Using tonneau cover is the surest way of protecting your goods from rain, snow, and sunlight. For tri-fold tonneau covers, there are two main varieties depending on the features, soft and hard cover.
And that brings us to the soft vs hard tri fold tonneau cover debate.
“Which tonneau cover will be best suited for me?” It depends on various factors like design, ease of use, security, durability, price etc. In this article, we will discuss the difference between soft and hard tri-fold tonneau covers from various aspects so that you will be able to select the right one.
Soft Tri-Fold Tonneau Cover:
This type of tonneau cover is designed low profile and usually made from flexible materials like cloth, vinyl with an aluminum frame. They have some great features including ease of use, lighter and cheaper than others and that makes it popular. The advantages and disadvantages of soft tonneau cover are given below.
Advantages:
- User Friendly: Low profile design offers you to open and close the covers easily.
- Lightweight: It’s made of cloth, vinyl and aluminum frame that makes it lightweight.
- Price: Price is comparatively lower than others.
Disadvantages:
- Security: The soft tri-fold tonneau covers can’t ensure the security because of its poor design with soft materials.
- Weather Compatibility: Unable to protect your goods from extreme cold and snow.
- Durability: Have less durability because of its poor materials.
What do we like? Ease of installation is a key factor to choose this type of cover.
Hard Tri-Fold Tonneau Cover
Though there are many different designs of tonneau cover, hard tri-fold tonneau cover is popular with the customers with it’s strong security features. There are many advantages with security features and also some disadvantages. All are given below.
Advantages:
- Security: Security issues come first with covers. And this type of cover can ensure the security as well as their hard design.
- Strength Construction: It’s built from heavy-duty materials like aluminum, fiberglass, or polypropylene.
- Supports on Top: It can support some weight on top, when evenly distributed.
Disadvantages:
- Durability: It depends on the manufacturing materials and may break after a couple of years.
- Price: Comparatively expensive than others of all types.
What do we like? The strong security feature is the most reasonable factor to buy it with a comparatively high budget.
Comparison between Soft & Hard Tri-Fold Tonneau Cover:
In the above section, the advantages and disadvantages of soft and hard tri-fold tonneau cover have been described clearly. This comparison section will be convenient for you to better understand the difference between soft vs hard tri-fold tonneau cover.
Security: If you’re very much concerned about security issues, you’ve to select the hard tri-fold tonneau cover. Because only the hard cover can ensure the security rather than the soft cover. Hard covers are made of strong materials and especially designed for security reasons.
One the other hand, the soft covers are made of cloth, or vinyl. These materials are not so strong and also raises the risk of thieves getting under the covers.
Weight: Hard tri-fold tonneau covers have heavy weight structure and that’s why it may make the daily activities quite exhausting.
So, if you want to use the cover easily and quickly, you’ve to consider the soft cover for you. Because softcovers are more lightweight than others.
Installation: Installation is dependent on the convenient design and weight. Hardcover may be for easy installation if you feel no problem with heavy weight.
One the other hand, if you have got a problem with weight, only soft covers will be good for you. Moreover, it takes less time to complete your tasks!
Price: Hard cover is comparatively more expensive than soft cover. If you have a limited budget, you can choose the soft covers because of their cheapest price.
Hard cover price is pretty expensive but you can choose it when you’ve no problem with a high budget and you’re most concerned about security facts.
Design: Soft tonneau covers have a better fit on truck tonneaus and the hard tonneau cover brings in a more sleek and smooth appearance for trucks with high-end options. Both types of covers are customizable preferences and one can paint it in any color.
Durability: From the aspects of durability, hard tri-fold tonneau cover is slightly better than soft cover. Soft are best for temporary use, or for light truck bed users. As opposed to the hard tri-fold tonneau covers are the best for heavy use, or long-term uses.
Which one is more expensive? In the above discussion, it’s seen that the hard tri-fold tonneau cover is more expensive than soft tonneau cover. But the hard is more secure than the soft cover. For that reason, we can say that the expensive price of hard covers are reasonable.
Suggestion for The Best Tonneau Cover
Now we have some suggesions for the best product of each kind.
If you want to go with a soft cover then the best two would be-
And if you have decided to go for the best hard tonneau cover than our suggestions are-
Conclusion:
To conclude the soft vs hard tri fold tonneau cover debate, both the soft and hard tri-fold tonneau cover have great advantages and also have some disadvantages. You’ve to select the right one according to your needs and budget. If you’re concerned with security issues with no limitation for budget, you can choose the hard tri-fold tonneau cover. However, the soft tri-fold tonneau cover will also be good with a limited budget and some impressive advantages.
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