Video Transcript for Leer Truck Group Manufacturer Spotlights

Hello neighbors, it's Brad here from etrailer and today I'm with Greg and he is from the Leer Truck Group and that's gonna cover a few different products. Most of the time you hear Leer, tonneau covers comes to mind. Yep. But also we're gonna cover Pace Edwards as well as BedSlide. And these are all great applications to really get security and the most usability out of your truck. Exactly.

So jumping right in, Leer tonneau covers, everyone's heard the name. Where did it begin What's kind of the background of it Well, Leer developed their own tonneau cover line with four different tonneau covers probably about 15 years ago. We we inchesre late to the market because we wanted to do it right. And when we entered into the market and we've got four different tonneau covers. Two are which the hard folding covers and two are the soft folding covers.

We've got the HF 650, the HF 350, the Latitude and the SR 250 roll up. Why would someone want a soft versus a hard tonneau cover Well, it depends on how the customer uses their vehicle, how they access it, you know, whether they're wanting more security into the tonneau cover, covering the bed. It's just application and individual requirements. So I guess pros and cons versus soft and hard. I know the hard ones that I've done, they fold up really nice, but sometimes they do block a little bit of rear view visibility, correct They do, they do.

We've got a HF 650 that was engineered with all four panels that when it's folded up, it doesn't sit on the cab of the truck. It stands straight up with a prop mount and the other thing it does, which nobody else does out there, it doesn't cover the third brake light. So you're able to drive legally with that thing open. That makes sense. Yeah.

