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FAQ — T-Slot

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What is The Retrax XR and is it a Good Option For My 2015 Ford F-150?

Ford F-150 Owner: I received your quote on the Retrax cover. Let's go with that.

Shawn: 2015 Ford F-150 with a short bed, correct?

Ford F-150 Owner: Yep.

Shawn: Okay. You know what? And you want the PRO MX, right?

Ford F-150 Owner: Yeah, the matte black one.

Shawn: Would you ever see yourself using a set of load bars?

Ford F-150 Owner: No.

Shawn: No? Not even if they're free?

Ford F-150 Owner: No, probably not. We tend to use the truck more as just an urban assault vehicle, not for actually hauling and carrying stuff.

Shawn: Okay. Okay. Well, I was just asking because they have a promotion right now if you buy the XR, which is $100 more, you get the rack for free. It's a $500 rack.

Ford F-150 Owner: What is the Retrax XR?

Shawn: It's the RetraxPRO MX essentially, but it has a different set of rails that include a T-slot, so you can put accessories in it.

Ford F-150 Owner: Yeah, no. I prefer the low-profile without that T-slot on it. So, while it's a great idea, and a nice set of rails, I can't see myself actually carrying anything on those rails.

Shawn: I understand. Let's see here. RetraxPRO MX and that is the standard without stake pocket holes, correct?

Ford F-150 Owner: Correct.

Shawn: All right, man. I'll get this shipped out as quickly as possible.
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What's the Best Retractable Cover For a Ford 2018 Model Crew Cab?

Ford Owner: Hey, Sean, I've got a Ford 2018 Model Crew Cab. I'm looking for a retractable cover. I don't want the shiny black. I want the flat black in color.

Sean: What size bed?

Ford Owner: It's the crew cab. I haven't actually measured the bed, but it's the crew cab Ford 2018 model.

Sean: Okay. Usually, on the double doors, it's a 5.5 short bed, or you'd have a 6.5, or an 8', which you'd know if you had an 8'.

Ford Owner: Yeah, it's not an 8'. If it came down to an order, I'd make sure before I ordered.

Sean: Yeah, so there are two different types of covers that Retrax offers. Retrax is actually probably the best brand when it comes to their rolling covers. There's the ONE, which is the polycarbonate series, and then the PRO, which is the aluminum series. The PRO, they're actually running a special right now on their Retrax XR, which is the RetraxPRO MX, which is a matte black finish, and the XR part are referring to the side rails. The side rails on that model have T-slots to where you can add bike racks and kayak racks and stuff like that, and right now they're actually doing a promotion where if you buy one of those XRs, they send you a free set of Yakima JetStream load bars with it which is a $500 value. 

Ford Owner: Okay. 

Sean: Then if you didn't want those bars, which honestly for an extra 100 bucks to get that $500 gift is worth it, but let's say you didn't want that option, you could go back down to just the RetraxPRO MX and save the $100 difference. What I was going to say was both of those come with a lifetime warranty as well. 

Ford Owner: Right. How about the Brinx?

Sean: Brinx? I've never even heard of a Brinx tonneau cover, so let's look here.

Ford Owner: What do you have at around, say, $1,000-$1,200 range?

Sean: If you wanna stay within that range you could still get a Retrax. You can get the ONE MX.

Ford Owner: What's the difference in the ONE MX?

Sean: Well, it's polycarbonate instead of aluminum. It does have aluminum support rods every three inches, but the material of the cover itself is actually polycarbonate which is a plastic, so it's not quite the cover that the aluminum one is, but honestly, if it's going on a daily drive and you're not in construction, you're not using that cover 50 times a day, the ONE would probably be perfect for you. It's got a three-year warranty instead of a lifetime.

Ford Owner: Yeah, we're just using this cover for a vacation vehicle.

Sean: Yeah, man. The RetraxONE would be perfect for you then. It looks just exactly the same as the aluminum. It functions the same. Like I said, it's the plastic instead of aluminum.

Ford Owner: Yeah. Have you heard of a Gator brand?

Sean: I have, and honestly, you know what that is? It's a private label of a Retrax. There are a couple different covers that Retrax has that are cheaper, and what they do is they space those support rods out a little bit further. I'm not sure if anything else is different as far as hardware and stuff like that, but I know that on those private labels, they take some of the extra cost out of it and that's what makes it cheaper and that's what makes them easily sold. But there are differences and that's the difference.

Ford Owner: Well, that shorter bed, I'm just using it as basically storage for luggage and stuff, but I also want a quality cover that I won't be replacing in five years.

Sean: Yeah, I've not heard a whole lot of issues with the Retrax, even the ONE. I worked for Truck Hero, which is the company that owns Retrax, and I sold Retrax all over the world, man. Australia, Dubai, Germany, all over the place, and it quickly became the number one seller. 

Ford Owner: Well, let me measure my bed and give it some thought and I may give you a shout back.

Sean: All right, man. If you give us a call, my name is Sean.
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What's the Difference Between the Retrax PRO XR and MX for a 2019 Ford F-150?

Ford F-150 Owner: I've got some kind of special requirements that I need to throw out on the table then you can tell me what your recommendation would be. First off, I have a 2019 Ford F-150.

Sean: Okay.

