Are you sitting down? You should be sitting down. I don’t care how much you paid for that standing desk, go drag a chair or beanbag over and get your ass in there, because I’m about to knock you on it, and I don’t want any of those precious asses damaged as a result. The world of truck bedliners and bed tonneau covers is a pretty stagnant one, and one that has been begging for innovation, whether anyone realized it or not. Or even wanted it. But I have an idea, and I’m going to tell only you about it, because, let’s be honest here, you’re the only one I trust.
Okay, so here’s the deal: trucks, by their very nature, need to be flexible tools, adaptable to whatever job you need it to do right then. Sometimes you may want your truck’s bed to be a fully-enclosed colossal trunk, a giant vault able to protect whatever you’ve got stashed in there. Other times you may want that bed open, with good protection below, as you shovel in gravel or clam shells or construction waste or whatever. Sometimes you may need a combination of the two!
Current bedliner and bed or tonneau cover solutions don’t really have this kind of flexibility. There are some interesting solutions, like bed covers that are segmented, and can slide across the top of the bed to cover more or less of the open area, like this one:
Those are okay, sure, but I think we can take the segmented bed cover concept and push it further, do it better. The key is the way those covers can slide: instead of horizontal, what if they were vertical? Picture this: a bed cover solution made of a series of tough, rigid panels that were set into vertical tracks down the inner bedsides of the truck, and those panels could be moved up and down, and could be locked into some number of positions on that vertical axis. At their extreme positions, they’d form either a hard bed cover or a rugged bedliner as you can see here:
But, what would make this a really interesting solution is that each panel can be moved on that vertical axis independently! This means you could divide the bed in all sorts of ways; maybe the panels could pivot to be able to be locked into a vertical position to create a lockable toolbox for part of the bed, too!
See what I’m getting at here? These panels could be moved manually, with some sort of spring-loaded locking pin mechanism, like what is used in lots of adjustable shelving solutions, perhaps each could have a key-lock that could be turned to release all four pins at once. If you really wanted to get fancy, each of those panels could be motorized on their tracks, and, hell, it could even be controlled from a phone app or something. Go nuts, why not? The point is this could be done on the cheap, with manually-repositionable panels, or you can go all out and motorize them.
For example, with the panels set halfway, people like gardeners could have a lower bay for their tools and equipment, and the top could be used to load in yard wastes or whatever:
…or the bed could have the front panels lowered, and the rear raised, so you have a side-loadable stuff area and an enclosed area accessible via the tailgate. Whatever you want! The possibilities are limitless, provided your idea of limitless is achievable via rectangular panels in a pickup bed.
Now, we’d need to take some considerations, like the panel by the wheel wells would likely need some sort of hinged side sections to clear the wells when in the lowest position:
But I don’t think that’s a big deal. The areas between the panels should also have some sort of rugged rubber weatherstripping so it forms a weather-tight seal. Ideally, these rubber parts should be as easily replaceable as windshield wiper blades. Hm could you actually use wiper blades for something like this? Whatever sort of weather sealing solution is arrived at, it would need to allow for adjacent panels to travel up or down next to it.
So what do we think? To me, this seems like a relatively simple and flexible way to adapt how a truck bed can be used, and I don’t see any reason why it couldn’t be adapted to pretty much anything that has a roughly rectangular bed.
Have suggestions? Want to remind me what an absurd fool I am? Threats from Big Bedliner or Big Tonneau? Let’s hear it in the comments!
Some of this,intersects with the various shelves and slots in Ford truck beds. Mine has two sets of vertical slots for a 2×8 to act as a divider or a vertical support when you have 2×6 boards set on the ledges in the bed sides to create a,double deck cargo area. This also allows carrying stuff too wide to fit between the wheel wells. The idea originated on the Ford Ranger to carry 4′ wide material but spread to the F series
Unfortunately, I don’t think this will work very well. Have you ever tried to move a shelf on a baker’s rack? The wire metal shelf system where the shelves slide up and down 4 round posts, with a plastic shim to hold they shelves in place? You have to keep all 4 corners of the shelf level at the same time or the whole shelf binds. Same issue here – wide panels sliding up and down, very hard to coordinate.