Now something that people might be concerned depending on where you live, we mentioned, or we were talking off camera about snow and the snow sitting on there. With the soft covers, that can stretch it a little bit, yeah. It definitely can, yeah. You want to kind of keep those clean, you know, continuously during a heavy snowfall without letting it pile up. Okay. The hard covers, they're more apt to take a little bit of load, especially if it's spread out over, we're looking at about 400 pounds so it works out real well. That's really impressive. Particularly In those winter states. Yeah, absolutely. As it builds up, you know, you don't wanna have to worry about that collapsing down. Yep. And that's accomplished by the design of the deck surface, right Exactly. So, explain a little bit how that works with the surface. Well we've got an ArmorTek vinyl over aluminum panels with all of our units. And it's designed in such a way where our canisters are smaller up front by the bulkhead that when that rolls up it's able to roll a tighter circle to keep the canister smaller so you've got a lot more room under the, in the bed of that truck behind the cab. Makes sense. So yeah, just kind of looking at, you know, the extrusion here, that's where you get that structure. But also being aluminum, it's lightweight. These, they're not terribly heavy. Exactly. Lightweight. They're replaceable. If you ever tear one up, they won't rust obviously because it is aluminum. So it's a durable, it's been out there forever. Yeah. So a one and done tonneau cover then. Yep, I say that. Yeah. That's awesome. And so a soft one does protect the things, the contents inside from weather, but with soft, unfortunately someone could cut through that. Yeah, kid with a pocket knife could open it up. Yeah. Our four covers all have the sink latches on there, which is fully patented by Leer. And that enables the customer to either get out passenger driver's side open one side, which automatically unlocks the opposite side. So it's easeability of accessing the back of the truck. Yeah. That's really nice. And that's, you know, you don't have a trunk on a truck normally. No. Some of these electric vehicles have fronts, whatever it may be, but when it comes to a truck bed, you store a lot of things that aren't in your cab that are equally as important. Yes. And you want the protection not only from elements but security. And this is definitely a great way because if the tailgate is closed and locked, there's really no easy access to open 'em, correct Exactly, and out of sight out of mind. You know, it might be empty inside, nobody knows. But the other thing real nice about our tonneau covers no drilling whatsoever. Allen wrenches all the way and finger bolts, it was really engineered very well. So yeah, no permanent marks left on your truck- Exactly. after it's installed. Yep. So breaking down the different models, why would someone choose one model versus the other Where do they kind of fall into place Well, if the HF 650 is a low profile, it's sleek, it's pleasant looking to the eyes. Sure. The HF 350 is a three folding panel, it's the same process as far as installation, no holes whatsoever, but it's a little bit taller and stouter on the bed truck and has solid rails on the side. It doesn't have the rubber gasket rails on the side. Okay. As far as the folding covers. And then if you go into the soft Latitude that we sell, it's a tri-fold that folds up again with the sink latches to access the bed. And if you want full accessibility more into that truck bed, you go to the H, sorry, the SR 250 and that rolls all the way up against the cab of the truck. So the guy that's in it or the gal is in it a lot generally will go with that one. Okay, that makes sense. And then as far as some of the accessories that go along, if I have maybe some racks or anything that I might want to install with a tonneau cover, does it play ball with those Right now, nothing with our tonneau covers. with our Pace Edwards line we've got racks that we can install on top of those, yes. Okay. So maybe that's a good time. We actually have Pace Edwards We do. Yeah, out on his truck. So we're gonna take a look at that so you can really see it in person and see some of the cool features of it. So here on Greg's truck there's quite a few cool, some of their lines on the truck that we can actually take a look at and handle. So the first one, UltraGroove electric. I installed one of these on a truck and I was kind of blown away. It's got some pretty cool features that you normally don't see on a tonneau cover. So really at the push of a button this can open. Yep, it's an electric tonneau cover. Brad, I'll let you do the honors. Alright. Go ahead and push open on the key fob. And as you can see, it rolls down the track in a steady motion roll up into the canister up front. And then if you push it closed you can actually stop it by pushing it again and start it and it has hundreds of different intervals of range. That's awesome. So Bluetooth technology, so it does come with this collector, correct It does come with two of those key fops. Correct. Okay, excellent. And then also it can be controlled via Bluetooth It can, yes. You can download the app to your phone and you can push it, push the button right on your phone with the Bluetooth. No more having to lean over your dirty truck to flip it over. You can just simply, push of a button. That is really cool. Now while we're out here as well, taking a look at the fit and finish of these tonneau covers is something that really stands out. We get to install quite a few of them here at etrailer and I love the fit and finish on the end caps. All the seals, everything just fits really well with these and they just look like they're OEM. Well there's a lot of thought process that went into it a lot, a lot of engineering, there's stabilizers in the inside holding up the rail 'cause you want that rail on a straight plane. So it does retract in and out constantly at the same speed and it's all thumb screws. There's no tools again. That's easy. Again, the installation is you know, for something that you're gonna have on your truck for a while, it shouldn't be that big of a deal to but saving the headache when installing it, it's a huge difference. And just as Greg said, you know, there's thumb screws and there is gonna be some adjustment to really get it perfectly dialed in. So to be able to do that without having tools, that's really nice. And that's a low maintenance