Video Transcript for Installing the Fas-Top Traveler Roll-up Tonneau & Soft Truck Topper Combo on a 2023 Jeep Gladiator

Hi, I'm Matt with etrailer. Today we're gonna be talking about the Fas-Top tonneau cover and topper combo on the back of our 2023 Jeep Gladiator. Now this can be a great option for you if you're looking for something that's gonna be adaptable, able to switch different types of configurations, and be just really ease to work with. So, let's check it out. Now, when we compare this kit to other types of toppers out there, I mean, toppers are great for if you just need to keep anything you have in the back of the vehicle a little bit more concealed, need a little bit more space back there, but you wanna protect it from the elements too, it's great for that. But the issue with those larger ones or the more hard ones is they're not very adaptable.

Once you have it on there, you're most likely not taking it off. Unlike with this one, all you gotta do is undo a few hook-and-loops, some zippers, and we can actually get this one the fold in. And unlike those other options, this also works with a tonneau cover still installed. So let me fold this up and we can take a closer look at that 'cause this is gonna be a soft style. And a lot of soft styles, this is really easy to manage.

So with this one here, (hook-and-loop scratching) I can just send you this hook-and-loop, (hook-and-loop scratching) a zipper on the backside, and fold this side up. So we'll do the same thing for the other side too, but very easy to manage. It doesn't really take too much time, and we're gonna have these cam traps that also hold it down into place too. (hook-and-loop scratching) Then, once we're ready, we can actually fold this up, and we don't have to remove it completely. The way we do that, loosen that up a bit more, move this clip on both sides, and then you just kind of push it into place, just like this.

And when you're first using it for the first time, this can be a little bit awkward. What'd you get The hang of it, It folds up relatively easy. There we go. And then we'll just move this arm out of the way and fold it downwards. And just like that, now we can roll out the tonneau cover itself.

You're gonna have a strap on either side, so you might have a little bit of back and forth. But if you have a friend to help you out, it's gonna be much easier, just like that. Works like any old-fashioned, soft roll-up tonneau cover and will latch into place, just like that. And this tonneau cover's gonna work like most roll-up soft ones out there where it's gonna be easy to use and it's gonna protect yourself from the elements and any prying eyes. And the biggest thing with it too, 'cause when we compare this to other types of tonneau covers, hard ones are great and all, but they take up a decent amount of space in your bed. Whether they are trifold, they take up that last third of your bed, or they fold up and they block your back window. We don't have to worry about this type because when we roll it up, only takes up this much space. What you really need to worry about is more so the actual topper taking up space in your bed. But let's get a couple measurements to see how much space this is taking up. Now, for how much space is gonna take up on top of your bed rails, these rails here set up about an inch, so not much space there. And the tonneau will cover itself is something you won't even be able to notice when you're looking out your back window. Now, for the bed space, when I go from the bulkhead side, let's go to right here at the very end of that topper, that's gonna be about 14 inches. In a lot of cases, that's still more compact than some of those trifold tonneau covers out there. But again, if you really need this out, all you gotta do is take off this clip, washer on either side, and just like that, just pick it up with a friend, you can take it out. Now for the space underneath the tonneau cover, once it's rolled out, we're gonna have, there's about 17 inches of space there. So most cases, if you have any type of smaller totes, that's just fine. But if you need something bigger and you need to protect it from the elements, that's why we have the topper. But before we get into the topper a little bit more, I wanna talk about these rails. Now, what makes these rails unique are gonna be this channel right here, because this channel is what allows it to mount other accessories on here, and these actually feel really stable and the clamping mechanism is super simple, which is a bolt that goes into place and also attach to your trail rails. Now, this is also gonna be compatible with other variations of the Jeep if you don't have those rails. So most other type of clamps out there are a little bit more complicated. So this one doesn't really take up any time at all. And we're gonna have the latch mechanism that you have on one on each side. You can actually adjust this forward and back to tighten and and loosen the tonneau cover itself. And along with that, we're gonna have the hook-and-loop on the side, and that's what kind of keeps the tonneau cover nice and tight. And it also can be replaceable