When I was 19, back in the early 2000s, I was helping a friend replace the drivers side CV axle on his 1986 Mazda 626. The faulty axle popped right out, but the new one would not install deep enough into the transmission. After about a half hour of frustration, I concluded the clip in the groove of the new axle was the problem. Being a college student, and taking two years of auto shop in high school, my "expert" opinion was that the retaining clip was "optional." All the other suspension components would surely keep the axle situated and aligned properly.

A couple days later, I get a call from my friend saying the Mazda is up on a lift at his dad’s machine shop. The axle I installed had exited the transmission. The first thing his dad asked me was, "Where the heck is the retaining clip?" To which I replied, “The store must have forgotten to install it.” I was pretty embarrassed and didn’t want to admit my foolishness. We installed a new axle (with the retaining clip) and all was well again. The lesson here, don’t modify or make changes to new parts unless you’re 100% sure the functionality won’t be compromised.

Rob in Illinois

I wanted the pickup bed on my family's Ram 1500 to continue to be able to haul dirt or piles of cut brush. My wife wanted to be able to protect luggage or boxes from thieves and inclement weather. We both wanted to be able to leave the tailgate down to haul long items such as lumber or kayaks. A new hard tri-fold tonneau pickup bed cover from RockAuto.com (found for specific trucks under "Body & Lamp Assembly") was the best solution for us.

I am of course biased towards preferring the parts RockAuto carries, but this tonneau cover is truly a beautifully designed product. The morning the shipment arrived, I planned to just unbox the pieces and then wait to install the cover some other day when I had more time and help. But then I decided to put a few things together and then a few more things, and before I knew it, the tonneau cover was on the truck!

Installation required clamping steel rails on each side of the bed. Our pickup has a longer bed which means each rail comes as two pieces that bolt together (described as "split rail" in the catalog). Four clamps squeeze each rail tightly against the interior lip of the pickup bed. The thickness of the sheet metal layers that form the lip varies as you move down the bed (at least it does with Ram trucks). As shown in the photo, the jaws of the clamps are cleverly designed to spin around to better fit different lip thickness.

Tonneau Cover & Clamps

Bolting the rail sections together and clamping them to the bed lip required two sockets (or wrenches). I used a couple of spring-loaded plastic clamps my daughter uses for woodworking projects as an extra set of "hands" to temporarily hold the rails in place. To avoid breaking the aluminum clamps or distorting the truck bed's sheet metal lip, I followed the installation instructions and used a torque wrench (20 ft-lbs for my cover but might be different for other clamps/covers/beds).

The cover is ready to click into place once the rails are installed. There are a couple of finger-operated latches near the cab and a couple more at the tailgate. There are many additional latch-like tabs that automatically slide into place as the cover's attractive aluminum panels are unfolded; making the cover even more sturdy and secure.

Without any tools the cover can be quickly folded up and stored on top of the last panel near the cab, opening up about 2/3 of the bed to the sky. With about 10 seconds more effort, the folded cover can be unlatched and completely removed from the truck (good news for my dirt or tree branch hauling projects).

The cover is about a centimeter thick and sits on top of the bed rail. Having the cover slightly overlap the bed rail helps shed water without the need for gutters, drain hoses or drilling holes. These hard tri-fold covers can also support hundreds of pounds of snow or other evenly dispersed weight.

Tom Taylor,
RockAuto.com

To read more of Tom's articles, click this link and choose from story titles on the Newsletter Archives page.