Trucks are the crude princes of the streets, the tough guys. They are hefty and powerful and there is nothing in it that you can’t use. Trucks’ no-nonsense make and functionality qualify them as the automotive equivalent of a beast of burden. They are convenient and practical, and easily the most popular other half to those who frequent the greens and enjoy an active lifestyle.

In today’s hustle and bustle, a vehicle cargo compartment is indispensable. Aside from the imposing look and vaunted power of trucks, another reason for its ascent to the King of the Automotive Hill is the advantage that its truck bed offers. From tools to golf clubs and camping gears, a truck bed makes you mobile without any fuss. Depending on the kind of your truck, its rear bed can carry up to 450 kilograms of load. All the things that are too big for the interior of the vehicle go there, along with the others that you don?t want to be cramping up inside the truck, like water coolers, spare tire, and greasy tool box.

Trucks, so history goes, have been proven to be very valuable for military units. The rear bed allowed the vehicle to be fitted with a machine gun, and fired on the enemy without any letdown on the speed of the attack. This explains why a truck’s rear bed is open. These days, trucks are not used exclusively for the military, but their rear beds remain open to accommodate gears and other things as robust as a machine gun.

You may want to wish that you are carrying a machine gun on the rear bed of your truck when thieves and the weather attack the cargo. Levity aside, one simple way to fill in the problem of an open rear bed is through the use of a heavy-duty Tonneau Cover. Made of heavy-duty vinyl, Tonneau Cover safeguards the contents of the truck bed from prying eyes as well as from rain, snow, and road salt.

Installing a Tonneau Cover on the truck bed is fast and easy. It usually sports a clamp-on installation system. Some covers even come with storage straps for compact storage. This is especially useful for filled water coolers that you don?t want to be flooding your truck?s rear bed.

For added convenience as if your truck has an open rear bed, some Tonneau Covers even feature a quick release mechanism for easy access to the truck bed. To close the cover, simply unbuckle the quick release straps and roll the cover towards the tailgate. Center the roll-up/tensioning bar into the strike, and the autolatch automatically secures the cover tightly in place. Then simply push the slide locks located at each rear corner to bolt the cover; pull to unlock. When you add a tailgate lock, the cover and truck bed tailgate can be secured.

The tough tubular bows and lid of a decent Tonneau Cover can last all the four seasons. In doing so, the equipment at the beack of your truck, too, will last. The vinyl cover is also compatible with most bed accessories, such as bed rails, tie down hooks, cab spoilers, bed liners, bed caps and tailgate protectors.

What’s best, a Tonneau Cover can actually improve the truck’s mileage. A 2004 article in Motor Magazine reported that on an eight-foot box, the improvement in fuel economy with a full Tonneau Cover could be 1.35 miles per gallon, or a saving of 243 gallons over 100,000 miles of driving. Now, that’s functionality that can match that of your truck.