DIY temporary tonneau / bed cover?

[Lil'O Annie]

At our last attempt of a tonneau replacement I had service remove the caps on the end of the bed so we could slide in a temporary tonneau.
We made one with a sheet of plywood, we had to cut it into three pieces and used an extra piece to connect them together. 54.5 inches wide fits in the bed rails well.

this is the Result- definitely looks homemade up close but not bad from a distance.

I like it!! Is that 1/2" thick plywood? Is it exterior grade? Seems like a good temp solution until they figure out the new design, if they ever do.

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[Andystroh]

I like it!! Is that 1/2" thick plywood? Is it exterior grade? Seems like a good temp solution until they figure out the new design, if they ever do.

Yeah it was a half inch, I can't remember the exact type but more water resistant than some others. Had five or six people checking out the truck today and no one asked if it was homemade so it passed the test

 

[sjohanson]

received the Maverick tonneau today from Amazon - same one as mentioned above. Used some m6 wing nuts and bought two $1.99 straps fromHarbor Freight. Ideally it would be nice if it was an inch or two longer- I feel like some water might get in.

 

[CJ313]

received the Maverick tonneau today from Amazon - same one as mentioned above. Used some m6 wing nuts and bought two $1.99 straps fromHarbor Freight. Ideally it would be nice if it was an inch or two longer- I feel like some water might get in.

EPIC! Great solution, how is it on the Freeway?

 

[sjohanson]

Just a tiny quiver at 75

 

[tback]

Just a tiny quiver at 75

Would cross-bars over bed (with Maverick cover) still fit?

 

[sjohanson]

Yeah I think so

 

[goldburger]

CAN A BROTHER PLEASE GET THE SANTA CRUZ COVER? I'm almost certain it can fit where the powered tonneau lives and its so easy!!
Skip to 0:40 to see it in operation. It looks like it would absolutely fit where the powered lives.

lol the way he just pushes it closed is a far from the slow clunk on our luxury vehicles lol

 

[wildcattdw]

Here's my attempt.

I picked up some 1 x 10 x 6' quality pine boards from the local big box.

Made a jig for my circular saw that I used to cut male a male v-groove (like an edge banding router bit would) on one edge and female on the other to allow each board to lock into the next.

Cut each board to 54 3/4" long, then used the power plane to take the bottom side of each end (about 1 1/2" in) down to .55" thick.

Lastly, cut the first board the long way, taking about 3" off, then put everything in the tonneau slot and measured for the last board and ripped it down to about 4".

Everything fits really well and the v-groove does a great job aligning the boards.

Everything will get a couple coats of primer, then a couple/few coats of black paint, and then the top (after masking the ends for the tonneau slots) is going to get some spray on bedliner to give it extra durability.

In for something like $140 with a quart of paint and two cans of bedliner. Weighs in about 44 lbs. Easily removable, will most of the time will live in the garage, but can be stuck in the bed or gear tunnel if I need to remove while out and about.

 

[kurtlikevonnegut]

For those that have taken the end caps off for the powered tonneau to add a DIY cover, what was the process for getting the side rail trim off to get to the torx bits on top of the end caps? It's it held on with adhesive, clips, both, other?

 

[elektrode]

You all are a creative bunch and doing good work!

But man, bad look for Rivian that we’re having to hack up a stop gap.

 

[mabowden]

lol the way he just pushes it closed is a far from the slow clunk on our luxury vehicles lol

Right? Don't forget this is a sub 30k vehicle we're talking about too...

 

[Jordman]

Multi-wall polycarbonate might be good for a bed cover.

 

[BourboNole]

At our last attempt of a tonneau replacement I had service remove the caps on the end of the bed so we could slide in a temporary tonneau.
We made one with a sheet of plywood, we had to cut it into three pieces and used an extra piece to connect them together. 54.5 inches wide fits in the bed rails well.

Why did you have to cut it into 3 pieces? I'd prefer just to keep it to one single sheet if possible.

 

[Andystroh]

I don’t have the measurements anymore, but I believe it was 54x54; I only found plywood 48" wide

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