Video Transcript for etrailer Retractable Hard Tonneau Cover Comprehensive Review

Hello, neighbor, this is Curt with etrailer, and today we're taking a look at the etrailer retractable tonneau cover. And throughout this video, we're going to be going over its premium look, solid construction, overall versatility, and it'll all sum up to a great value. So let's dive in. So there are really only two main reasons that people get a tonneau cover for their truck. Both of them are going to boil down to protection, and the first is going to be protection against other people, potential thieves. Cool thing about this tonneau cover is I can't access it unless the tailgate is down.

So as long as your truck is locked up, nobody's going to be able to get into your truck bed. But if I open the gate, what we'll see is this little piston here. Now this, if I push this in, the knob that controls whether it opens or closes can't be turned. When it turns out, I can use it and open up my tonneau cover. And to do that, if I want to open it all the way, I'm just going to turn this to the left, give it a little nudge, and it opens all the way up for us.

And when it comes time to closing the cover, there is a ratcheting mechanism in the cover here in the rails, so I can close this incrementally, just like that. If I let it go, it's going to stay right where it's at. So I'm in complete control of how much of it opening or a gap I'm going to have in my cover if I have cargo that sits in the bed that is higher than the top of the cover. And if I come over here to the side, and if I turn this knob to the right, I can manually control how open or how close this is. So if I turn it to the right, it shuts off the spring mechanism that opens it all the way like it did when I turned it from the left.

So as you can see, we get a lot of versatility out of this tonneau cover with how easily we can maneuver it to be exactly the way we want it. We also have really good protection from other people, other thieves, in that getting into our bed and into our cargo. But what about protection from the elements That's the other big reason that people get a tonneau cover. And with this tonneau cover being a canister style with the retractable, we do have a drain system in here to be installed. At the end of each of our rails, we have drain tubes, and on each side of our canister, we have drain tubes as well.

And those drain tubes are going to do a tremendous job of keeping everything in your bed dry. In fact, the person who owns this truck has had our tonneau cover in it for about six months. And when we asked about how good of a water protection it gives, they told us that through all the crazy Midwest weather that we faced in the last six months, the truck bed remained completely dry. The only time they ever got water in it was taking it through an automatic car wash, which makes sense with those high-pressure hoses. And when it comes to installing the drain tubes, every truck bed's a little bit different. Some of them have pre-drilled holes, some of them don't. And on top of that, every bed liner that you get is different and you may face the same challenges. So it might be that you actually have to drill your own holes. It's not that difficult of a process, and you can do that on your own. And when it comes to the construction, this is really, really solid. I've worked with a lot of retractable tonneau covers and these rails are about as solid as they come. You can see on the inside of the track here where it gets the ratcheting from, so you could see those small increments that lets you kind of customize how big your opening is. So I'm really, really impressed with the construction of the rails. The other thing I'm impressed by is the size of the canister. A lot of tonneau covers with a canister like this, it's much bigger. They go deeper than this does. So any retractable tonneau cover, you're going to end up losing some bed space because of it. But when it comes to this one, you're going to lose a lot less than you will with others. So it doesn't go quite as deep and it doesn't really stick out quite as far, and that just means more bed space for you to use. And when it comes to the installation, they're held on, the rails are held on by these clamps here. Every type of truck is going to be different as far as the style of clamps and where they would go. So it is important that you get the right fit kit for your truck. So make sure before ordering that you put the year, make, and model into our fit guide, and also make sure that you select the right truck bed size. And when it comes to the installation, it does help to have somebody else with you. The best way to install this, I think, is to actually construct it completely on the ground and get a friend to help you lift it into place before clamping it down onto your bed rails. Now there is a subtlety to this tonneau cover that I personally really, really like, and that's this strap here that you use to get it closed. A lot of these tonneau covers, they all have straps like this, but the problem is a lot of them come up a little bit short. I love the length of this. It's going to clip right here into your tie-down, into your truck bed. This way, it's never going to be in a spot you can't reach it. But the fact that you have so much slack also means that I don't have to unclip it. I can get cargo in and out of here without it interfering with that strap. (cover rattling) (tailgate clicks) Now, this tonneau cover can take a bit of weight on it. It's not something you're going to be able to go ahead and stand on, but if you're walking up to your tailgate with a toolbox or a cooler and you want to set it up there while you get it opened up, that should be perfectly fine. And while I got it shut and everything closed up, this has a really, really nice low profile look to it. I mean, this has the look of a top-notch premium tonneau cover. So there you have it. Tremendous versatility, solid construction, all wrapped up in a premium look. That's the etrailer retractable tonneau cover. I'm Curt with etrailer. Thanks for stopping by.