Installed/Review: Truck Covers USA American Work Cover JR Tonneau Cover

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Hello esteemed members of the forum.

I’ve had my truck for about 1.5 years now, the first year of ownership I had an open bed because I could not settle on a tonneau cover option. I probably spent more time researching bed cover options than the research time it took me to spec out my truck. Alas, I settled on a lesser known brand: Truck Covers USA and their American Roll Cover JR retractable cover. I say lesser known because I had gone many months of casually browsing the forums and YouTube and not much is out there about this option.

Philosophy of Use: (Skip ahead if you are here for the review of the actual bed cover as this next section is me just rambling my thoughts leading up to the purchase.)

I had difficulty narrowing down what was best suited for my needs/lifestyle. I do truck stuff Monday-Friday and am on the water and/or camping on the weekends (on a side note: if thievery did not exist the best option for me would simply to have an open bed and keep gear in weatherproof cargo boxes, damn thieves have to ruin everything). If my truck were primarily a camping rig I would have done a bed cap such as an ARE, GFC, or other similar style but those options would take away from being able to use my truck to do the truck stuff I do Monday-Friday. I routinely have large loads in my bed and appreciate being able to stand up in the bed, so a bed cap was out (though maybe when I grow up a bed cap would still be awesome). I also strongly considered the Diamondback for its strength and ability to tie down items on top of it. I make heavy use of racks so anything I put on the bed would have to have Tslot options and be able to support various aftermarket rack/tie down options and the Diamondback definitely fit that need. But just like the bed cap I would need to remove the entire Diamondback or portions of it too frequently to be practical so I begrudgingly dismissed it as a viable option.

Between needing to be able to access the whole bed (or most of it) and needing to have Tslots for racks/tie downs I was left with the canister style retractable covers such as the Retrax (which there is plenty of great info/reviews on the forum). I had a few issues with this style of tonneau cover: I did not want to lose bed space to the canister, I thought the drains would be annoying, and I was concerned about the strength. This later issue was reinforced once I found out that rack manufacturers tend to de-rate the strength rating of their racks when used on some of these cover options.

So there I was, in limbo, living day to day without a secure bed cover and I happened to stumble across a picture of a retractable cover with a toolbox mounted on top of the canister. A little more poking around led me to the Truck Covers USA website. No idea how I missed them for so long. After much fastidious research I was pleasantly surprised that this brand of retractable tonneau covers addressed most of my qualms with this style: The canister is the smallest on the market so there is a minimal loss of bed space and, most importantly for me, the cover can support 500lbs evenly distributed on top of it and racks are not de-rated for use. To my knowledge this is the only retractable style cover that rack manufactures have not had to de-rate their weight limits. And to top it all off, it was available in a matte finish and with a toolbox. I was sold.

Now for a random compilation of thoughts in no particular order:

• Ordered through C and H Auto Accessories in South Florida. They ship everywhere and have a good YouTube channel with many different bed cover reviews including reviews of what eventually sold me on the American Work Cover JR:Truck Covers USA American Roll Cover with HD T-Slot Rails review by Chris from C&H Auto Accessories
• A minor technicality: The “American Roll Cover” is available in semi gloss and more recently, matte. The “American Work Cover” and the “JR” model with toolboxes are NOT available in matte. The toolbox option was a primary driver of choosing this brand and I also wanted the matte finish. The dealer had to go back and forth with the manufacturer a few times: ultimately I ordered the “American Roll Cover” in matte and the JR toolbox in semi gloss with intent to paint/powdercoat to match the roll cover on my own. For those looking to order the matte finish but with the larger toolbox option I gather you must be willing to trim the rails and do some minor metal work to make it fit. The JR toolbox fit my needs so I did not need to do any modification (other than potentially paint/powdercoat the toolbox to match the roll cover).
• I did the installation myself in about 3 hours. The included instructions were good but I found this video to be helpful: How to Install Truck Covers USA American Roll Cover Matte Black on a 2018 Ford F-150
• I originally intended to get the toolbox powdercoated to match. To do that I would need to completely strip down the toolbox. After analyzing the complex (for me) locking mechanism in the toolbox I decided that was not a job I wanted to delve into at this point. Now with it installed the small size of the semi gloss JR toolbox does not bother me as much as I suspected it would. Perhaps in the future I will paint it matte black or I will just let this Florida sun bake all the gloss out of it.
• Shimming the rails flush against the bedcap was a fun trial and error process. I found the shim configuration for me was different than for the truck in the install video above. I used a large + medium shim together nearest the tailgate, a medium shim in the middle, and no shims towards the cab because the rail was already flush with the bedcap.
• The only tedious part of the installation was the final step of getting the final locking position to be flush up against the tailgate which then becomes a two person job because one person needs to keep tension on the cover against the tailgate while the other person drills out the hole for the final locking position.
• I like being able to walk on top of it to tie down canoes on my roof rack.
• I would say this cover, as installed by me, is 98% waterproof. This cover has been through two hurricanes and many many Florida rainstorms. The only places I get leaking (drips, not running water) are on the drive side rails. I have only ever observed this while parked in my driveway, so perhaps the specific pitch of my driveway overloads that particular drain?
  • I have gotten in my bed under the cover with a flashlight several times during the rain trying to pinpoint where the water comes from. There is a waterproof tape that runs along the underside of each slat, each slat empties into a drain channel. It looks like the tape may have been cut fractions of an inch short, and this is allowing water that would otherwise make it to the drain channel in the rails, drip through.
  • I contacted customer service and explained my observations and they priority shipped me an entire roll of the waterproof tape they use. Truck Covers USA customer service was a good experience. Very quick to respond and take action.
  • At some point I will crawl under the cover with the tape and attempt to fix, just have not taken the few minutes to do so yet. Goes to show how minor of an issue it is, overall I am very pleased with the lack of water intrusion.
  • When the tailgate is opened and it has been pouring rain a decent amount of water will drop onto the rear of the bed.
• Perhaps a minor con of this style of bed cover is the noise made when opening. It is nowhere near annoying loud but a far cry from what something like gas struts sounds like opening. You can mitigate the noise some by holding onto the tether and slowly allowing the cover to retract vs letting the spring tension to its thing and suck it back at speed. I am often in and out of my truck in the wee hours of the morning while camping with others so the noise is something to note depending on your situation.
• I have Yakima HD T slot hooks in the bed rails. They are used both as grab handles when getting in the bed and as tie downs while hauling loads.
• I did not have the bed lighting in my truck, so I used the would-be bed light holes as the drain holes for the rear. It is my understanding that there are other workarounds vs drilling two drain holes near your tailgate.
• The drain tubes do not bother me or get in the way as much as I thought they would. On the occasion I am transporting sheet goods or anything else that slides all the way to the bulkhead I simply remove them temporarily.
• Being able to retract the cover and open up 95% usable bed space is a feature that has been utilized dozens and dozens of times the past few months and was the primary driver behind choosing a retractable style cover.
• The JR toolbox has been the best thing about this cover. It is small enough to store what I need and not take up any additional bed space. I keep various tie downs, some camping/emergency tools (small ax/shovel/hammer) and an assortment of tools in the toolbox. The toolbox has been 100% waterproof.

Happy to answer any additional questions/thoughts about the cover. Now for the picture bomb:

Showing what the shims/brackets look like. Don't know why but this is the only washer that is rusting, will replace soon.

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[Realtruck]

TCUSA makes a premium product. This was a great write up, and you really showcase all of the features and benefits of the cover.