Question for those with truck caps

[Kim Gass]

Have always had caps snd never an issue but we dont live in a high crime area
I like that we can load boats on the cap and have riom to store talk bulky items in the bed.
We have had caps since 1987
Used to sleep in there too with an elevated platform with drawer storage below

[djcoop52]

Have had a cap on my trucks since 2004 should be getting new Ram 3500 Dsl dually by end of next week ordered it first week in Jan. Ordered the cap for it right after ordering truck. We carry all kinds of gear in back when camping Grill, table, chairs, water, ezup , and big coolers. Windows are heavily tinted hard to see inside have single center latch/lock on mine never had a problem so far if they are going to break into a locked cap they will break into camper or truck locks not going to stop the thieves. New truck will have fifth wheel prep so we can go either way with our next rig. I love having the cap when on fishing trips or hunting trips everything stays dry and out of sight.

[MichaelO]

They won’t stop someone who really wants to get in, but they are a good deterrent. Of course the same can be said about most doors on houses. I could be through most of them in seconds. If you’ve secured them better like I have it might go from a few seconds to a couple of minutes.

[garyg23]

Every truck I ever owned had a cap. There are some drawbacks, but advantages outweigh the negatives. For security make sure you have operating locks. Then you can add battery operated "door alarms" very inexpensively. Use tarps to keep valuables covered. Stay out of high crime areas(theft isn't the risk, getting shot is) And lastly you have your insurance to mitigate the risk. Having your lawn chairs blow out of the back of your open truck bed and some other driver ends up harmed is much more expensive than your cargo.

[TWX]

When I bought my used Frontier it came with a Leer fiberglass cab-height canopy. I ended up buying Harken Hoister system that lets me lift my canopy up off of the truck and hang it from the underside of my garage ceiling.







After I did this install I ended up also buying a flat fiberglass tonneau cover for the truck. I modified my setup to let me also hang the tonneau. In short I added short straps with hooks for doing the primary lifting, and then added eye-screws to the boards at the ceiling as a place to use straps to hold the canopy while I lowered down the rope/pulley system.







Granted, to get to the canopy when the tonneau is hanging there, I have to lower the tonenau to something like a cart, then wheel it out of the way, then back in the truck and lower the canopy down, but it works well enough.

With all of the stupidity over the last several months I've had the canopy on the truck in case for some reason it was necessary to get out of town quickly. Normally I run with the tonneau cover though as it does a better job of keeping contents hidden and it weighs a little less than the canopy. Obviously coverless is best if I need to move especially large things.

Realistically I can convert between configurations including unloading that garage stall in 30-45 minutes. I know what size fasteners the various toppers use, so I can grab the one or two wrenches and just get on it.

The only annoyance is that when it's unloaded, it's hard to lower the hoisting system down. If I want to remove what's on the truck I may have to get my wife to help pull down on the lifting brackets so the thing will lower, and I usually have to put a pin into the compound block so that the brake is released while doing this.