I'll be picking up a 250 short bed shortly, having come from an SUV (Navigator). So, what's the B's and E's when it comes to this option?

 

Have one now after not having one for 4 yrs and don't know what took me so long. Nice to store things for trip home that won't get wet or lifted when your in another store or leave treestands in cap while quading!

 

There are a number of threads on this - I don't think there is a 'bad one' (as far as the hard shell or roll-up varieties). How much do you want to spend? Also, they all turn up on Craigslist used, if you want a cheaper approach.

 

I've had one on every truck so far, and always been able to just log on to craigslist spend 5 minutes searching and picking one up for 100 bucks. With the current truck, I've been looking for about a month, and only thing I find are ones for 300 bucks, and even those are rare I ended up just ordering an access tonnosport off of Amazon, 272 shipped. You might have better luck with short beds, apparently not too many people like the donkey hauler long beds.

Main reason I bought an access is that the clamps match some of the clamps I have left over from my old trucks (my 04 F150 screw cover came with 4 pairs of clamps... that's just not needed on a 5.5ft bed)

If you're looking for soft roll up - only way to go IMO - I do have one thing to recommend, stay away from snaps and belt rail. Velcro is the way to go. I've never had a hard one, but I imagine it would be a pain removing it when carrying odd shaped items, which i often seem to do. The high end covers seem to have a thicker (~1.5") velcro strip, while the cheaper ones have something like 5/8" or something along the lines. I've never had trouble with either, but they say the thicker ones are better in the winter/snow/ice...

 

I have the factory one on mine (the soft roll up w/ velcro). It works well, plus it has a giant Ford logo on the back half of it.

Can be installed/removed in no time and the weight is low.

 

Do NOT get a Truxedo original. They suck.

The Truxedo Lo Pro QT is very nice.

 

Thanks for this advice

 

I really like this one
Peragon Retractable Aluminum Truck Bed Cover - Premium Design. Affordable Price.

My wife has a hard cover lid that locks and it's not very convenient. She bought a couple of little mini-refrigerators over the weekend and had to put them both in the back seat of the crew cab because they were too tall to put in the bed because of the cover. Plus we have to remove it completely to hook up the fifth wheel or gooseneck, and that thing is heavy to boot.... I wish I would have seen the Peragon cover before I bought the one I have.....

 

Herman I looked at so many covers for mine, I lost count. I had gone through multiple roll-up covers on previous trucks and always had problems with the velcro letting go. The best roll-up I ever had was a Ford Accessories cover that had the aluminum rails and the snaps that snapped onto the rails.

This time I went with an Undercover. It's a great cover and it locks. It's easily removed when I need to haul something that won't fit under it and it's strong enough that I stand on it when I wash the top of the cab of my truck. I had considered one of the Roll / Lock type covers this time but I never found one that the "reviewers" said was weather-tight. This Undercover keeps everything dry. We took it on vacation this year and everything in the bed stayed completely dry despite driving through some pretty strong storms.

 

Basically you should think about which type of cover is best for you:
Roll up - light, you can leave it on the truck out of the way, and the better ones are weather snug (never met a cover that was completely water tight, though I haven't had a solid cover yet; look for the good velcro and bows, as others have mentioned. My first cover was one of these and it was great.
Fold up - I have 1 on my current truck, and it works well, but has to be removed for full bed access. That's easy, though, and they are light and don't take up much room. Again, look for good seals. This is an Extange and works great as well.
Retractable canister - I love the idea of a canister roll up, but hate the idea of it taking up bed space, and I am not convinced that they are up to dealing with the weather and frequent use (others may disagree). Pretty cool, though. Never owned one, but was tempted.
The other kind - folding/retractable (like Peragon or BakFlip), which don't have a canister but are more easily folded up out of the way, truck can be driven with the cover partially folded, and no canister. I like the idea of having the cover fully retracted for when I am carrying a big load, then being able to drive home with the cover closed. This is what I have ordered for my new truck.
Solid - perhaps the best weather resistance but I didn't want to deal with the on/off challenges, though many say it is easy. What the heck do you do with it if you are on a trip and need to remove the cover because you bought something big?

 

Here's the one I got, it's a Tri-Fold by Xtang. Warrantied for life. You can drive with it open for large loads. It's very easy to install and only weighs about 15 lbs. It locks down from the inside and has no snaps of velcro. Folds up easy and looks good too.

 

I have the Retrax, and it works well for us. Roll it part way back and the fiver hitches up without removing anything. Get to camp, close the cover and lock it, and our stuff is very secure under the hard cover.

But I would not want it on a short bed truck. The canister takes up too much space, and you don't have much to begin with in the short bed.

Soft covers don't interest me. They don't offer any security.

Obviously, different products meet different needs. If I didn't have a fiver, I would go back to a cap/shell, which I have had on every other truck I have ever owned.

 

This has been very useful, thank you guys.

Having come from a Navigator, I am of course looking for something durable (am I asking too much to stand on it?) weather tight, and something I would feel safe leaving my valuables under.

 

If you want weather tight and secure I think you are going to be looking at a topper.