There comes a point of owning a truck when you get tired of worrying about the stuff in the bed. We have all done it at least once; you park at a fast-food joint and proceed to stuff everything from the bed into the cab so you can secure it. How about this situation? You are bombing down the freeway with almost a nervous stare in the rearview, waiting for whatever you put in the back to come flying out. We have been in both situations and have to say they both suck. To save our sanity and our cargo, we looked into getting a tonneau cover for our Tacoma loaner. We use this truck a lot and figured it was time to put the bed on lock-down and improve the smooth looks as well.
We contacted ARE, so we could check out the company's first completely smooth tonneau, the LoPro. All of the other tonneaus this company makes have some sort of body line molded into them, but the LoPro, on the other hand, is as slick as they come. It's a traditional smooth cover that hangs over the edge of the bed just enough to hide the black plastic cap, netting you a smooth monochromatic look.
The tonneau has some cool features that make it very user-friendly, like the unique "kick-up" props. These automatically open the cover a few inches, allowing you to open the tailgate without raising the tonneau all the way. It also has a "Click and Go" quick-disconnect system that allows you to remove the assembly with just a flip of a little handle, and reinstallation is as easy as snapping it back in place. The LoPro and its painted finish are backed by a limited lifetime warranty from ARE for the life of the original pickup truck it is installed on.
If you are interested in keeping all your gear safe and sound while smoothing out the lines of your truck, then read on and we will show you the finer points of how the LoPro went on our Tacoma. Until next time, happy wrenching.