Truxedo Deuce Tonneau Installation on 1997-2003 F150s, Part 2

Part 2. By Jimmy Chambers
(For part 1, click here)

Once these are installed, it’s now time to mount the front cross brace.
Following the directions, you will first put the end brackets on to the cross
brace, but do not tighten. You will do this after you get it mounted to the
side rails and centered up.

 The next step will be to slide
one of the square headed screws into each front side rail and slide them to the
front. Now you can put the front cross brace between them and install the nuts.
Position it as far forward as possible without it hitting the front of the bed.
Once it is straight across, tighten the nuts to secure the brackets to the side
rails. You then center the brace so that there is an even gap on either side,
and then tighten the 4 nuts on the bottom of the rail. The nuts for all of
these require a ½” wrench or socket.

 The next step is to fold back the
front of the hinged rails. You then will lay the rolled up cover onto the rails
and center it up. Using the supplied 4 washers and remaining nuts, bolt it down
to the rails, once again, using the ½” wrench or socket.

It is now time to flip the assembly forward to line up the latching pin
and bracket.

Once you get the pin and bracket to where the latch goes over it and
locks, then all you have to do is reach underneath and tighten the bracket nuts
on the front cross member, again, using the ½” wrench.

All that is left to do now is to flip the front back over and latch it.

Now it’s time to unroll the cover then when you get to the back, pull it
snug and flip the rear brackets into the latches.

You can then close the tailgate and your bed is now covered. To roll up
the cover, you just push up on the lever shown here and it will release the
rear to allow you to roll the cover to the front.

 The cover fits very nice and is
tight. There are several hidden cross braced to eliminate sagging. And if you want to get something out of the
front of the bed, you can just release the front latch on the driver’s side and
fold it back.

 All in all I had it installed in
just under an hour. Just read thru the directions first and you should have no
problems.

In summary, I am very pleased with the product. It fits very well and
appears to be really well built. The roll-up cover has built in cross braces to
keep it from sagging when wet (it rained 2 days after I installed it) and keeps
the cover stretched nicely. I really
like the convenient feature of the hinged opening front section. This way items
in the front of the bed, such as my tool bag, can be easily reached without
having to unroll the whole cover. 

 I have already had several
comments on how nice that the Deuce looks on my truck. Hopefully I will see a
small increase in MPG as well. An added bonus!!

 I would recommend this cover to
anyone in the market for one. It sure makes my truck look better!!

To find out more about the Truxedo Deuce and other Truxedo products please visit their web site at www.truxedo.com.