How about a bed liner with two horizontal tracks – one set at the top, one set half-way down. For double level storage drop the tailgate, slide the cover panels back out of the top track and slide into the middle track instead. No sliding multiple panels up and down, only horizontal sliding, much easier to control, and any latches won’t have to carry weight, just keep the panels from sliding backwards. You could have vertical storage tracks at the front of the bed, or possibly in intermediate locations for dividing the bed.
No idea how to make this waterproof, though… gutters in the tracks? Also, it might need some sort of tricky two-way latching system so at least the furthest back panel can hinge up for quick access. Maybe a panel in a panel?
From the solutions without a problem file…
As a lifelong truck owner and somebody who uses a truck for ‘truck stuff’ pretty much daily I cannot imagine. A: much of a use for a system like this or B: that it would not be quickly damaged by doing truck things.
Also, a folding cover is expensive enough; do you really think you are creating an affordable product when you consider the additional material and manufacturing costs?
You don’t get to handwave “tough, rigid material” on a concept like this. What are you going to make these roughly 4 ft wide panels out of that is:
1. light enough to raise and lower easily when formed into large sheets
2. Tough and rigid enough to stand up to, say, support a motorcycle on its side stand, or having half a ton of dirt loaded on top and unloaded with a shovel, or having a 150-lb oak branch thrown on it, or an 800-lb pallet loaded with a forklift. All without visible damage.
3. Inexpensive enough for a consumer product. Say $500 or less for 24 square feet.
Then the tracks and other hardware need to resist weather, dirt, and damage from shifting loads.
Your material specs, I don’t think can be met by anything that exists. That’s why it’s not a viable idea. With what is available, a multi-piece removable cover makes more sense than one that raises and lowers.
The material problem is actually VERY solved. Simple injection molded plastic with an internal honeycomb structure or similar to increase the rigidity and strength. It’s very cheap. It’s the rail ingress problem that’s much harder to solve.
And to think, the fools at the Institute said you were mad. Who’s laughing maniacally now, Herr Professor Merkwürdig?
If you’ve ever seen the e-track systems in box trucks/ cube vans, that would give you a mounting system that is proven. Similar idea to this except you are limited in adjustability to the heights of the tracks. https://www.cargoequipmentcorp.com/interior-van
I wish the offered in bed e-track as a factory option. Ford did have a package for the Econoline that included e-track. I put full length at the belt line and sections near the floor in the front and rear of the wheel wells.
While I don’t think this would work for various reasons, I do support the innovation in truck storage (and wider vehicle storage) options. Rivian has come out of the gate with pretty cool ideas (gear tunnel is brilliant IMO) and others have been dabbling for awhile (Ridgeline compartments, rambox, etc). I’d love to see one of the resident designers here (literally) think outside the box and design a bed with zero restrictions to convention!
Just one big problem. As a pickup truck ages, the sides of the bed tend to get a little lazy and start to lean out. Before long, the distance between the upper tracks will be quite a bit larger than between the bottom tracks, which would stay close to spec. The panels wouldn’t fit the upper tracks, unless you employ a sledgehammer.
That would be water tight for about a week? Maybe?
That is thinking out of the box…er, bed.
I would like to purchase this from you right now. Please put this into production immediately.
I would’ve thought a redesigned bed and a singular track system to slide the tonneau cover in-between the bed and cab would be first to think of, not that system.
Seems a bit complicated all said and done.
Systems like this exist. Retrax is an example. The problem with them is that they end up with a bulky roll-up receptacle at the front of the bed.
This, right here, is The Answer.
This seems close as well: http://www.decked.com
This would be awesome if it worked … but making it work would be super complicated, and “breaky.”