if it ever gets damaged over time. So I'll put the topper back up to kind of talk about that process a bit more. So when we're doing that, we wanna try kind of grab it from the bottom and lift up, and you'll notice I'm gonna make contact with this bar here. So we wanna put that over in an angle. I'm just gonna wrap it around, just like that. I recommend grabbing it from the bottom, 'cause if you try to grab it from the top, it's gonna deploy. This can be a little bit tough sometimes. If it's a little bit too hard for you, you can always push these pivot points a little bit further back so you have more space. There We have it. And we'll just fully extend it from here. Now, I'll use these clips here to hold in place for the time being. So, pretty easy to work with, and you can have it in this more open space even when you're not driving around. And that's nice if you just want a little bit more of a relaxing vibe with you and your friends, you need a little bit of a tailgating. Now, if you wanna drive around with the sides up, there's gonna be these little loops here, and you can get some straps here from Fas-Top that'll hold this into place so you have a different experience. So let's get a couple measurements, like this. So the amount of space that we actually have in the back of our bed like this, it's gonna be roughly around 41 inches. So that's pretty good even with some larger items. Again, you can always put this down if you have anything that extends past that. Now, for the total height of this, if you go from our bed rails, this is gonna be about 23 inches. So for the most part, this should be aligned with the cab of your truck. Now, when it comes to the very back of it where we have this window, we're gonna have one on the back and one closest to the cab of the truck. And they're pretty good. And what I mean about that is to release the see through when you're driving around. But when I put this down and latch this into place by kind of putting it at an angle and then pushing down, (metal clacking) like that, it's kind of hard to see through. So if someone's coming by, they're really gonna have to look in there to find out what you got. And what's nice about this is you can even replace that back window if anything we inchesre to happen to it. Like, if you have someone back here that punctures it. Now, in my opinion, I think this will be a solid choice for a lot of people who do find that they want change up the back of their vehicle because maybe they need a little bit more space in the bed of the truck, or they want something a little bit more low profile. And what's really cool about this, you can even add a ladder rack to it later on down the road if you need something like that too. Now, when it comes to the installation, it is gonna be a pretty easy one, but it can be a little bit tricky at times, so we are gonna have some tips and tricks for you today to help you along the way. But if you do go with this, then let us know how it's working for you in either a comment review. But with that said, let's get to it. So let's start off the installation, we're gonna grab our rails. I already got the other side installed. This will be the same process. And we do this, you wanna make sure your latches are facing the tailgate side, and we're gonna rest this on our bed rails. It should kind of stay by itself. If it's not, you're gonna have a friend kind of help you hold it in place. And then we're gonna push this all the way against our bulkhead side. And make sure it is stopping right here, 'cause sometimes if you're kind of lifting up on it, it's gonna keep pushing and you're gonna get kind of an odd fit. So right there is gonna do it for us. And now we can start grabbing our clamps. And when you're putting 'em down, you're gonna have set locations where they're gonna sit. So make sure you grab your tape measure and your instructions, and those instructions are gonna tell you which clamps go where. So clamp 1 is gonna be closest to the cab, two in the middle, and three is gonna be closest to the tailgate. Now when you do this, what you're gonna be measuring from exactly is gonna be the very front of this rail right here. And what I recommend doing is once you have that number, adjust these square nuts until they sit where you want 'em to. Once you've adjusted those, you're gonna have these carriage bolts and these square plates, and that's gonna go right through that plate, just like so. And then we're gonna go to our trail rails and we're gonna insert this here and make sure it lines up, just like I've done on these other ones over here. Now we're gonna grab the clamps themselves, and make sure you grab the right ones 'cause they're gonna be labeled. You can see right here, this is gonna have a 3, another one will have a 2, another one will have a 1. And we're gonna match that up to the correct locations. So I'm gonna go to location 3 'cause I have the 3 clamp in my hands, and we're gonna install it right here. Now it's gonna be an extra one, you can just put that right in front of it and just hand tighten this location at the moment. And that bolt on the bottom is just gonna go