Hey, guys. John here at realtruck.com.
Today I wanna show you how to install the BakFlip VP tonneau cover on this 2016 Ford
F150. Okay, guys. We've got everything out of the
box. You can see here it comes complete with everything that we need to install this on
the truck. It comes, of course, with our cover itself, it comes with the prop rods, the clamps,
your buckle clips which we're gonna attach on there. Also you have your thumb screws,
which we're going to use to attach this to the siderails which are right here, your siderails,
and your bump stops, your seal, and your drain tubes. So, let's get this onto the truck. So the first thing we're gonna do here before
we even start to actually attach our tonneau cover to our truck is to install the bulkhead
seal. Now you guys can see this is a really nice seal. It's gonna help seal this up really
nice in the front. Now, if you have a drop-in bed liner, then of course you're not gonna
use the seal like this on it. But this truck does not, so what we're gonna do is we're
just gonna put it on here, and we're gonna keep it right here on the edge, move it all
the way across, and as you can see there's a little extra. We'll just cut that off at
the end. But before we do any of that, we need to take an alcohol prep pad, make sure
this has already been washed with some soap and water, and then we just wanna use this
to get any extra residue or anything like that off of here so our bulkhead seal actually
sticks really well. So we'll clean this up. We'll give this just a moment for the alcohol
to evaporate and dry, and then we'll be ready to put this bulkhead seal on here. So we're gonna peel back a little bit of the
backing on this. You don't wanna peel this all off at once, because if you do, it's going
to create a nightmare, because this stuff sticks well. Everything it touches, it's gonna
stick to, and then we're gonna have a whole bunch of problems. So we'll pull this back
a little bit. We'll get it right here on the edge by our bed rail cap, right on the edge
of the bulkhead, and just start laying it down on there. Put a little press at the beginning
there to make sure it sticks on there really good, and then I'm just gonna stretch this
out across here, just to help keep it straight for me. And then we're just gonna peel the
tape backing right out from under it and push down a little bit there, just slightly, until
we know it's right where we want it. Go ahead and flatten it down. And we're just gonna
go all the way across like this, and when we get to the end of course, then we're gonna
cut off the excess, and we'll be ready to move to the next step, which will be to attach
our siderails. Okay. So we're ready to put our siderails
on. Now, the first thing we wanna do here is make sure that we have the tailgate closed.
And you can see they have these metal slotted pieces on these. These are gonna be up here
at the front. And when we'll do this, we wanna set this on here and make sure this is all
the way forward. And there's also on these rails a little seal that runs along this area
here. That's gonna sit down on top of your bed rail cap. And we're gonna put it on just
like that. We're gonna start with the front clamp and
we're going to put it on. Now you wanna to put it probably about six to nine inches from
the cab, which is gonna be right about in this space here. So we're gonna put that on
there. You wanna move it up as far as you can and still keep this attached. And let's
see here... Get a hold of this and get it up in here where it's supposed to go. And
we wanna make sure that when we do this, guys, that we have this clamps up as far as it will
go and that we keep this rail level while we're attaching all this stuff. And as we
tighten these up, we're going to want to press down on the top of here a little bit because
that's gonna help set that seal in place along the top and keep the water and such from getting
into your bed. And we're gonna just take our sock and our ratchet here, make sure I've
got that up there right and snug this up a little bit. Now don't tighten this all the
way up, gang, because we may have to adjust a little bit, so we wanna leave it just a
little bit loose, just snug enough to hold it in place where it needs to be. Another thing to keep in mind, as you can
see here on this clamp, keep these things so they're straight across horizontally, so
that way these teeth that are on these clamps can actually get into the grooves on the siderail,
and that's gonna help hold this in place. Now, once we have this all on here, then the
next thing you're gonna wanna do is grab yourself a torque wrench and torque these to 10-foot
pounds, and that's gonna make sure that this thing stays securely on the bed like it's
supposed to. So, we'll move on to the next one and we're
gonna try and get it centered in here. So right about here looks about right. Okay,
and then, of course, finally the back one. And then the back one...we're gonna put it
as close to the back as we can, which is gonna be right about that spot there. Push down
on the rail a little bit. Okay. So the rail is on. The next thing we're gonna do then is to grab
