I ended up selling the Leer 700 Fiberglass Tonneau and got this instead as I wanted a cover that allows more functionality of the bed and if needed, is much easier to remove by myself.
It's a plastic cover with an aluminum frame. It's fairly sturdy, but wouldn't recommend putting much weight on it. It is a sectional Tonneau that has 3 sections on the Crew Cab Titan. Each section is latched to the side rails independently, so you can open as many sections as you need. When open all the way, it flips up against the cab, using a rubber seal material to prevent damage to the rear window. It does obviously eliminate rear visibility when open all the way and still has about 6 inches of the forward section of the bed covered. If I need to remove it, I only need to remove 4 nuts and disconnect the gas struts. I have driven with the cover up all the way, but only up to about 30 mph as I had cargo in the rear that I didn't want to have shifting, but I am told that it will not come down on it's own at speed.
It secures nicely as the release for each section is underneath each panel. So to lock it up, you only need to lock the tailgate and noone will be able to get in so long as all panels are down and latched.
Fitment is quite good and no noises are heard from the cab. The side rails attach using clamps and if you have the Utilitrak, you will need to flip the rails on the sides. I ended up borrowing an idea from another Titan owner and used blind rivets to secure the rails to the bed caps so that it doesn't interfere with the Utilitrak at all (while you can use the cleats, the clamps were still a bit in the way). I also modified the bed extender bracket by drilling new holes where the clamping section is to allow the bed extender to sit at or near the correct height. The bed extender will work as is with the flipped utilitrak rails, but would sit at an angle. You can see in the photos that the bed extender seems to sit level. I will say that if you do flip the rails, to make sure to use a good torx bit attached to a ratchet and take care to make sure it stays straight in the hole. The bolts are secured with some kind of threadlocker that had me strip 2 of them. Have a good set of visegrips ready just in case. Easy outs don't work too well on this.
There are 2 drain hoses towards the forward portion of the cover's rails which need to be routed out of the bed. The Titan has 2 grommets that can be removed and widened with a grinding bit to fit the hose.
I loved the look of my Leer 700 much better as it gave a more aggressive and cleaner look, but trying to remove it to actually use the bed was too much of a hassle. Being able to lock the BakFlip by just locking thetailgate is also a plus. I'll likely be adding a power lock solenoid to the tailgate in the future to lock and unlock it along with the doors.
The only con is you have to make sure to pull each section's release cable enough to release both sides. If you manage to only get one side unlatched and happen to pull too hard on the section, it could spell disaster. Otherwise, this cover was very much what I expected and I am quite happy with it.
Here are the pics:
BakFlip Tonneau Cover Review
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C-Kwik
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Update.
Couple of minor issues have come up with this cover. First, the seals that go around the edge of the cover were connected to each other at the corners. While this wasn't an issue at first, as the temperature here rose for the summer, they started to bind as the cover expanded at a different rate than the seals. It caused seal at the front edges of the cover near the cab to actually disconnect itself from the cover. I ended up disconnecting the corners of the seals from each other to allow each to expand independently. This solved the problem, but the front seal was flapping in the wind from driving with part of it already disconnected which caused more of it to come off. I've removed the front seal entirely for the time being.
The other issue has to do with the cables for the latch mechanism. This is likely another heat related issue, but pulling the cable towards you as you open the sections had caused the cable itself to lift the aluminum channel that it is encased in. The channel is held in place by double-sided tape which I suspect came off much easier due to the heat of the summer. The cable would eventually lodge itself between the channel and the cover which makes it so that you can't get the latch on both sides to release by pulling on only one side. To fix this I ended up using blind rivets to secure the channels in place. Add to that, I originally used aluminum rivets, but several of them failed during a trip to New Mexico last month. I replaced the failed ones with stainless steel rivets and will replace the rest of the aluminum ones if/when they fail.
I would have preferred not to have to go thrpough any of this, but they are relatively minor problems and am still happy with the functionality of the cover. These problems may not be welcome for someone who is not much of a DIYer though.
Couple of minor issues have come up with this cover. First, the seals that go around the edge of the cover were connected to each other at the corners. While this wasn't an issue at first, as the temperature here rose for the summer, they started to bind as the cover expanded at a different rate than the seals. It caused seal at the front edges of the cover near the cab to actually disconnect itself from the cover. I ended up disconnecting the corners of the seals from each other to allow each to expand independently. This solved the problem, but the front seal was flapping in the wind from driving with part of it already disconnected which caused more of it to come off. I've removed the front seal entirely for the time being.
The other issue has to do with the cables for the latch mechanism. This is likely another heat related issue, but pulling the cable towards you as you open the sections had caused the cable itself to lift the aluminum channel that it is encased in. The channel is held in place by double-sided tape which I suspect came off much easier due to the heat of the summer. The cable would eventually lodge itself between the channel and the cover which makes it so that you can't get the latch on both sides to release by pulling on only one side. To fix this I ended up using blind rivets to secure the channels in place. Add to that, I originally used aluminum rivets, but several of them failed during a trip to New Mexico last month. I replaced the failed ones with stainless steel rivets and will replace the rest of the aluminum ones if/when they fail.
I would have preferred not to have to go thrpough any of this, but they are relatively minor problems and am still happy with the functionality of the cover. These problems may not be welcome for someone who is not much of a DIYer though.
