Why would anyone buy a soft trifold tonneau cover

As titled please explain.

Trifolds are pain in the butt to get off, they never totally get out of the way, at best the take up 1/3 of your bed, most of them fold up totally covering the rear window, and soft trifolds are not very secure.

If I am missing something please let me know what the benefits are.

My rant stems from so many used ones flooding the marketplace.

 

I'm happy with my bakflip. I haven't really heard of people being unhappy with their bed covers, no matter what, you are going to loose some of your space, but its not earth shattering. If you need 100% of your bed space just dont put a cover on.

 

Cost.

We all have our own values, and this is an acceptable offering for a lot of folks.

Other than not being your first choice, is there a reason why they should be stricken from the market?

 

I used one on my old tundra and plan on getting another for the new one possibly. I used it so when I went windsurfing I could lock up gear I wasn't using when I was out on the water. Also, I could leave all of the gear except the board in there during the windy season.

Of course it would be easy to slit the cover and take stuff, it's just a deterrent. You don't want to leave the truck parked in a bad neighborhood in the wee hours of the morning.

For me it's very easy to remove and re-install. Takes maybe 5 minutes, and they're way cheaper than a hard cover.

Only thing I don't like is the flapping around at highway speeds.

 

I have a simple hard folder that only folds back to 1/3rd without the ability to lean up against the cab. I used to have a Bakflip that leaned against the cab and gave me most of the bed but the prop rods that held it up and other bits and pieces fell apart over the years. This time around I chose to give up trick features for simplicity, less maintenance and fewer soft or moving parts disintegrating over time. I needed something on my family road trips so if we hit a rest stop I could sip coffee without a worry that someone could get into my bed with a simple pocket knife or by peeling velcro. At the same time I can unfold and leave in the 1/3rd position to get most bed space or remove without help to get all of it. If it were a soft cover it would seem to have made more sense for me to get it as a roll-up as with it being soft it's flexible enough that you can get it totally out of your way. So there's no need for me to put up with it being folded against the cab eliminating rearward visibility.

But then many years ago on my 04 Dakota I had a soft roll up that fastened with Velcro and it required constant retightening to stay taut. I think it even supposedly had some sort of tensioning system that was supposed to prevent that. I don't know if anybody has come up with something that maintains tension better but if they all were still like that and I wanted an easily removable soft cover that didn't require fighting the cold to stretch the fabric I might be inclined to go with a soft folder just for that reason. Soft folders usually have simple clamps that do not require you to go around the thing repeatedly fussing with a velcro strip. You clamp and then it doesn't ever change tightness.

But If it were just me and my wife I'd likely tint the rear windows down to about 5% and put our luggage in the rear seat area and have a bare bones soft cover on the bed.

 

I hated my trifold. It would always get out of alignment when I would go wheeling. Also, there weren't many good options to put a rack on and if you did you couldn't really open the cover.

I changed to a manual roll up cover. Never goes out of whack when I wheel. I never have to remove it since it's out of the way when it's fully rolled up. It also works well with my rack - I can get to the very back without having to army crawl.

 

I’d say the top reasons are they’re cheap, go on/off in 5 minutes, lightweight, and easy to store. I keep one around for if I have to take my cap off for something I can just throw that on and have a dry bed until I put the cap back on.

I’ve also had hard Trifolds which are nice for a more permanent solution but have basically none of the advantages I just listed of the soft trifold.

 

I would never get a soft cover of any variety, but I imagine, cost and possibly weight savings would be the main draws. As far as security, it would be minimal at best. Of course I am pretty bias with my Diamondback, which is amazing in every way.

 

I have a hard tri fold cover that i like. the "get out of alignment when I would go wheeling" comment rings true to me, even if i'm just parked on uneven ground so diagonally opposite tires are lifted, with a heavy load in the bed and a trailer, i found that i couldn't properly close and latch the cover, had to move onto flat. i imagine if i went wheeling like that it might break off some of the mounts just from the small amount of bed twist.

 

Hard tri fold by extang 2.0. I like mine. Easy to remove if hauling something where I need full bed space. Most of the time it’s on and I let my tailgate down for the extra space. It’s relatively water proof. Can shift slightly it’s up and not down/locked in when off roading

 

Love my hard trifold but I don’t wheel.

 

I got the best of both worlds! I really do love this thing, if someone is determined enough to break into your canopy, unless it's solid metal you're gonna loose, and instead of broken glass to pay out the a$$ for i get WAAAYYY cheaper replacement fabric!

https://softopper.com/products/softopper-so-fl96o/

 

I do love the old school military look of that on white.

 

I just had my hard Century tonneau cover removed and stored. I’m trying to make up my mind about a Line-X roll up or a trifold. Didn’t know they would get wonky, but that makes sense. I like the look of your soft one. I wasn’t aware of this option. I don’t want to spend the $$$ for a Barcelona Red camper shell but I would love one. I’ve never liked the look of a trifold either, but I need something. I’m 70 and the Century top just got too hard to operate. You are so right about someone breaking in. That’s why I never lock my convertible when the top is up. Nothing to take anyway. I’m interested to know if anyone else has this soft top. Thanks for reading.

 

Have been paying more attention to soft roll up covers thinking about this thread and probably 50% of the ones I walk by don't look as taut as they could be, with visible ripples near the bed rails running cab to tailgage. Probably from that velcro on the sides loosening over time if not checked and re tightened.

Would drive me nuts if I owned one, probably the reason I'd do a soft folder if I was still doing soft covers. I distinctly remember having to periodically pull out and press down on the velcro strips on the Extang roll up I used to have on my 04 Dakota.

 

I had a cheap tri-fold and it served its purpose for many years. Not ideal but at like $200 it was a good buy for me at the time. I have since moved to a Softopper and its far superior in every way.

 

I borrowed a friend's truck years ago with a normal roll up soft tonneau and it made noise and flapped in the middle a bit on the highway, and in the winter it was really hard to get the corners on, so i guess that's an advantage of the trifold soft ones is you don't have to worry about stretching it over the corners in the cold... and yes cheap!