Tonneau Bed Covers OK With Automatic Car Washes?

[FirstFord]

Total truck newbie question here...

Any issues with running through a carwash with a bed cover? In particular, I ordered the soft toneau. Do you go though with the toneau rolled up or deployed? Does it affect the longevity of the cover in any way?

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[SgtLip]

Never used a carwash. The chemicals used are way to harsh. Plus I don't want to add swirls and scratches with every carwash.

Having said that, the Soft rollup could get stretched and misshaped like he said. The Tri-Folds and Hard Rollups and Retractable should be okay.

Just remember NO TONNEAU is WATER PROOF. They ALL leak.

 

[SgtLip]

Just found this doing a simple search on the internet. Pretty good article.

https://realtruck.com/blog/can-tonneau-covers-go-through-a-car-wash/

 

[FirstFord]

There are few touchless washes around me that don't produce any swirls or scratches, but they do have a drier that would easily blow a roll-up cover loose in no time.

Ah, good point on the blowers. Wasn't thinking of that but I can imagine the stress they'd impart!

 

[FirstFord]

I'd say roll up a soft cover before an auto-washes and hand wash it as needed. Actually, I'd say avoid the auto-washes all together and just hand wash properly when you can, but I know not everyone has the time or patience to do that so a quick auto-wash once in a while is what it is.

Yeah, when I was a young man driving a sports car worth a year's salary, I hand washed it every weekend. Now...not so much.
But who knows, maybe I can get the old bucket out now and again.

 

[OTACORB]

Automatic car wash... them dirty words in these here parts! LOL

 

[OTACORB]

In Michigan in the Winter, if you don't use the car washes, the road salt will decimate the vehicle in a very short time. Sure, you can hand wash if the temps are workable although this is usually a coin toss at best.

That makes sense and something I had not thought about living in LA were we get maybe a week or two of below freezing temps during the overnight hours and we aren't talking about back to back days. Just the occasional freeze. I would imagine with the temps you guys experience hand washing would be very difficult.

 

[Maverick2022XL]

So far I've rolled my soft cover up when I've gone through the car wash. Though reading that above article I'd second not leaving it on period if you plan to use wax during an automatic wash since it will coat it for sure.

 

[notfast]

Yeah, when I was a young man driving a sports car worth a year's salary, I hand washed it every weekend. Now...not so much.
But who knows, maybe I can get the old bucket out now and again.

Never owned a sports car but similar story here. I detailed cars for a living. Used to hand wash my own cars.

Now? Pay $7.99 and I get to sit on my butt while a conveyor pulls the car through for a "good enough" job, then I give it two coats of Meguiar's Cleaner Wax when I get home.

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