BakFlip G2 truck bed covers
Hello all,
My name is Julian Maimin and I am the owner of BAK Industries.
After reading many comments and questions on this site about BakFlip, I thought I would share the most up to date information on BakFlip G2 with all of you.
After sending out a few thousand BakFlip G1 covers between Feb and June of this year, we unfortunately came to find out that many of the components used were ultimately failing. This was largely a result of defective rubber seals / 3M adhesive combination which we only found out about due to failures in the market. There were a few issues with gas struts as well on the G1, which put an uneccessary amount of strain on the covers, but the seals seemed to be the primary plaguing issue.
After much hair pulling, frustration and effort, I, along with my key staff sat down and decided to re-engineer the BakFlip from top to bottom, rather than try to put a bandage on the G1. The result is the BakFlip G2 which we introduced late in July of this year.
The new G2 is a far more robust product. The first change made was to the seals. Rather than rely on adhesives, we redesigned the panel frames to accommodate a rubber seal that applied with a tongue and groove design. Kind of like a lock and key. The rubber is fed onto the frames and has resulted in a superb finish which is as strong as nails and absolutely cannot fail.
Next we got away from having to use any tools. All you need now is a single wrench. The install is far shorter and the components used are professional grade knobs etc.
We also changed the Aluminum on the cover, adding 28% more aluminum. The result is heavier panels. In addition the aluminum panel frames have no tape under them. The design underneath encompasses integrated drains, rendering the G2 almost 100% water-tight.
The gas struts never did lock properly on the G1 and as mentioned, put unecessary strain on the unit. We therefor changed to a locking arm-stay on each side. This puts no pressure on the cover and will also keep the cover locked in place so you can drive with it open.
The latches under the cover are now modular. They can be slid fom side to side which allows a real tweaking of the locking feature if required.
All in all, the new BakFlip G2, although similar looking in appearance, has undergone a complete overhail. The result is a phenominal cover that will surely walk away with most awards in it's category this year at SEMA.
I have posted a video of the G2 on YouTube at the following link: http://www.youtube.com/v/NWH0r7gAjsc
I invite all of you to review it and share your comments and suggestions with me at my personal e mail address : [email protected]
I'd like to leave you with an assurance that I, along with my entire coimpany is 100% dedicated to producing the finest truck bed covers on the market. If we are not, I need to hear about it. I believe in this new G2 with all of my being and trust that you will as well.
Thank you all for the support you've shown over the years and thank you for your honesty. It's allowed us to make a brilliant product.
Kindest regards,
Julian Maimin - CEOBAK Industries7307 Coldwater Canyon Ave.N. Hollywood CA 91605(818) 764-0031 Fax (818) 764-4750
My name is Julian Maimin and I am the owner of BAK Industries.
After reading many comments and questions on this site about BakFlip, I thought I would share the most up to date information on BakFlip G2 with all of you.
After sending out a few thousand BakFlip G1 covers between Feb and June of this year, we unfortunately came to find out that many of the components used were ultimately failing. This was largely a result of defective rubber seals / 3M adhesive combination which we only found out about due to failures in the market. There were a few issues with gas struts as well on the G1, which put an uneccessary amount of strain on the covers, but the seals seemed to be the primary plaguing issue.
After much hair pulling, frustration and effort, I, along with my key staff sat down and decided to re-engineer the BakFlip from top to bottom, rather than try to put a bandage on the G1. The result is the BakFlip G2 which we introduced late in July of this year.
The new G2 is a far more robust product. The first change made was to the seals. Rather than rely on adhesives, we redesigned the panel frames to accommodate a rubber seal that applied with a tongue and groove design. Kind of like a lock and key. The rubber is fed onto the frames and has resulted in a superb finish which is as strong as nails and absolutely cannot fail.
Next we got away from having to use any tools. All you need now is a single wrench. The install is far shorter and the components used are professional grade knobs etc.
We also changed the Aluminum on the cover, adding 28% more aluminum. The result is heavier panels. In addition the aluminum panel frames have no tape under them. The design underneath encompasses integrated drains, rendering the G2 almost 100% water-tight.
The gas struts never did lock properly on the G1 and as mentioned, put unecessary strain on the unit. We therefor changed to a locking arm-stay on each side. This puts no pressure on the cover and will also keep the cover locked in place so you can drive with it open.
The latches under the cover are now modular. They can be slid fom side to side which allows a real tweaking of the locking feature if required.
All in all, the new BakFlip G2, although similar looking in appearance, has undergone a complete overhail. The result is a phenominal cover that will surely walk away with most awards in it's category this year at SEMA.
I have posted a video of the G2 on YouTube at the following link: http://www.youtube.com/v/NWH0r7gAjsc
I invite all of you to review it and share your comments and suggestions with me at my personal e mail address : [email protected]
I'd like to leave you with an assurance that I, along with my entire coimpany is 100% dedicated to producing the finest truck bed covers on the market. If we are not, I need to hear about it. I believe in this new G2 with all of my being and trust that you will as well.
Thank you all for the support you've shown over the years and thank you for your honesty. It's allowed us to make a brilliant product.
Kindest regards,
Julian Maimin - CEOBAK Industries7307 Coldwater Canyon Ave.N. Hollywood CA 91605(818) 764-0031 Fax (818) 764-4750