making a tonneau cover

mcdonald58

mcdonald58

New Member
has anyone made their own tonneau cover? i want to make one that fits up to my tool box and the retail ones are way to expensive for me. im thinking about making a frame out of 2x4s then either lay a piece of fabric on it or a sheet of plywood. then i could possibly use a c clamp to attach it to the bed. im still thinking about what to use to attach it to the bed. i want it to be easily removable.
 
if you do, make it so it'll sit down inside the bed. i tried building one that would sit on top of the bedrail, went pretty well untill i couldin't figure out how to attach it, lol.
 
haha yea thats the plan. ill make it the width of the bed and then the length of my tailgate to my tool box. i would like to find some type of fabric but i think that will be to expensive.
 
good idea on the sheet metal i might try that. i just did some measurements and itll be 52 inches long by 54 inches wide.
 
i was thinking of making a frame out of 2x4's then cover it with vinyl or some kind of fabric. i just really want it to keep snow out of my bed. any ideas on how i can attach it? it needs to be something strong, easily removable, and not do anything permanent to my bed.
 
Check out my photobucket, I recycled my old tonneau a couple times over the years.

I made a treated frame out of 1x1's and stretched the old vinyl fabric over & stapled it down. Made a couple redneck hinges & locking mechanism & it's served me well for many years.

It's pretty lightweight & easy to remove when I need to haul something that doesn't fit under the cover.

You could do something similar using exterior plywood, a frame, then cover it with black "astroturf" exterior carpet.
I had a setup like that many years ago on my old GMC truck. It weighed a ton, but you could jump up & down on it & it didn't give an inch.
 
that cover looks awesome buggman. so did you just lay it on top of some 2x4's? i wish i had an old tonneau that would be so easy to do.
 
I stripped the old material off the old cover & made a 1"x1" frame out of some treated wood that just fits between the bedrails & slides under the lip of the toolbox. Put a couple corner braces to help keep it square too.

I wanted to keep it as light as possible so I can easily remove it when needed.

Back in the day, I made a super heavy duty cover for a full sized truck out of exterior 3/4" plywood & treated 2x4's. That thing weighed a TON & there was no way I could get it out of the truck without a couple people helping.
I covered the plywood with black "astroturf" outdoor carpet & it looked really nice.
It wasn't great for storage, it limited the stuff I could haul in the truck to about 12" height but all that weight did seem to help it get around in the snow & ice a little better.
 
i started construction today on this. i started cutting some wood for the frame. im going to make it by 54 in by 50.5 in. but my progress has stopped until i get the fabric. im going to get a pleather kind of material like what soft tonnneaus use. ill have my main frame then have two supports to support the fabric. hopefully this will give me an extra 1-2 mpg and pay for itself. im using 2x3's for the frame that my dad had laying around. ill post pics as i make progress.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top