Softopper Review
I just bought a softopper for my Ram and figured I'd post a quick review. I'm not really a canopy fan but we have three kids and dog so practically speaking a canopy is very helpful for family trips during bad weather. Frankly the five of us plus the dog pretty well overload my wife's Pilot anymore so we mostly use it around town and take the truck on trips when we need more space.
But like I said I'm not really a fan of toppers on trucks (they're called "pappy caps" for a reason). So I figured I'd give a softopper a shot. From the research I did there are basically two soft canopy options at this time - softopper and bestop. Softopper tends to have better reviews between the two although it does cost a bit more (I paid about $740 for mine including shipping and the storage bag). They seem very popular with the Tacoma crowd in particular.
The initial install took me about an hour and a half working slowly and enjoying some nice local IPAs. The quality seems really good and once you get the hang of it you can pop it up or drop it back down in about 5 minutes. The nice thing about that is you can pop it up pretty easy if you hit some unexpected bad weather. It's a solid unit once you get it up and it doesn't seem to flap or anything. I haven't tested it in the rain yet but I did use a can of good silicone sealant on the inside of all the seams so I'm not expecting any leaks.
If it holds up I'd say it's a great buy for anybody who wants a part-time canopy that's easy to pop up when you need it and take back down when you don't. The major tradeoff you make with it compared to a hard shell is obviously security. But it does offer a ton of flexibility. You can pull it out of the truck entirely by releasing two pins. You can leave it folded up in the truck and it doesn't take up much more space than a rolled up tonneau cover (buy the storage bag if you want to do this). Or if you want it up, you can have it fully up and deployed or you can roll up the back and sides to use it as a shade for the bed.
Overall it seems like a good product.
Here's a pic of it folded down in the storage bag.
But like I said I'm not really a fan of toppers on trucks (they're called "pappy caps" for a reason). So I figured I'd give a softopper a shot. From the research I did there are basically two soft canopy options at this time - softopper and bestop. Softopper tends to have better reviews between the two although it does cost a bit more (I paid about $740 for mine including shipping and the storage bag). They seem very popular with the Tacoma crowd in particular.
The initial install took me about an hour and a half working slowly and enjoying some nice local IPAs. The quality seems really good and once you get the hang of it you can pop it up or drop it back down in about 5 minutes. The nice thing about that is you can pop it up pretty easy if you hit some unexpected bad weather. It's a solid unit once you get it up and it doesn't seem to flap or anything. I haven't tested it in the rain yet but I did use a can of good silicone sealant on the inside of all the seams so I'm not expecting any leaks.
If it holds up I'd say it's a great buy for anybody who wants a part-time canopy that's easy to pop up when you need it and take back down when you don't. The major tradeoff you make with it compared to a hard shell is obviously security. But it does offer a ton of flexibility. You can pull it out of the truck entirely by releasing two pins. You can leave it folded up in the truck and it doesn't take up much more space than a rolled up tonneau cover (buy the storage bag if you want to do this). Or if you want it up, you can have it fully up and deployed or you can roll up the back and sides to use it as a shade for the bed.
Overall it seems like a good product.
Here's a pic of it folded down in the storage bag.
