Bakflip Fold up

[BNSFMike]

I ordered my BakFlip tonneau a few weeks ago and it finally arrived thursday night. I installed it that night and showed it off at work the next day! EASY install for anybody concerned! It feels a little flimsy but I blame that on the rail clamps it comes with.

I ordered it off ultimate truck com. It was $598 shipped with a 10% discount, so $530 about. Best deal I could find. It seems Bakflip is a bit back logged and it takes some time to build and ship, which the guys at UT told me when i placed my order. When it hadn't arrived by the time they said it would, I called.

The customer service with UT was great. Junior, the guy I was dealin with called and emailed me as he said he would. He called Bakflip multiple times. One cust serv rep said it was already shipped,but had no tracking number. (friday). Monday he called them and they told him it was to be shipped on tues. He called back and they told him it would be a couple more days. All the while, he was emailing me and calling leaving VMs to let me know the status. Afer the last call he offered me a refund for my troubles with an appology. Mind you I've not shown any signs of being upset or requesting a refund.

He gave me the number to call if I wanted to try get ahold of them. I called them last thursday on my way home. The guy i spoke with said it hadn't been shipped and it took 10 days to manufacture because they had a lot of orders.

When I arrived home and saw a note on my window from UPS sayin i had 2 packages they needed to drop off I called them expecting it was for my neighbors. Turns out it was my Bakflip order! Scheduled an after hours pickup and rushed over!

I have to say that while I like my cover, it definately needs to be riveted in. The clamps are junk. They bent easily. Their customer service is terribly disorganized. Just have faith in them, they will come through!

I HIGHLY recomend UltimateTruck! Great customer sevice. The Free tailgate seal was shipped next day after I placed my order.

I hope this helps anybody on the fence about purchasing this tonneau. Also hope I'm not breaking any forum rules by suggesting/promoting a place to buy it.

Mike

[TitanBlue]

Excellent post! Yeah, I was going to suggest the riveting thing, I'm really glad i did that. Maybe you read my post on that earlier. Glad you like it so much. I've had mine about 9 months now and would buy the same again. Outstanding price you got too. I figure a lot of companies like BAK are really very small operations, with a good product idea, but not big enough to do a great job for C/S; just depends on where their expertise is.

Hey BNSFMike, I'm a bit of a railfan, do you work for BNSF??? I recall a conductor on here somewhere...

[BNSFMike]

It may had been your post. I don't recall who, but it was here and they said they drilled (I believe 8" or 10") for each rivet and it came out very clean and professional looking. I just need to buy a rivetting gun! I can only assume Bakflip sells their product with the clamps so people who have limited tools can still install it. The clamps also have a slight interference with the utili-track rails. The bolts are pushing against them, and slightly push the tracks up/away. Not enough to matter tho.

Somebody had also said to try and have a second person to help fit as you set the tonneau up and align for the mounting. I was worried that would be a problem, but being easy and taking my time I set the cover flatly across the rails and moved it towards the cab. Very easy install!

The hardest part was flipping my utili-track rails of which all the bolts were loc-tighted and very tough. I stripped 3 bolts. Ofcourse the LAST bolt was the worst. Completly stripped through. I had to drill the head out of it. Removing that bolt is a project for another day!

As far as to your question, yes. I work for BNSF Railway. I'm in the Maintenance of Way department (Maintenance IN the Way to the engineers and conductors!) I work on the track shooting Thermite welds all day. For those unfamiliar, I basically go to locations where the track is bolted together, remove the bolts and bars, and "weld" the rail ends together. Through the thermite process we ignite a powder charge which heats up to about 3600 degrees inside a sand-based crucible. After a few seconds the now molten steel drops into a sand-based mold and fuses into the rail ends. Fun process!

Mike

[TitanBlue]

Yeah, that was mine. Every 12", but closer at the piston location. Worked great. Buy Stainlesss Steel rivets, (1/8" x 1/4") as they have twice the tensile strength of the steel rivets. Since you're buying a gun, get the kind with a swivel head, it'll be handy for this app. Very narrow area where sheetmetal is located under the plastic lips of the OEM portion. Look at it carefully to center the rivets well, vertically.

I have a welding background, never got to see Thermite, but am familiar with it of course. Thanks for the reply.

[debos titan]

nice buy i think you cant beat the bakflip...