DIY R1T Tonneau Covers for $230

[Riv3D]

I only needed a tonneau cover for a couple days a year so I couldn’t justify spending $800 - $1,500 on an aftermarket or OEM cover so I took it upon myself to build one. I designed 3D printed adapters that slide along the sides of the truck bed, and house the boards that run across the width of the bed. Total cost including hardware and filament came out to $229.58.

The build was pretty simple once I got the adapter design just right. The process I followed:

1. Cut n=9 3/4” boards into size 51x6” (Lowes did this for me)

2. Drill holes into each end of the boards

3. Sand boards down a bit, get rid of sharp edges

4. Apply 3 coats of truck bed liner on each side of the boards

5. Attach adapters to each end of the boards with nuts + bolts



Pros:

1. Easy on the wallet in comparison to OEM and aftermarket alternatives

2. Looks pretty decent. Up close and with a keen eye you can see the wood grain and my non-linear drill holes making the adapters not perfectly in line with the bed, but otherwise not bad.

3. Not many tools required to build. Only need a drill, sander, and a saw (can omit the saw like me If you get the wood cut at local lumber store)

4. Stronger than soft covers



Cons:

1. Not waterproof. I'm not sure how good they are at keeping water out but I wouldn’t count on them to keep gear too dry

2. You can smell the truck bed liner if the cover is kept in the gear tunnel too long. Might be better if you use a different material to treat the wood boards. Plastidip maybe?

3. Thickness. They all still fit in the gear tunnel when stacked up, but there's not a lot of room left over.

4. Weaker than metal covers. 1” thick boards would be a great upgrade if this is a concern.

Sponsored

 

[Nixapatfan]

Nice work but I'm not seeing the point of this vs just using a tarp, seems like a pain to take off and store. What is your use case?

 

[R1Thor]

I'm proud of you for using a checklist to stay productive, but... if I'm reading this right, I'm pretty sure you shouldn't need a checklist to take care of this particular 'task.' Your body will tell you when you need to do that

 

[Rivianero]

Hey, great job!

Clever way to get past the issue of sagging boards, since anything thing enough to fit in the tonneau slots would tend to deform under gravity over the width of the bed. We have seen other DIY tonneaus reinforced with metal channel below the boards/panels for stiffness. Your solution seems more elegant.

It took me a moment to recognize that each one of those 3D printed adapters is well over a foot long. That's a ton of print media.

Makes me wonder if one could find an appropriate steel or aluminum extrusion that could be cut into segments to achieve the same function.

Better yet, maybe use the boards as you did, cut slightly longer and route a rabbet at the end of a size that would fit in the tonneau slots (~1 cm). No adapters, no screws, but perhaps not as strong.

You've opened up some interesting possibilities. I especially like the coating with bed liner.

 

[yetti96]

I'm proud of you for using a checklist to stay productive, but... if I'm reading this right, I'm pretty sure you shouldn't need a checklist to take care of this particular 'task.' Your body will tell you when you need to do that

Not sure how familiar you are with printing but int he FDM work the tip of the nozzle often can have a little bit extra hanging and a brush or other mounted area can be ran past to knock off any excess material dripping from the print head and those waste pieces are affectionately called poop, and the waste usually gets routed down a poop chute or into a poop tray or bucket to make sure they don't get mixed in the printed part.

That is my take on it, I haven't printed with an FDM printer in 7 or so years, stuff has changed a lot. Mostly use liquid resins for my print material/feed stock.

But I do love your humor and attention to notice the list; likely written on the case/enclosure to the OPs printer.

 

[NY_Rob]

Nice work @Riv3D...

Which filament did you use for your final print? It gets burning hot back there in the afternoon, like fry an egg hot.

A couple of years back I made a Yeti adapter for our Model 3, the test print was PLA and it literally melted after about 2 week's use in the cabin during the summer. I made the final print out of PETG and it's lasted almost 3yrs so far.

