Bergger said:
Welcome. Yes lets see some pics of your truck. While some people do like the hard tonneau you may want to just consider a shell. The hard cover will take away your ability to carry anything taller then about 18". A shell will be just as secure and much more versatile. Or you can go the route I went. I put on a truxedo soft cover, very nice and much less expensive, then bought a yakima roof rack to carry my bikes and or load warrior basket. I like this set up very much. It is quite versatile since I can easily add or remove things depending on what I want to do. The truxedo is high quality and only takes a couple of seconds to roll up or unroll. The only down side to a soft one is the lack of security, however I added a lock to my tail gate and have not had any issues yet. Just thought I'd present another option to you.
Bergger - Thanks for the info on alternative options. I am hoping to post a couple pictures of my truck as soon as my life slows back down to its normal level of insanity...
The cover I was looking at only weighs 68 lbs if I recall correctly and they claim it can be removed in five minutes, that was my plan for hauling larger stuff. I dont haul stuff larger that 18 inches very often and I would rather not have a full shell blocking my view driving around in town. The main thing I go off road for is to get someplace to start hiking or biking, so i really just need to be able to carry my gear and some recovery stuff/tools in the back most the time. Most the time i just through a couple bags and.or back packs into the bed of the truck when i am taking off on a trip, I am kind of a minimalist. I would only have the basic recovery equipment and tools in the truck when i wasn't going to the middle of nowhere. The windows in a shell let people see what is inside, and I live in Albuquerque, although I supposed they could be tinted. My thought with a hard cover was that it would be too much of a pain for someone to break into just to see if there was anything in there. maybe thats still a bit naive, I did grow up in AK where we left our cars running in front of the store while we went inside...
PS
I did find a very nice road to drive down in the Gila this weekend... Turkey Creek Rd leads off of NM 153 in Gila and goes out to Turkey Creek (go figure). It probably wouldnt be much of a challenge for most the guys on here, but I enjoyed the drive. I couldnt go all the way to the creek because the river was too high (almost to my waist in places) so I hiked the last mile and then hiked up the creek a couple miles. It was a great weekend trip and the Gila just moved a lot higher on my list of good things about NM.
Hopefully there will be a full entry on the Gila trip sometime this week on my blog.
