Video Review & Installation

Hey, guys. So, today, we're checking out the Proven Ground EZ Hard Fold Tonneau Cover, fitting all 2016 and newer Toyota Tacomas. So, if your truck did not come with a tonneau cover right out of the factory, and you're looking for one to cover up your bed from any prying eyes, any bad weather, and just give your truck a very sleek look, this option by Proven Ground is going to be a really good option to take a look into and it's also going to be an affordable one at that. Now, there are a lot of different options for tonneau covers on the category page between soft covers, hard covers, tri-folds, and even roll-up covers and many more. But this option by Proven Ground, it says it in the name, is going to be a hard tri-fold. Now, it does not look like a hard cover right off the bat, you do have a vinyl material up on top, but it is going to have an aluminum frame and panels underneath here to maximize that security.Now, not only is it going to do just that, but it's going to give it a very sleek look and the vinyl itself is going to be marine-grade, so it will hold up for a very long period of time, especially if it comes in contact with any bad weather. So, this tonneau cover is going to be great for somebody who likes the look of a soft cover, but wants the added security of a hard cover. Not to mention, this is incredibly easy to use. This is a lightweight cover. So, it's very easy to slip up because of that lightweight aluminum frame. And you're also getting two buckles at the front to make sure that the cover is secure when you are driving around in your truck with the cover open. Not to mention, again, you are getting a very sleek look with this, and you're also helping out your aerodynamics by covering up your bed.Now, like I mentioned before, this is going to be one of your most affordable options for a hard cover on the category page, coming in at roughly $400. Now, in comparison to some other choices that you may be taking a look at, the less expensive options are usually going to be those soft cover options, considering that they're not going to provide as much security as a hard cover or like this one will, or they may be for a roll up or button around the sides in comparison to the tri-fold.Now, on the other hand, some more expensive options are usually just going to have those extra bells and whistles, they may be a flush cover, or they may be a completely hard cover minus the vinyl. Now, my personal opinion, I think if you're looking for something that's affordable, that's still going to do a really good job at protecting your bed, providing a lot of functionality, and is going to look sleek in the meantime, then this is a great choice to take a look at. Now, again, I told you guys that this is going to be very easy to install. I'm going to give it one out of three wrenches on the difficulty meter, and tools that you need are actually provided in the kit by Proven Ground, so you already cancel that off there. It's probably going to take you about an hour to get the job done. So, speaking of that install, let me walk you through it.The tool that I used for my install was the provided Allen key. What we're going to do now is pop off the cap on the bed rail. Because the Tacoma has factory bed rails, we can use the brackets that are provided. Now, they usually will look like this with the plate in the back, with the preinstalled Allen head bolts. I just remove those so we're able to slide in the plate, and then we can reinstall this bracket on top of our rail so we'll be able to latch our tonneau cover down. So, what I'm going to do is just loosely install these. We're going to install two on either side. You are supplied with an Allen key in order to install them. And I'm not going to tighten them down, we do need to slide this back and forth in order to adjust them. So, after one is done, we can slide that up to the front and we can install the rear bracket. So, after those are installed, what we can do is take our cap, pop that back into place, and then we can repeat that process on the other side.What we can do now is push the bracket up to align up with the latch here, and we can tighten this bracket down, and then latch our tonneau cover latch to our bracket. So, I'm just going to use that same Allen key that we used before to secure the bracket to the bed rail. And then now that that's lined up, we can push the hook part of our latch up against the bracket and spin the bottom of the latch to tighten it down. Once the tonneau cover is secured on one side, we can repeat that process on the other side. Now, we can fold our tonneau cover back and line up the rear latches with our rear brackets. So, now that the bracket is lined up with our rear latch, we can do the same thing, tighten down the bracket, and then we can attach our latch to our bracket here. So, once that bracket is tightened down, the latch may be straight like this. We're going to bend it to extend that down. And then once we close it, it'll seal to the side of our bed. You may have to do a little bit of adjustment when you tighten it up a little bit. All right. And then we're also going to have a cotter pin to make sure that that stays closed. After the cotter pin is installed, we can repeat that on the other side. So, our last step is just to close up our tailgate, and then you're all set to go.So, that's going to wrap it up for my review and install. Make sure you like and subscribe. And for more videos and products like this, always keep it right here at extremeterrain.com.