Sunday, February 15, 2009

Is the Retrax Tonneau Cover a SCAM?



I have an older body style Dodge Ram long bed truck. The only time I ever drive this truck is to pull my fifth wheel trailer. I needed a cover that could be used to secure the bed of the truck when the trailer was not hooked up.

I bought a Retrax roll up bed cover for about $1000.00 and loved it for about six months...

Somewhere around the half a year mark the polycarbonate on the roll up curtain buckled and warped so much that the top could not be opened and closed. Applied Products, the manufacturer of the Retrax truck top said since it was still under the one year warranty period that they would replace the curtain no problem.

I had the retailer where I purchased the top swap out the curtain and all was well...

About seven or so months went by with the truck sitting before we took a trip with the fifth wheel. We headed out of town and when we reached our destination and unhooked the trailer the Retrax topper would not close. It felt as though it where getting "hung" on something inside of the canister at the front of the bed.

When we got home from our trip, I took the truck back to the local shop. After my installer examined the cover he found that not only had the curtain broken nearly in half, but the polycarbonate that Retrax uses to make the spirals in the canister was cracked about every one half to one inch and had several large pieces broken away and the bearings on the curtain had fallen down through the holes left by the broken plastic track.

This time the response that I got from Applied Products was that even though the curtain was only around seven months old, the original purchase date was more than a year and that it would be $400 to get a new curtain. When I expressed my concern about spending almost half again what I originaly paid to fix a part that had already broken two times within 13 months, the lady in the office procceded to tell me that I used my top to much...What?!

Remember I said that this truck was only used a few times when I needed to pull my fifth wheel?

This is the last Applied Products, or Retrax, product that I will ever purchase. I encourage you to do your your homework on this one if you are considering a Retrax roll top cover. Don't waste your money. Unless you want to dump $400 bucks every six months into a $1000 piece of crap...

9 comments:

  1. This is good and nice. I agree with this idea. Many people might be like this as well. I just want to say thank you , btw anyone may see also Sprei Anak

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  2. I bought a Retrax cover for my F350 short bed in 2005 and it worked beautifully until this w/e. I was closing it, moving it toward the tailgate and it split side-to-side about 2' from the front.
    Retrax had no replacement cover because mine was too old and a Gen 2. They offered me a 10% discount on a complete Gen 3 with shipping is around $1200.00.After reading all the negatives I'm thinking about canceling the order,try and fix it and/or go with a different brand.

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  3. Dont buy a retrax. they fall apart. mine cracked all the way cross. Retrax company sucks they dont take care of there customer. Dont buy there stuff. they dont back there product. get a truckcoverusa its build better

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  4. Agreed —-don’t buy a Retrax. Mine started cracking and now will not retract more than a few feet. Customer service offered a discount on a replacement. Fool me once........ Stay away is my opinion.

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  5. I bought my truck used with the Retrax already installed, thinking that it was a good bonus for no money. Hah! I hadn't noticed the crack right at the first flex joint 6-9 inches in from each side. Called Retrax and they said "$600 for a replacement", whereupon I said "That'll never happen, you can sucker somebody else with your inferior crap." I'm going to glue it until it breaks more, then trash the whole thing for an aluminum one!

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  6. Mine broke after 9 months of light use. Won’t open or close. Crap product and terrible customer service,

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  7. Mine was installed on a used 2016 RAM 2500. Worked great for the first 2 years (I guess I am lucky) then like everyone else was stating, it would not close and then the polycarbonate top cracked and that was the end of it opening and closing. Called Retrax and they wanted $700 just for the polycarbonate replacement. I thought of changing to the aluminum top, but then after doing more research I saw this post and changed my mind. Thanks for the heads up.

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  8. I've had a few on different work trucks. They always end up cracking. This week be the last one I think. Just talked to them, prorated replacement was still nearly$500 after shipping

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  9. Only buy the aluminum retractable covers, polycarbonate (plastic) will never be as durable as aluminum, it's a no-brainer.

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