Has anyone seen or installed a bed cover that fits and looks nice on the AD box? I'm not seeing much on the net. Not sure how well a vinyl tonneau cover would fit on the angled bed tops. Any thoughts?
Re:Bed Cover I had mine custom made at an upholstery shop of marine vinyl. Sorry I can't find a source for the bows anymore. You may be able to find some NOS ones at your local FLAPS.
Thanks, federale...I see it too, so it must be here, or we're both getting better at ESP. I could fabricate the bows easy from aluminum, but not sure how the edges would look. Almost would need a flat bar on the top "corner" of the bed side to seal against to assure the rain wouldn't drain back into the box, right? Do you have pictures of how you did yours?
Put a tonneau cover on a 51 GMC with a 74 Cad chassis. Don't personally care for them but the Cad frame kicked up so high for the rear coil springs that the floor of the bed was raised to accommodate so the cover is to hide the ugly. My upholstery guy added a lengthwise bow at the bottom of the angled side to have the cover follow the original contour. It's only required replacing once in 36 years and 200+K miles.
I have a Extang Full Tilt bed cover on my Ram. I was looking at the way it is layed out, hinged in front. I figured on some half round to mate to the side rails, then a drop frame over the tailgate. A couple bows in the middle to keep from sagging then have a cover sewn for it. I need hinged because I use my bed all the time.
What about looking into those aluminum locking roll back units? http://www.rollnlock.com/?gclid=CJ33t-L1lKkCFQoObAod00GMeQ http://www.peragon.com/truck-bed-cover-retractable.php?ref=google&gclid=CL2dron2lKkCFQELbAod7zEedA http://www.diamondbackcovers.com/?gclid=CL3bpZf2lKkCFQUDbAodTCHEeA http://www.rolltopcover.com/
Those are cool, Ccharr. I didn't realize they had styles like that. Still, I'm not seeing how one could be made to fit the AD box style very well. I could certainly make a hinged panel set like the one option from aluminum and powdercoat it, but I'm not sure I like the looks of capping it flush with the top of the sides, but making it flush with the bottom of the angled part make it pretty tough to control the water. I'll have to keep thinking on this...
Re: I'm not sure you can see full detail from this pic, but the snaps are situated along the middle of the bed rail. I only put the bows in to prevent the middle sagging as best I could. Seaming is along the perimeter of the cover. I'll post better pics when I get the cover back on from winter storage.
Charles, we plasma cut the top and bottom out of 10g cold roll, formed the vertical piece out of 3/16 plate, and added a 3/8 plate (crudely) to give foundation for a trailer hitch. Made one pass with a mig to weld the top and bottom flanges to the center piece then turned the heat down to give a built up bead that could be radiused for a nice round edge before sending to the chrome shop. There has been several that have asked about it since they thought there was something on the market that could be bolted on, no such luck. The owner is pretty much retired now but had a large plumbing contracting company and put so many miles on the truck going from job to job. The hitch was for boating weekends because the 500ci Cad engine makes a great trailer puller.
One of those models has a tank that collects the water and feeds it down through a hole in the bed or side panel.
Check for Gaylord's Tonneau Covers on the net--classic section. You may get some good ideas there. Good luck. G
