Video Transcript for Pace Edwards Full-Metal JackRabbit Retractable Hard Tonneau Cover Feature Review

Hi everyone, Aiden here with etrailer. Today we're going to be taking a look at the line of Pace Edwards Jackrabbit Retractable Hard Tonneau Covers. When it comes to tonneau covers, you've got a lot of different options and it can be really overwhelming trying to decipher which one is going to be the best fit for your truck. Now for me, I always like to start by separating into two categories, hard covers and soft covers. Soft covers are going to be a bit more inexpensive, but they lack security because anyone can come up and just cut through that material with a knife to get inside. Whereas a hardcover like this, (knocking on cover) is going to be constructed of metal or some sort of hard material that can't be cut through.

Obviously nothing's thief proof but this is going to be a huge improvement to security, especially this option from Pace Edwards which is constructed of a series of metal slats that all interlock together giving you probably some of the best security you can get. An additional layer of security that the Jackrabbit has is a lock. The mechanism to open the cover is located up top so that's why they've got the lock. Some covers will rely on your locking tailgate and have the locking mechanism inside the bed. But I like this because it's easy to see and access and then we don't have to open the tailgate to operate this.

We just have to twist that and we can push this into the canister up front. (cover sliding) And here we can see the benefit of a canister style tonneau cover. Everything retracts into the canister up front so nothing extends up above our bed rails leaving our back window completely clear, compared to something like a tri-fold cover where when that's fully open, it's going to be straight up and down, blocking your back window. Or even a roll up tonneau cover where that roll will sit on top of your bed rails and at least partially obstruct the back glass. So this is going to be the best option for visibility.

The trade off for that is that it is going to extend down into your bed because that cover has to go somewhere. So there will be some sacrificed space in here. The good thing is, underneath it there is going to be some space so if you need to slide in some lumber, some two by fours, there's space underneath the canister for it to go. But that small space up top will be obstructed by the canister. Underneath the canister, you're going to have drain tubes, so any water that collects in here due to rain is going to be draining out through those drain tubes.

We will have to drill some holes in our bed or enlarge some existing ones to route those drain tubes out, so you can choose to do that however you'd like. In this installation, we did choose to enlarge some preexisting holes that we're already enlarged for something else and that worked treat to run these out and make sure that there's no low spot in the drain tubes. And the benefit to this pull cord here is that we can operate this from outside the bed. Now I'm just just going to operate it from right here, right now so I can talk about one of the other benefits which is the multiple locking points. So as we pull this out, (metal clicking) you can hear some clicks, locking it at certain intervals, allowing us to have the cover partially closed or open if we need to. Where that can come in really handy is let's say we've got a load of lumber that sticks out past our tailgate but we still want the fuel economy benefits of having this cover closed. (metal clicking) Well, we can close it most of the way and just have things extending out the back here. That's going to help with the fuel economy and reduce drag. Now comparing this to some other options out there, let's say other options from Pace Edwards like the UltraGroove, those ones don't stop. They just have a fully open or a fully closed state, so there's no intervals. For that reason, I like the Jackrabbit a lot better. Comparing this to an option from Retrax, their retractable covers can be stopped at any point, no intervals. All you have to do is throw their handle to lock it and it stays in place where it is. Which is nice for the ability to stop at anywhere, but I don't like Retrax's handle as much. Their covers I don't feel like slide as smoothly as Pace Edwards does. So we're going to get smoother action here and the trade off is that we just have set intervals at which the cover can be opened or closed rather than anywhere we want. So for me, it's a fair trade off. As far as weather resistance goes, no tonneau cover is weatherproof but I think this one does a great job at sitting really flush to the bed rails and having lots of sealing around the edges. We've got this rubber seal at the tailgate, foam seals along the bulkhead and the sides and it all makes great contact with the truck. I think you'll maybe get a little bit of water intrusion at the gaps in the corners of the tailgate. It's super minor, but that's just one area to watch for. But overall, I think they do an excellent job at keeping things water tight as long as you install it all properly. The other thing I like a lot about this is the low profile nature of it. If you kind of get down level with the bed rails, really the thing that sticks up the most is the top cover for our canister and the weather strip right here. The side rails are sitting almost perfectly flat with the bed rails and the cover itself sits below those side rails. So everything's super low profile. You can barely tell it's there and it looks like it belongs on the truck. It doesn't stick out one bit. Now our cover today is installed on a Silverado 2500, but there's plenty of different vehicle fits available for the Jackrabbit. So if you have a different vehicle and you want to see how it's installed and how it fits, plug in your vehicle information to our fit guide, including your bed length and use that to find the right kit for you because these are all going to be size appropriate for certain trucks. You just want to make sure you get the right one for your truck and it's bed. Overall, I think that's going to be a really solid option for a tonneau cover. Pace Edwards makes really good retractable covers that I'm a big fan of and this one is no different. Some of the things I like about the Jackrabbit over their other options is the fact that it's got those intervals you can stop at and the construction to me, feels just a little bit higher quality. So if you're looking for something that's going to be very secure and reliable then I think Jackrabbit is a really great fit. Thanks for watching.