Alright everyone, if you are in the tl,dr category look away now. It is long, but hopefully helpful.....
Assembly
I ordered the shipment on a Wednesday and it arrived the following Tuesday via FedEx. Everything was packed well, and arrived without any sort of damage. The instructions are easy to follow and the nuts and bolts are actually packed in the order you use them so there isn’t a lot of sorting to do. Prior to installing everything I watched the videos available on the Peragon website to get an understanding of how it should function. In all the installation took about 4 hours. The first step is to construct the rails and then transfer them to the bed of the truck. I put most of it together by myself, but did require a second hand when you actually transfer the rails over to the bed.
After installing the cover, it wouldn’t lock completely. The rod that lines up and locks in place was just missing the hole. I loosened everything up and bent the lock a little, then re-tightened everything and it seems to be working fine. In all I would say assembly isn’t difficult, but it did prove to be more time consuming than I imagined. You should also be aware that it does require you to drill 4 holes on the inside lip of the truck bed. Once the cover is on, you obviously don’t see the holes, but if you were to ever take off the cover and decide not to replace it, the holes are pretty obvious.
On the inside of the truck bed, at the front, there are two ~45 degree angle pieces that help load the cover onto the rails. A picture is below to give you an idea. These will become important later because they are one major flaw for the Peragon cover.
Functionality
After fixing the above locking issue the cover slides pretty well. After a few times of opening and closing the cover it has loosened up a bit and is sliding with more ease than originally. I think once everything loosens up a hair and settles in it will work without issues.
After installing everything my concern was that the above mentioned brackets would be sticking too far into the bed and would take away space for loading anything. That proved not to be the case as they only stick out a couple of inches and are outside the width of the wheel wells. However, they do create one problem. In order for the cover to open and close nothing can be loaded in the cab end of your bed that is taller than around one foot tall. The picture below gives you a picture of what I am saying. The space inside of the boxed area is space lost due to how the covers opens and closes.
When completely opened the cover only takes up about 6 to 8 inches at the front of the bed. It does come off with ease and goes back on in seconds. Removing this was one of the reasons that I chose this cover and it does come off as easy as advertised.
One of the questions asked was if it was too loud with the metal constantly banging against each other. Between each panel is a rubber seal. This keeps the panels from rubbing together or banging. Also, as you can see below the wheel fits pretty well inside the rail. There is a little play there but not enough to give it enough room to bounce up and down. Overall, I have driven it to for a few days and a quite a few miles and cannot hear a thing inside the cab. Sound appears not to be an issue at all. I will say that as time goes by, everything tends to loosen up and maybe down the road it becomes a problem. However, for now everything is quite.
The following picture gives you an idea of what the underside of the cover looks like. It is not painted like the top and you can see the rubber seals between each panel.
Security
I know security is a question as well. Essentially you press down on the first two panels and as they cave in the rest of the cover retracts and it all rolls down the ramps and opens. A lock is installed at the cab end of the cover that allows you to lock the bed cover. It appears to lock well and makes it difficult for anyone to open. However, there is a lock only on one side so if someone were to really make a valiant effort to get into the cover I think they could, but that is with any cover. I should note that Peragon does sell an upgraded lock that costs around $29 if I remember correctly. I think I should have invested in that just to be safe. Like I said though, if someone wants in any tonneau cover they will probably get into it. You can see the lock on the front driver’s side on a few of the photos.
Weather
I was hoping to also speak about how weather resistant the cover is as well, but to date it hasn’t rained. No surprise here in Houston I guess, but hopefully it will rain soon and I can update this post with info regarding how the cover held up. However, in an attempt to give some kind of review I took a water hose and sprayed down the cover. Obviously, nothing simulates going 70mph down the highway in a pouring rain, but I thought this was at least give some insight for this post for when your truck is parked and it rains. The cover held up okay in this category. Water was able to get in near the front of the bed and seep through into the bed of the truck. However, the seals between the panels and the seals running the length of the bed on the rails worked well. Also, the seal on the tailgate worked adequately. I might be able to add some additional weather stripping on the front to help keep the water out in that area. Until it rains I won’t really have a lot more to say on this.
Overall, I am satisfied with the cover. At the $599 price point I do feel it is worth purchasing. I do however wish I had updated and had the additional lock installed, and the tailgate seal. I’m told a cover creates a vacuum effect so I might need to get that additional seal in the future. It looks great on my truck, and I feel it serves my needs. Time may prove me wrong, but in the first week of owning the cover I must say I like it.
Feel free to ask me any questions and I will gladly answer them. I tried to give you both the pros and cons in an honest review. Often I read reviews and everything is positive with no negatives. The truth is this cover has some negatives, but for the price I can live with them.
I live and work in Spring, so if you want to see it first-hand just let me know and you are more than welcome to come take a look.
