Topper for Truck

They are heavy if you are planning to take on/off frequently. They are very convenient for quick, dry storage.

Ours had a Century fiberglass cap on it when we bought it. That was a very nice high quality cap. Within a few months we sold it and got an Extang Solid Fold cover. We found the cap to be restrictive, couldn't stand up the bikes to keep them from getting banged up, couldn't haul loads that stand above the opening of the cap, couldn't have dirt or gravel dumped into the back, etc.

Our Solid Fold cover folds up to easily access the bed, is easily removed in a few minutes to carry our bikes or loading dirt, or what ever. Plus the cover locks (provided your gate has a lock) and no one can see what's inside, unlike most caps, which anyone can see inside. Those cheesy locks on the cap door aren't going to stop anyone from getting your genny or your bikes.

Everyone use their trucks differently that's why there's so many options. Caps don't work for me, but given what you want to put in your bed you may get a lot of benefit with a cap.

Hello Penman,
What is difference in fiber she'll and topper, thanks. Thought both were cab height

I have a fiberglass topper on my truck but if I had it to do over again I would get a camper shell instead. The one thing I would do the same is get a bed slide so I can just pull it out and reach items from anywhere in the bed.

I got a Century aluminum truck topper, construction style. Here's the advantage:

It has full length side panels with doors that open up and out of the way. Inside the panels (called tool boxes), it has 2 shelves that run the full length of the shell. What's the advantage? We can pack all sorts of thing on both shelves and still have the bed of the truck 100% empty. The shelves are great for putting groceries, or your sewer hose, or ... in our case ... our canoe equipment so we don't have to crawl around in the back of the bed.

Actually, we bought this shell specifically so we could transport our canoe and all the equipment for it. One side of the tool boxes is reserved for all the canoe stuff. The other side is reserved for ropes, tie down, jacks, an extra light weight hitch, parts, stuff like that. Stuff that small, easily lost in the shuffle, but stuff we need access to immediately.

On the top of the shell, we had them install the ladder rack. Why? Well to carry the canoe! The topper is now on it's 3rd truck. We have it for many years now. It's getting some age on it, but it still works and does the job great.

By the way, with all the stuff in the tool boxes, it leaves the bed of the truck available for my 6 foot ladder, my blue tote, my air compressor, wooden boards for leveling, a tool box with tools in it, the spare tire for the trailer (I took it off the trailer bumper), 6 gallon water jugs, fire wood, a container for all our water hoses, and another container for our sewer hoses. Put all that in the bed of the truck, and those side panel tool boxes come in REAL nice and handy!

When not towing, as a daily driver, or winter, all the canoe stuff comes out. The side panels are great for grocery shopping. Put your groceries there and they don't slide all around the back of the bed! Right now, one side is completely empty, the other side has my ratchet straps, ropes, the small hitch (for my utility trailer), bungie cords, electric cords, a few tools, and it still has lots of room. I think the snow scraper is in there now, as well as extra sets of winter clothes. Nice and dry and easily accessible.

Click here for Century Caps.

Our Springdale and first diesel duly:



It sure beats doing it this way! I made that ladder rack myself out of chain link posts:



Our Outback with our first diesel duly, you can see the tool boxes shelves. This space is wonderful!



So... before purchasing ... consider something like this. It takes no more space than a conventional topper, but give you SO much more space to do stuff with!

I bought a topper for our GMC when we pull our TT. Not the first time I've had this set up. For us, this is why we have a topper: the kids toys, bikes, sometimes a generator and water jugs for boondocking, and the dog in a crate when we drive (yes, windows provide air!).

We can lock stuff up at night.

Additionally, there are many times we buy "junk" (read: antiques) and need a place to put it until we get home, again, to lock it up and keep out the weather.

Bottom line: For us, the ideal set up is having a topper. I even installed an LED strip light with a toggle switch. Man, its bright at night....works great.

I used to have toppers on my trucks but found that getting stuff out of the front end of the bed became a pain with crawling up in there. Now I have a vinyl, roll-up tonneau cover that really like. Granted, it limits the vertical space you can use with it closed but it also rolls up easily out of the way when you need to carry something large.

Also, remember that the weight of a topper is going to decrease your available GVW.

I have a SNUGTOP Xtra Vision. It's a great cab high topper, color matched.

SNUGTOP