Do You Need Bed Rails For A Tonneau Cover

Last Updated on May 24, 2022

Do you often find your tonneau cover getting loose at night? Does it often slide back and forth? No worries, Installing bed rails will solve this problem. Bed rails help to attach the cover to the bed and keeps it in place while driving. Though it is not required but it’s a great advantage to have bed rails installed in your truck.

The tonneau cover is used for many purposes, and it comes in a variety of designs and materials. You will find both soft and hard tonneau covers available in the market. Bed Rails are not required for tonneau cover installation but it is recommended that you install bed rails. Properly using your tonneau cover will extend its life. You will know more about why bed rails are important after reading this article thoroughly.

Do You Need Bed Rails For A Tonneau Cover

What are truck bed rails?

Truck bed rails can be defined as a long metal rail that sits and fits over the length of the truck bed walls. If you are planning to upgrade your truck recently, then installing bed rails is a good option. Truck bed rails improve your truck’s appearance and functionality. It helps to tie down cargo easily in the bed area without damaging it.

Truck bed rails working mechanism

Truck bed rails are designed to prevent your truck bed from scratches and dents that can happen while loading. It protects your truck bed while hauling long or some larger element may extend over the side of the bed. It allows you to tie down and secure items from multiple angles, even bigger equipment like a motorcycle or snowmobile.

Benefits of Truck Bed Rails

A quality set of truck bed rails enhances your truck’s cargo-carrying flexibility. They come in a variety of finishes and designs. They are made from tough materials and built for high weight capacity. Seems interesting? Okay, now, let’s talk about some benefits of using truck bed rails.

It secures the loading area of your truck.
It helps to transport heavy types of equipment in the bed without moving around while driving the truck.
It protects the side rails. You can find no missing piece of paint while using bed rails. It prevents your truck bed from being scratched also.

Uses of truck bed rails

Everyone uses a truck for a specific purpose like a family trip, business trip, and recreational purpose. Using bed rails will be helpful for these purposes.

For personal use: Truck bed rails provide a transportation option for larger equipment such as furniture or other appliances. It is a good option if you are planning a family trip.
For commercial use: Truck bed rails are useful when you need to tie down your equipment such as ladders or machinery. You can also tie down materials or supplies like lumber or pipes.
For farming purposes: Bed rails are useful for carrying farming equipment and supplies also.
For recreational purposes: Sporting or recreational equipment such as ATVs, skis, kayaks, etc. can also be tied down with the bed rails.

Now, let’s talk about the installation process of the bed rails into your truck.

Installation

There are various designs and finishes available for truck bed rails, as we mentioned above, but the installation process for all of them is pretty similar. Before starting the installation process, read the next part of this article carefully to know what you will need to install the bed rails.

Open the shipment package and check that you have all the parts and accessories like the rails, washers, and bolts are there. If drilling is necessary, make sure that you have drilling tools to do the job.
You must have to hold the bed rail up to the truck to make sure that it is the proper length because drivers often skip this step and they have to go back and do the same thing again if it isn’t the appropriate length.
Place the bases of the bed rail over or into the holes if your truck has stake pocket holes. Stake pockets are holes created by the manufacturer to make the installation process easier.
If there are no stake pocket holes, you need to pull out the drill mounting holes where the rails should be mounted. Make precise measurements otherwise it will unnecessarily damage your truck bed.
Use the bolts and washers from the underside to fasten the bed rails with your truck.

It’s done! The entire installation process is pretty easy, as you can see. With some basic knowledge about trucks, you can install the bed rails into your truck within thirty minutes.

Conclusion

After the discussion, we can say that installing the bed rails is very useful for your truck. It provides you many facilities like hauling heavy loads as we mentioned above. Reading this article, you should be able to perform a successful installation of bed rails into your truck. If you’re facing any problem or you need further help, you can contact us or leave a comment below.