through that lower hole. And make sure it's relatively straight. Same thing for clamp 2. Now you're gonna notice I have an additional two square nuts. These two are gonna sit in between where clamp 2 and 1 location's gonna be. Now a lot of times, you'll notice there's gonna be a line right here, just put those two square nuts right next to that line. But we're gonna continue the same process with the rest of our clamps. So we're gonna come back by, after all three of these are on just loosely, and we're gonna fully tighten down these bolts. Now the way I recommend doing it is not tighten them down to one at the top 'cause you saw how it was lifting up like that. We wanna start with the ones on the bottom. So I'm gonna put a flat washer, split washer, then a nut, get that hand tight. Once that's done, we're struck by fully tightening this one here. And once that's fully secured on here, then we're gonna repeat the same process on #2, but we aren't gonna fully tighten down location 1 quite yet. Now with these rails mostly in place, we're gonna come back and we'll grab our pivot arms because I'm gonna wait to put my tonic cover on. And with these pivot arms, there's gonna be this rod, it's gonna have two nuts on that side. The other side has another nut. I've already tightened this into place. Then from there, you can put on these two additional bolts. Now sometimes they're kind of hard to squeeze through there, so I'll just twist them on, get 'em on in place like that. Now these holes aren't gonna be threaded, but they are a little bit tight. Once you've done that, your instructions are gonna give you a measurement from the front of the rail to somewhere over here, and that's where this is gonna sit. What a lot of times you'll do is if you just line this up with this line here, then it's gonna work. But I've done this a few times, in my case today, I find it best if I have the very edge of this lined up with that line. I just need to make sure I'm lined up with my square nuts that I kept over here. And then we'll throw this into place. (metal clacking) (metal clacking) (metal clacking) And then you just can come by and tighten this down. (ratchet cranking) And once this is pretty snug on here, we can do the same process on the other side. And now we can start working on the tonneau cover. And before I actually put it on there, what I like to do is you're gonna have this flap that comes with your kit. And with this flap, you're gonna have this hook-and-loop that goes across to one side. Another side is gonna have just a section of it next to this grommet. What we're gonna do with that is make sure this is facing up. And we're gonna stick this underneath, grommet side, under our tonneau cover. And when I flip this around, that tonneau cover, you should have this bar that goes across, and there's gonna be these little square nuts in there. So what I'm gonna do is line up the grommet to that square nut, and we're gonna have a bolt and a washer, and we're gonna thread that into place. I find this a little bit easier to do now than when we can do it in our bed because that can be a little bit tight. You're probably gonna have to lay down too. And you're gonna do this on both sides. And the goal here is to make sure it's relatively even on either side. So grab a tape measure, and we wanna make sure it's fairly tight. Then once it's on there, then we're grab our stock and a wrench and tighten it down The rest of the way. (ratchet cranking) We're gonna grab the tonneau cover now. I buckled mine in, so it's gonna be a little bit easier to handle. Also, folded this flap up, so the hook-and-loops connecting the either side, so it's not dangling around when I'm moving it. We're gonna take it over to the bulkhead side. I'm gonna just roughly lay it down, and you're gonna have these points where that bar that had those square nuts in it are gonna line up, and that's gonna be at this point right here. So you'll see, we have a hole right here. When I lift up the bar, you notice we have an opening, and that opening's gonna have a square nut that's lined up there. And so we're just gonna pivot this around and push this into place. You might have to shimmy it a little bit, move it around. And do the same thing for the other side. There we go. And then we can go grab a flange bolt, and we can install this from underneath. So when we have this flange bolt. What I find best to do is it's kind of hard to tell if this is lined up, so I'll just push it into place. And if it's not going in very far, I'm just gonna kind of push, adjust where our tonneau cover is currently sitting. There we go, kind of falling into place now. Now, I'll thread it in with just hand first, and we're gonna do that on the other side before we fully tighten this down. So we'll come over here to the top for now. And the first thing we wanna do is make sure it's in the right orientation. So I wanna make sure the underside is facing up. The way we can do that is we come over here, on the side of the bar, you're gonna notice this is Fas-Top. That's gonna be the top side. So I wanna make sure that's down. Once we've done that now, gonna roll