 

[Riv3D]

Nice work but I'm not seeing the point of this vs just using a tarp, seems like a pain to take off and store. What is your use case?

I wanted it to be more secure and professional looking than tarp

I'm proud of you for using a checklist to stay productive, but... if I'm reading this right, I'm pretty sure you shouldn't need a checklist to take care of this particular 'task.' Your body will tell you when you need to do that

LOL keen eye for poop you have... And yeah like Yetti96 mentioned, I had a list to print a "poop chute" to funnel the 'poop' filament automatically into the trash.

 

[R1Thor]

Not sure how familiar you are with printing but int he FDM work the tip of the nozzle often can have a little bit extra hanging and a brush or other mounted area can be ran past to knock off any excess material dripping from the print head and those waste pieces are affectionately called poop, and the waste usually gets routed down a poop chute or into a poop tray or bucket to make sure they don't get mixed in the printed part.

That is my take on it, I haven't printed with an FDM printer in 7 or so years, stuff has changed a lot. Mostly use liquid resins for my print material/feed stock.

But I do love your humor and attention to notice the list; likely written on the case/enclosure to the OPs printer.

LOL keen eye for poop you have... And yeah like Yetti96 mentioned, I had a list to print a "poop chute" to funnel the 'poop' filament automatically into the trash.

I totally got it: I own 2 BambuLab x1 Carbon printers myself.
I was just being jovial

I'd TOTALLY have a similar note on my to do list

 

[Riv3D]

Hey, great job!

Clever way to get past the issue of sagging boards, since anything thing enough to fit in the tonneau slots would tend to deform under gravity over the width of the bed. We have seen other DIY tonneaus reinforced with metal channel below the boards/panels for stiffness. Your solution seems more elegant.

It took me a moment to recognize that each one of those 3D printed adapters is well over a foot long. That's a ton of print media.

Makes me wonder if one could find an appropriate steel or aluminum extrusion that could be cut into segments to achieve the same function.

Better yet, maybe use the boards as you did, cut slightly longer and route a rabbet at the end of a size that would fit in the tonneau slots (~1 cm). No adapters, no screws, but perhaps not as strong.

You've opened up some interesting possibilities. I especially like the coating with bed liner.

Each adapter is 6" long, but still its a lot of plastic, over 100". Printing these took some time as you can imagine. Having an aluminum support under the board is a solid idea, I haven't seen that yet I'll have to look around. I enjoy reading how differently people solved a similar problem.

 

[Riv3D]

Nice work @Riv3D...

Which filament did you use for your final print? It gets burning hot back there in the afternoon, like fry an egg hot.

A couple of years back I made a Yeti adapter for our Model 3, the test print was PLA and it literally melted after about 2 week's use in the cabin during the summer. I made the final print out of PETG and it's lasted almost 3yrs so far.

Yep, I've been 3D printing car related products for a while- PETG for outdoor uses and ABS for inside as everything cooks in the cabin with the windows closed. Ive had customers report that even their PETG warps inside the vehicle

 

[NY_Rob]

Yep, I've been 3D printing car related products for a while- PETG for outdoor uses and ABS for inside as everything cooks in the cabin with the windows closed. Ive had customers report that even their PETG warps inside the vehicle

So far, I've printed a few "in the cabin" things in PETG with no melting, but NY only hits maybe 90deg a couple times each summer which is cool compared to TX, CA and AZ I guess

I've printed a few things with my first FDM printer which was that $125 OG Monoprice junker that really didn't get hot enough for ABS, so I had some bad results with ABS and never went back to it with my current printer.

 

[yetti96]

I totally got it: I own 2 BambuLab x1 Carbon printers myself.
I was just being jovial

I'd TOTALLY have a similar note on my to do list

Ahh cool, sorry to mansplain a bit, not the intent; just so used to seeing people attack other people online for silly stuff (not here at least).
I am one of the few people on my team without a printer at home, but I can do government work at work so there's that I love how much the technology has improved, price dropped, and the output is amazing.

Sponsored