product. It's lithium grease in the track every six months and that's really it. That's easy. And as far as power, I remember there's wires that you guys give a harness that runs directly to the battery. Exactly. And so super easy. Goes right to the battery. There's a 15 amp inline breaker switch. Fuse. Fuse. Yeah, there you go, thanks. That comes with it also. But yeah, it's very easy to use. Now you also have some accessories that we have here from Leer as far as racks. Exactly. We offer two sets of racks in two heights. One, this is the lower set. Most of the outlanding people go with this to carry a tent. You can go above cab for the longer items. A canoe, a ladder, contractors love it. Now having powered any accessory on a vehicle is great. But a lot of times people wonder, okay, well my battery's dead or key fobs dead, I'm stuck, right You know, I can't do anything with this. Well normally you would be, but we did take care of that issue that if it does come up, there's a handle back here onto the canister that will disengage the motor from the rolling platform. So you can manually push that up and manually pull it back so it still works until you get the battery fixed or rejuiced or charged. Awesome. Now something else that when they take in consideration of design, things that I really liked when doing specifically the Pace Edwards line, I remember the drain tubes on this backside on the rail and normally you're gonna get them up in the front to be able to drain out any water that builds up in the canister you know, obviously. So it's not causing any buildup or any damage to any of the accessories. But having one here in the rail, that's really nice because water is going to kind of get in here but as long as you're extracting it and not getting it in the bed, that's the main thing. No, great point. Where there's air, there's water and we try to keep everything dry just so water doesn't freeze up in there when it, colder climates. But yeah, you're right. We've got one, two of 'em in the back and two of 'em up in the front and it keeps it as dry as possible. Of course nothing is 100% watertight but we we're working on that. Yeah, you're getting real close. We're getting close. Yeah. Enough to at least protect the stuff in the bed. Yep. Now with tonneau covers or camper shells, sometimes you don't have the accessibility to maybe reach into something heavy. Even if you fold it back, you don't want to have to crawl in that truck bed. And you guys have a solution for that We do. We recently, or not recently, a while back, you know, acquired BedSlide company, they're out of Oregon. We've got one installed in the back of the truck. It's got a 30 inch grab bar here. So it's real user friendly. And then the disengage it is right here. So you just grab the bar, pull back on the lever and there's a locking point that brings it back to about the tailgate and you'll hear it click into the first locking stage. So if you also want to get more usability out of it, you can pull it back and it gives you about 70% of the use right there. It makes it easy to get and unload everything you need to unload. 'Cause you know darn well whatever you put on the back of the truck ends up at the front of the truck. 100%. It brings it back a lot easier. And that's really nice. Not only, I've seen it in a lot of overland applications, obviously they load these trucks up and you have a rooftop tent so to climb in there you're having to duck. This makes it a lot easier. And even just normal applications. My dad has a Tacoma that he drives around with a camper shell and he plays a lot of music jobs and he has drums. Yeah. And he's 70 years old. Oh there you go. He doesn't wanna have to go back and forth and grab his stuff in the truck. So a BedSlide like this, he can simply just draw this out, have it ready to go. Yep. Yeah, every every person that has a cap and that has a BedSlide or a tonneau cover, this combination, they get another one, truck cap or tonneau cover, they'll get a BedSlide as well. Yep. It just makes sense. It makes the truck bed just more accessible. Yes. And that's really huge, especially if you are on job sites or whatever and you have all your tools, whatever you need, you can really gain access to it quick. And as far as weight capacities, these are pretty heavy duty. They are. And we have three different weight capacities as far as what they'll hold. This one's a 1,000 pound, we have a 15,000 pound and a 2,000 pound for the heavy duty big trucks, so. And going along with that, to get this mounted up, are you drilling holes into the bed or anything like that Well we do have two options. We've got the drill, the standard drilling of the frame and then we've got a no drill option for a lot of the trucks that are out there. So it's best of both worlds. Yep, that's great. And it's got nice texture here so nothing should be sliding around. But also you have movable, you know you have rails here but you can also move these attachment points and really strap everything down. Exactly, you got the tie downs, you can put 'em on the rail here on the side. I don't have the bed bins that are also an option, the storage, but they'll utilize the space over the wheel well so you can stack this thing, you know, in different configurations for the use you need out of it. That's awesome. And relatively, it's not that tall so you're not losing a ton of space. No. So that's really great too. You gain all the access and you're not really losing anything. No, not at all. So the UltraGroove is going to be a year make model specific for a truck, correct Yeah, it's correct. Yep. Okay. So you can use our fit guide here at etrailer.com to make sure you're getting the proper fit for your vehicle. And something that you may or may not notice is if you have an eight foot bed, you long bed guys, not super easy to find a tonneau cover. No, the electric one on the market, our UltraGroove electric is the only eight foot tonneau cover that's made to fit the eight foot beds, so. That's pretty cool. So for you long bed fellas, that's what you're gonna wanna be looking for, UltraGroove. I have videos on the installation of these, super easy but awesome product. So huge thanks to Greg from the Leer Truck Group for taking the time to break down their product lines and hopefully help you all at home, make a deciding purchase on the product that you may want for your truck, just to be able to protect it and use it a little bit more. Thanks Greg. You're welcome. Thank you.