this out a little bit. And from here, we're gonna attach our arms. So when I pull this out, they're gonna have specific sides. This one I have in my hands now, this is gonna be the side with the color codes, and you can actually find that on your bars. And once I find that on my bars, I'm just gonna match the right color to the right color. So right here I got white, white's gonna plug into white. You're just gonna press this button here, the very top of it, and I'll lock into place. Just watch out for your fingers 'cause it will wanna pinch 'em. You might have to adjust it a bit too. Here we go. Once you have it done there, we're gonna have two more bars. And again, you're just gonna line up the colors. So I got yellow, push it into place over here, just like that. And the last one is gonna be blue. And once that's on there, we're gonna do the same thing for the other side and make sure these are kind of gonna parallel, one another gonna look the same. There you go. Now we can push this into itself, make sure it's all compact. Now we wanna make sure it's in the right orientation. So do that. I'll bring it over here. I wanna make sure that header bar here is gonna be on top. Another way you can check this in the right orientation is with these bars over here, those holes should be facing towards the bulkhead side. Now, I've done that, I also like to strap these bars into place with those G-hook straps so they're not falling out on me. Just a little bit easier to manage that way. And we'll just walk it over here and I'll put it in at an angle, like that, and lower it down. And we can ask you to start making our connections. Do that. I'm just gonna grab this point here, push this forward. So push this into that pivot arm. Same thing for the other side. And once you have that in, you're gonna have a washer you'll put on there and a clip, and we're gonna do that on the other side. Now we can connect the back window on our topper to the tonneau cover. You're gonna have this hook-and-loop section. This actually on the tonneau cover itself. It's gonna be kind of hard to see sometimes, you might just have to push this back. There it is. And we're gonna lift up on the topper, grabbing it from the bottom rails on here so it doesn't deploy in your bed. That first time you're doing this, it might be a little bit stiff in here. And if it's really tight, you could always just push these pivot arm points back a bit. We also need to make sure that our header bar isn't getting in our way, so we'll take that out. This will help one side and pivot another one around it. And now this should be a much smoother transition. I'm gonna peel a lot of this back until I get my hands on that back window, (hook-and-loop scratching) just like that. And then we'll make the connection by lowering this down. I have to start from the center, center it up as much as you can and start making these connections, like so. And now, we'll just unfold it the rest of the way since it's already partly up. And what I'll do for the time being is we're gonna have some cam straps. We're gonna have these hooks in the bottom. We'll connect this to the front, just so us a little bit easier to manage. Then we'll go to the back and make those connections here too. These cam traps are a little bit tight. Just loosen 'em up a bit. Now you can start kind of connecting all points to the sides. Now, the tip I have is if you try to start off with the walls and notice got a big gap here, be relatively kind of tough and make this connection. So what I recommend starting with is the cam straps. So kind of pull on this, make it relatively tight on all four of corners. I'm just gonna start with this side first. Then we'll come back through, lower down that wall. And you can see making this connection, like this is fairly easy. I'm not pulling on it too tight. It's not fighting me too much. And that's what we're kind of looking for. Now, we'll get to the point where I don't want to fully connect this quite yet. What I'm gonna do is come back to that cam strap, I'll reach up to the buckle and loosen it up a bit. 'cause that's gonna share the load between the cams strap and this hook-and-loop, so it's not too much in one piece of it. So we'll connect that hook-and-loop there. There's gonna be a zipper on your window. I'm gonna zip that into place, like that, and push down that hook-and-loop and seal it. Then we're gonna do that on the other side. And then I'm gonna come back over here, undo that flap so it's laying flat. So next time when we do roll this in, it'll be a lot easier to use. Come out of here and we can load this down by undoing these G-straps. That unrolled, just like that. And we'll rotate this a little bit more and fit this inside of that clamp area. Push against it and then down, feel it locks into place. If you don't hear a click, it might not be lined up. There we go. Once I hear that click, then I can come back over here, zip this up, or down, and then we'll apply the hook-and-loops either side. And that'll pretty much do it. Now, if you guys have any other questions, let us know here at etrailer. Again, I'm Matt, and thanks for watching.