Home made tonneau cover

[New2AZ]

Nice work MacGuyver'ing that thing! Thumbs up!

Sponsored

 

[MakinDoForNow]

Interesting solution. I still get the feeling that the MDF won't last long though.

4 coats of bed liner "paint" should last pretty well. As long as he keeps moisture away from mdf. He should have used "flexible" bed liner so that it wouldn't crack and let moisture in. I don't believe he said which bedliner he used. Osb/4 would have been better but most lumber yards do not stock it.

 

[MakinDoForNow]

Ok, I suggested this in another thread. Go to habitat recycle store and buy hollow core 1 3/4" exterior doors cut to size (have to cut edge piece and glue in your open edges). Can hinge together or screw & glue them together then fill sand & paint. Doors at habitat should be $10-$15. They will weigh less than anything else you can do, I think.

 

[Qwillex]

Some background on why certain decisions were made:
I have a diamondback cover on my F-350, I LOVE it, it's a great cover, it's not available yet for the Maverick, I lean pretty heavy to getting a diamondback for this truck as well, but I'm also considering a ladder rack on this truck (since carrying anything longer than 8' is iffy). So I am considering the lomax with the ADARAC ladder rack. This is also not yet available, so I considered a cheaper option, but a vinyl cover over an aluminum frame is not going to work for me, I like to sit on or set things on top of my cover on a regular basis so the inexpensive ones were out. I also need it to be pretty secure as I'll have a decent amount of tools back there, so someone cutting a vinyl one to get access is too easy.

The 2nd day I had my truck we cut a bed cover from 3/4" MDF for it, we have 5'x12' MDF at work so we could cut a single piece to cover the entire bed, I was considering a lift system that would just tilt the entire sheet, but the more I thought about it the more I didn't like it. I came up with a few must haves. I wanted fairly easy to remove, I wanted to not drill a single hole anywhere, I wanted to flip flat the back on to the front for transporting taller items, I also wanted 24" between the cover and the tailgate. This kind of left me very few options, what you see met all me needs for a pretty low price. If my boss bothers to charge me for the MDF it'll be $25-ish, plus the paint and hardware and I'm into it for around $150 (not counting the unistrut as I had already done that and planned on that no matter what cover I did).

Sure I had some time into it, probably 3-4 hours as I did a bit of the planning along the way. When I cut the sheets in half I had no clue how I was going to attach it to the truck. Had I planned out ahead of time and measured out the eye bolts I could have saved some time and an extra trip to home depot. All in all I'm happy with how it turned out, it looks WAY better than I expected, unless something changes or I find I really need the ladder rack I don't think I'll replace this cover with a bought one.

 

[Msab13]

Great job! This is what the Mav is all about.

 

[kw86er]

Nice work.

There is a product we call Medex up here in Canada. It is MDF that is used for "exterior" use but not for direct moisture. It would do better but still needs to be sealed good. I think standard MDF will have a limited lifespan.

A better material would be Baltic Birch. It has more plys than standard plywood and is more stable with each ply being birch. The edges sand nice and is light compared to MDF/Medex. It comes 5'x5' here in Canada available at Windsor Plywood or PJ White. It would be my pick over MDF.

Formply/Crezone/Crown 45 would be a good option as well. I would use double sided as it is more stable.

 

[Qwillex]

Nice work.

There is a product we call Medex up here in Canada. It is MDF that is used for "exterior" use but not for direct moisture. It would do better but still needs to be sealed good. I think standard MDF will have a limited lifespan.

A better material would be Baltic Birch. It has more plys than standard plywood and is more stable with each ply being birch. The edges sand nice and is light compared to MDF/Medex. It comes 5'x5' here in Canada available at Windsor Plywood or PJ White. It would be my pick over MDF.

Formply/Crezone/Crown 45 would be a good option as well. I would use double sided as it is more stable.

I considered ordering in something outdoor rated, but the coating makes the substrate irrelevant, at least as far as durability against weather. Ply may be more durable as far as weight capacity on top, but it's still surprising how much durability is added with the coating. I would not be surprised to see this last 3-5 years.

 

[kw86er]

I considered ordering in something outdoor rated, but the coating makes the substrate irrelevant, at least as far as durability against weather. Ply may be more durable as far as weight capacity on top, but it's still surprising how much durability is added with the coating. I would not be surprised to see this last 3-5 years.

Your probably right. As a finishing carpenter I have developed an obsession with choosing the correct product for the job. You might want to back out any fasteners and add PL or some kind of glue in the holes for a little extra peace of mind. Any penetration, chip or wear-through spot will be the weak point. It looks good and if you get 2-5 years all the better. Might do the same thing.

 

[Mymaverick2021]

Can't find a cover I really want yet, can't keep waiting so this will have to hold me over until someone makes a cover that is perfect for me. 3/4 MDF with bed liner paint all around 4 coats, still need to paint the piano hinge and screws with a flat black spray paint. Hinges just under the halfway point so I don't hit the back window.

Turned out better than I expected, still a few more tweaks to do, easy to remove as I just pull the EMT out of the eye bolts and fold it in half and carry it away.

The back can be held down with a bungie (that way I can hang long stuff out the back). I used garage door weather stripping, it works ok, I may change it out for something else though.

You build a kit and sell it on eBay

 

[Qwillex]

Update on the cover, still holding up great overall, had a little bit of sagging maybe 3/8-1/2" just enough to bug me. I wanted to keep things simple and light and easy to remove. I kept with the eye bolt attachment and grabbed some steel fence posts that I had laying around and added 1 at the seam and 1 at the back. I notched the post so that it rests on the bed sides but the u shape part drops below the sides.

I wanted to support both sides of the seam but also make it movable in case it's in the way if I flip the cover back flat. Both of the metal posts are loose and not attached to the cover or the truck permanently, the middle one is held on with the eye bolts and conduit that held the cover originally.

The tailgate end is held on with the eye bolt and wingnut through a threaded insert in the cover. That threaded insert also lines up with another on the front of the truck, so if I want the cover opened and flat I can use that eye bolt to hold it down.

Everything still comes off easy with no tools and only takes a few minutes.

Security is just the clip holding the cover, it can be opened 1/2" or so and it's easy to unclip with the tailgate open. All in all I'm very happy with how this all turned out.

 

[MavDave]

That is nice. I have a ford basic tonneau. I will keep tgis in mind as I HATE seeing mine flop around on the highway.

 

[oljackfrost]

Nice solution to your needs. How much does the whole works actually weigh?

 

[Qwillex]

Nice solution to your needs. How much does the whole works actually weigh?

The mdf is around 60 lbs, the fence posts are 20 lbs each, but being cut shorter maybe 12-13 lbs each. So overall around 85 lbs, but since it's all components the heaviest is just the mdf.

I'm 180lbs and I can walk around on it with no flex now.

 

[Decayed]

Bedliner paint is surprisingly waterproof, it also stiffened the board considerably. I was planning on adding some runners as the sheet was sagging just carrying it before, but it really helped it with that paint alone. I would bet it'll last 3 years easily.

I saw a thing where these guys painted metal body armor plates with bed liner to reduce spalling. It actually worked to some extent. It's tough stuff.

Sponsored