particularly heat.

In fact, it makes a play for truck drivers in hot states by claiming to remain cool even in the blazing heat. That’s a feature that could well be of interest, especially if you’re running perishable cargos in the back.

A straightforward tri-fold design means the Extang 2.0 gives you access to your truck bed whenever you need it.

Automatic quick-release? Hmm…not quite. There are easy-access clamps, but less of an automatic, truck-of-the-future vibe about the process, which is one of the reasons the Extang sinks to the bottom of our list of the best tonneau covers.

It’s heavier than many of the other covers on our list too, weighing in at a not-insubstantial 54 pounds.

And where the likes of BAK and Undercover include long warranties as standard when you buy their tonneau covers, Extang advises you that a warranty is available from its customer services department, but doesn’t include one as part of the purchase price.

The Extang 2.0 then is a highly effective hard tonneau cover, and it certainly has a good number of happy pick-up driving fans. But compared to some of the others on our list, it falls down in a couple of important areas.