Ford F-150 Owner: Secondly, it's a SuperCrew, and what it's going to be used as is primarily as a tow vehicle for a 23 and a half foot, double whole trailer. Each summer I drag it around chasing all the paragliding competitions, so 13,000 miles every summer. Get where I'm going, drag the trailer up, literally 6,000 feet to where it's cool. I park the trailer with other people and then I use my truck since, it's a four-wheel drive, to carry typically seven pilots total, myself included. To do that we found that if I put all their wings in the cab that I can then pack them into cube space pretty well and get them there. So that means I get two up front, I got to put five in the bed. I have a five and a half foot bed.

Sean: So you want to know, I spoke to you before, right? And you want to know if people could sit on the cover? 

Ford F-150 Owner: That's it. Yes. Yes sir. I need something that can hold a decent amount of weight.

Sean: We originally spoke about a rolling cover and you said you can't do that because it'll take up about a foot of your bed space.

Ford F-150 Owner: Well, after talking to you earlier now I'm thinking that a roll-up that rolls in a circle in a box against the window would probably be my best bet. So that I can have three people sit on that. And then two into the bed. So since we talked last I've kind of come to the conclusion, well I can't really have my cake and eat it too. I've got to give up somewhere to get that bench seat. 

Sean: Okay. Well, I will say then that if you're okay with a canister type deal, the Retrax is probably the best way to go. I mean its weight rated at 500 pounds evenly distributed on the cover. So I imagine if it's rolled up, it should hold at least that cause there aren't any springs or, moving pieces in a box that you have to worry about. It's all ball bearings. Or if you wanted to do something even more up your alley, they have their RetraxPRO XR which is the same as the MX, same finish, everything like that. But it's another hundred dollars. The difference is it has a T-slot where you can put ladder racks or kayak racks or anything your heart desires. And right now they're actually doing a promotion where if you buy that cover they give you a set of Yakima JetStream load bars for free. So essentially you can have your cover open and still have things on top of the load bars as well, which are movable. 


Ford F-150 Owner: Yeah. Wow. I'll have to look at that. So, the XR and the MX, other than the T-racks, is the cover on the roll up canister effectively the same? Or is it reinforced heavier?

Sean: Yes, they're exactly the same. The only difference between the XR and the MX is just a T-slot rails. So the cover is the exact same cover. They do make a retracted one, which is polycarbonate, but that cover only holds up to 200 pounds, so I don't know if that would be the one that I would have people sit on.

Ford F-150 Owner: What is the depth? Four and a half?

Sean: 14 inches.

Ford F-150 Owner: That's perfect. Sounds good, man. I appreciate it. I think that you gave me good advice and it took me a while to do a whole bunch of research and I really wasn't looking at this one, but the 500 pounds sitting on the lid I think is important and it works better for me.

Sean: With a lifetime warranty too, so keep that in mind as well.

Ford F-150: Oh, really? That's really good. All right, thank you so much and I'll holler back at you.

Sean: You got it.

 

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What Tonneau Cover Has The Best T-Slot Functionality for a Ford F-150?

Ford F-150 Owner: I was originally considering a RetraxPRO. However, the other cover I was looking at, and I know it can be a little bit of a pain if you go pick up something big and you don't think about it ahead of time, was the Undercover RIDGELANDER. Which basically would almost look like the Retrax on the car because it has the same T-Track System for rack assemblies. On the Undercover, how difficult is it to remove? I've been trying to find a video of somebody actually taking the cover off.

Shawn: I'll tell you that I actually worked for UnderCover for almost a decade. And they came out with that cover, and it's the biggest pain to remove. And it takes the longest to put it on. It's a beautiful cover, it works really well, strong, but it is not very friendly when it comes to removing it, unfortunately.

Ford F-150 Owner: Okay. Because I didn't know if there was like one bolt on each side, you undo that, and the thing just kind of slides off?

Shawn: What you're looking for then mainly is that T-slot functionality as well?

Ford F-150 Owner: That's kind of what I was looking at because we like to throw bikes up on top. I've got a cover that used to go on top of like a Suburban when they had it, one of the boxes. And having it on top if we've got stuff in the bottom and the top from that standpoint.

Shawn: Well you know they have a promotion right now on the Retrax XR?

Ford F-150 Owner: Correct that you get the free rails, which is like a $400 value?

Shawn: Have you seen the A.R.E "Double Cover?" What it is, is it's essentially a rolling cover and a one-piece all in one.

Ford F-150 Owner: I mean I've seen it. To me, that would almost be the worst of both worlds, because I think you're going to lose rigidity. Or you're going to have a bar that goes all the way across the tailgate. Because otherwise you've got two bars that are coming out with the cover. From a waterproofing standpoint, I don't think that would be worse than the Retrax or any of the other ones from that standpoint. Because you're dealing with multiple points of intrusion now that are not necessarily attached.

Shawn: Got you. Yeah.

Ford F-150 Owner: Now out of the rolling covers, you prefer the Retrax to the others?

Shawn: Yeah. It's a lot better quality than like a Roll-N-Lock or something of that nature.

Ford F-150 Owner: Or Pace Edwards or the Truck Covers USA.

Shawn: Right, exactly. Yeah.

Ford F-150 Owner: All right. You've answered all my questions. Thank you very much, sir.

Shawn: You got it. Did you want to go ahead and place that with me today?

Ford F-150 Owner: No. Let me talk to my wife tonight just to get everything approved. We've been talking about it, but I don't think it will be an issue. I'll give you a buzz tomorrow.

Shawn: It sounds good, man. Have a good night

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