My Pace Edwards “Switchblade” Review/Install
#1
03-02-2014, 07:09 AM
Join Date: Nov 2013
Location: Bethlehem, GA
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My Pace Edwards “Switchblade” Review/Install
I really wanted a good cover for my new 2013 Ford FX4, and I’ve always been partial to the retractible roll top styles. It just makes sense to do a hard top with easy retractiblitlty. I’ve lookded at a few brands, the Pace Edwards “Switchblade” caught my attention because it is so easily installed and removed. There are only a handful ofparts and bolts.
The shipment arrived on time after ordering and was packaged very nicely with no damage. I was surprised at how light the package was. It shows up in 2 boxes. One for the canister and hardware, and the other for the railings.
Extremely simple engineering which was attractive to me as a buyer and installer.
The install was pretty straight forward and I installed it in just a couple hours. The part that took a while was my unfamiliarity with Fords bed drain engineering. With a little research, I found out that the best course of action was to cut through the oval shaped plastic caps located in the front bottom corner sections in the bed. The instructions are clear about finding and preemptively planning for the drain plugs, thus began my install.
I removed the cheap plastic bed cover as I’ll be spraying that in the coming months, and found where I would be drilling to install the drain plugs (only drilled through plastic bed drain caps).
The next step after preparing the drill holes for the drain plugs is to center the canister on the bed. There is no wrong way to do this part as there will be lateral and vertical adjustments later in the process.
Once you’ve set the canister on top of bed, connect the drain tubes to the under side of canister shown in pictures below as well as run the tubes through the drilled holes in the plastic bed caps.
Slide the railings into the canister and secure with bolt. All tightening requires a 7/16” socket to dothe job and a Philips screwdriver. Finding the groves by which the railings slide into the cannister takes a second, but it’sa perfect fit. It will slide right inand line up the holes for you. On the under side of the cannister and railing joint, use bolt in picture to secure. Secure and tighten boltsat the railing and canister joints (only 2 bolts).
Next, you’ll begin tightening the rail clamps (4) after closing tailgate and pulling canister to ensure a sealed fit at the railing and tail gate joint.
The package comes with 4 additional shims to force the railings closer together to ensure there isn’t too much play in the slide and ensure good locking. I had to use all the shims and a couple more to meet the requirements on my truck.
If you are not an experienced technician like me, just make sure that there is minimal lateral play in the sliding top. To test, lay in the bed facing up and looking at the sliding top with it being closed.
Take your hand and force the top side to side to test play. Be sure that there is only a few millimeters of play to ensure that it slides on its own, but forces the locking mechanism deep enough into the locking holes. I did have to play with this a bit to perfect,but it works perfect now.
The picture below shows how the rail clamp hardware comes together. The curved end of the inside bracket will hold along the truck bed railing under side lip, and you will tighten bolt towards side of bed.
Installing the railing clamps is easy, as the railings are grooved for easy entrance onto the railings. You can see in the bottom left picture the grooved entry area to enter the clamps into the railing. The next picture shows them moved flush against the aluminum anchor, as stated in instructions. Besure to slide the railings all the way to the metal stop in picture below.
This ensures the best places for he railings to the bed rail tightening things for best support.
I really love the sleek finish of this top. It’s level with the railings and has a great look to it. Install the canister cover by aligning the 4 holes and using a Philips screw driver to tighten the 4 screws.
Here’s what it looks like!
Click linkbelow to watch video:<o
></o
The shipment arrived on time after ordering and was packaged very nicely with no damage. I was surprised at how light the package was. It shows up in 2 boxes. One for the canister and hardware, and the other for the railings.
Extremely simple engineering which was attractive to me as a buyer and installer.
The install was pretty straight forward and I installed it in just a couple hours. The part that took a while was my unfamiliarity with Fords bed drain engineering. With a little research, I found out that the best course of action was to cut through the oval shaped plastic caps located in the front bottom corner sections in the bed. The instructions are clear about finding and preemptively planning for the drain plugs, thus began my install.
I removed the cheap plastic bed cover as I’ll be spraying that in the coming months, and found where I would be drilling to install the drain plugs (only drilled through plastic bed drain caps).
The next step after preparing the drill holes for the drain plugs is to center the canister on the bed. There is no wrong way to do this part as there will be lateral and vertical adjustments later in the process.
Once you’ve set the canister on top of bed, connect the drain tubes to the under side of canister shown in pictures below as well as run the tubes through the drilled holes in the plastic bed caps.
Slide the railings into the canister and secure with bolt. All tightening requires a 7/16” socket to dothe job and a Philips screwdriver. Finding the groves by which the railings slide into the cannister takes a second, but it’sa perfect fit. It will slide right inand line up the holes for you. On the under side of the cannister and railing joint, use bolt in picture to secure. Secure and tighten boltsat the railing and canister joints (only 2 bolts).
Next, you’ll begin tightening the rail clamps (4) after closing tailgate and pulling canister to ensure a sealed fit at the railing and tail gate joint.
The package comes with 4 additional shims to force the railings closer together to ensure there isn’t too much play in the slide and ensure good locking. I had to use all the shims and a couple more to meet the requirements on my truck.
If you are not an experienced technician like me, just make sure that there is minimal lateral play in the sliding top. To test, lay in the bed facing up and looking at the sliding top with it being closed.
Take your hand and force the top side to side to test play. Be sure that there is only a few millimeters of play to ensure that it slides on its own, but forces the locking mechanism deep enough into the locking holes. I did have to play with this a bit to perfect,but it works perfect now.
The picture below shows how the rail clamp hardware comes together. The curved end of the inside bracket will hold along the truck bed railing under side lip, and you will tighten bolt towards side of bed.
Installing the railing clamps is easy, as the railings are grooved for easy entrance onto the railings. You can see in the bottom left picture the grooved entry area to enter the clamps into the railing. The next picture shows them moved flush against the aluminum anchor, as stated in instructions. Besure to slide the railings all the way to the metal stop in picture below.
This ensures the best places for he railings to the bed rail tightening things for best support.
I really love the sleek finish of this top. It’s level with the railings and has a great look to it. Install the canister cover by aligning the 4 holes and using a Philips screw driver to tighten the 4 screws.
Here’s what it looks like!
Click linkbelow to watch video:<o
></o
#3
03-02-2014, 10:15 AM
Join Date: Nov 2013
Location: Bethlehem, GA
Posts: 11
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
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#5
03-02-2014, 02:38 PM
Very nice job 
The thing that took the longest was taking out the bed liner to exact a hole through the plastic drain caps and plannning for that. After that part was done, I can take it off my truck right now in 15 minutes and put back on in 15 minutes. It's secure and stable and rolls open great!
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