I think it’s a great idea, if you can work out how to keep the tracks clear. One modification I might suggest is that instead of extra hinges to clear the wheel wells, install a permanent bedliner as part of the solution and have the panels slide forward and stack up against the front wall of the bed for open mode. Have them slide down to the tops of the wheel arches for half-and-half mode. Fewer moving parts. You could still have some panels able to pivot down to form toolboxes.
I wonder if you could also have the tracks extendable up out of the bed, to raise the panels up to roof height, then drop curtains down to form a soft-sided canopy?
This would work perfectly with the Rambox since that already gives you a rectangular bed with no wheel well intrusions. In fact, mine came with a cargo divider that can be cammed in place at any point in the bed since the walls are basically flat. Maybe you could do something similar with this to avoid the clogged up rails problem.
The only viable way to do it would be to have perforated bedsides. Otherwise, as other have mentioned, any other fixing mechanism would surely clog. Imagine the wind noise!
Another brilliant idea from Torch obviated by the necessities of execution.
Although, perhaps you could lock them into place with an elaborate electromagnet system. Hmmmm. 🙂
I like it a lot. Ok, so just don’t load mulch. But get Sandy Munro’s people on the phone for an hour to see if anything with that many moving parts can be sold for less than $5,000.
The tracks are going to clog and render the whole thing useless.
Aside from costs (boy will this be expensive) my only real concern would be durability. If you’re actually using the pickup truck, yeah, uh. How you gonna keep those 30 yards of mulch out of your rails? That’s the big problem. (Panel durability is less a concern as long as you can replace panels individually instead of the whole unit.)
Fix that and I’d buy trucks just to install this and resell them. Which is to say, yes, this is freaking brilliant.
I like it. To solve the wheel well challenge, each segment (let’s say there are 4 of them) would actually consist of two panels hinged together. The bottom panel would rotate down and lock into place vertically. One of two of them would have cut outs for the wheel wells.
I believe I am contractually obligated to approve of your choice of an International Light Line (D-Series) to illustrate this.
Ditto. Expect the esoteric from J.T. and there it is.
Me too, that is what caught my eye immediately.
You might actually be on to something…
Do people still use tonneau covers in the days of crew cab trucks? There isn’t much that would fit under a cover that won’t also fit in the back seat.
The other issue I see is the first time you put dirt or gravel or woodchips on top of the panels, they will get stuck in the tracks and prevent the panels from locking into place.
I have one on my 21Ranger. I know lots of other people who do too
I certainly still use a tonneau cover. When pulling the camper, the bed is usually loaded up with stuff like chairs, a grill or propone pizza oven, and other stuff like that. We don’t have big outdoor storage space in our camper. It’s easy to just close up the tonneau. When travelling with the family, we need the crew cab space for the crew, and the suitcases go under the tonneau. It’s a tri-flip style, so I just flip it back when I need to haul things that don’t fit under the tonneau.
I live in a blue collar town so people who want to maximize bed space but fit the truck in a small city driveway tend to have regular cabs and tonneaus or those tall things with the windows on them. Either way a popular accessory, especially if you have big tools and no garage.
Regarding keeping the rails clean, two ideas:
– Telescoping arms fastened to the bed itself so the panel edges are flush against the bed walls. Also then no shearing forces on the panel mechanism to worry about.
– Make the bed rails the ‘male’ mating piece and have a handle over each rail to recess the teeth, freeing the panel. That way the panel top forms a seal with the bed side, since the female mating piece of the panel would be below the flat surface.
Yep. A good portion of my work day is spent putting stuff in people’s cars, and a lot of trucks turn up with tonneaus regardless of cab or bed size. Most of them are the rigid segmented ones that don’t quite fold up all the way (or the owners can’t figure out how to fold them up all the way) making the beds even smaller (this seems to happen most often on crew cab short bed trucks, aka the “Suburban Dad” model)
I think a lot of my customers have them because either they were already on the truck when they were buying or they were talked into it by the dealer.
What blows my mind is that this doesn’t exist already ????