our torque wrench, torque those to 10-foot pounds, and we're gonna go ahead and install
the one on the other side, which is going to install exactly like this one did. And
we'll come back and we'll show you what to do next. Okay, guys. So we're gonna lay our tonneau
cover up here, on the bed of our truck. And just fold it open here just a little bit because
we're going to attach our buckle straps to the front there. We'll show you guys how to
do that. So, what we're gonna do then is we're just gonna take our buckles and we're gonna
put them in place here, and take the flat part of the screw style here and we're going
to attach that through the bottom down here. We'll just have two of those. And then we're
going to put our screws in place here. All right, so we're gonna take our screwdriver
and tighten these screws down. Make sure that we don't over-tighten, but we have them tight
enough that they hold. So do that to both of these screws, and then we're gonna jump
over and do the one on the other side, and then we'll be ready to attach our cover. All right. So the next step we're gonna do
then is we're going to attach our cover to our side rail, and the way we're gonna do
that is we're going to take our bolt here and drop it down inside. Make sure that it
has this rubber washer on here because that's what's gonna keep this sealed up once we have
it in place. So, once we have this in, then we're gonna get underneath and we're gonna
attach our hardware to the bottom side. It's gonna go like this: first you're gonna have
the rubber flat washer, then you're gonna have the big flat steel washer, and then you're
gonna have the lock washer, and then your thumb screw, and it's all gonna be sitting
in there just like that. So, basically, it will look something like this underneath here,
and that's what we're gonna do. So I'm gonna go drop this bolt in the other side, and then
we'll get underneath and attach all this hardware. All right. Once we have our cover on, once
we have our mounting bolts in place, the next thing we're gonna do is fold this out, make
sure it fits correctly and that we don't need to make any adjustments anywhere. Also, leave
those thumb screws underneath that we just attached on there. Leave those loose until
after this step in case you have to move this around just a little bit. All right. Perfect. We're all good. Everything
looks like is lined up nicely on both sides, so we can go ahead, open this back up, tighten
up our thumb screws right where they are. And the next thing we're gonna do then is
we're gonna attach the drain tubes for the rails, and I'll show you guys how to do that. Okay, everything is all set, so next thing
we're gonna do then is attach these drain tubes, and this is a really simple thing to
do. And there's a couple ways you can do it depending on your vehicle. There's plugs and...like
this one has a plug down here, some of them have them up here, some on the side. If it
doesn't have one at all, you can actually drill a hole and route that through it. But
what we're gonna do is we're gonna just pop this plug out right here, and then attach
our drain tube to the spout, which is right up here, and we're just gonna slide right
over the top of that, and then route it right out and through the bottom. Now, another thing
you can do here... You're probably like "Well, that's gonna be a big, gaping hole there."
One other thing you could do is you can actually just drill a hole right in the center of this
and run it through there, but since this truck is actually not mine I'm not gonna do that.
I'll let the owner decide whether they wanna do that or not. So, I'm gonna put the one
on the other side just like we did this side, and then we'll be ready to show you what the
next step is. Okay. Next thing we're gonna do then, guys...
As you can see here, this cover comes all the way up to the back glass, which can be
a bad thing except for we have bump stops. Now these bump stops we're just going to attach
across the back here. Just peel the backing off. We're gonna put one right in the center
here, and then we'll put one right on each end. And that will help when we have this
in the full open position to protect the back of our cab and our back window, so that we
don't have any issues. Same thing here. Put this one right here. And then one on this
end. And there we go. That's gonna help protect the back of our cab and our glass, so we don't
have any problems with that All right. So we're gonna attach our prop
rod. These attach pretty simple. They're very similar to your hood prop rod on your car
or your back window gate glass, prop rods on your SUV. They just have a hole right here
and a ball pin here, and it just snaps right on in place just like so. And then we'll be
able to take these and we'll move these up on here, slide this down, and lock this down,
and that's gonna hold this up in place. So we're gonna to the one on this other side,
and then we'll come back and show you what this thing looks like all done. All right, so our prop rods are all attached.
This is what they look like when they're in place. And when you're not using them, you
just pull that up, take the prop rod out, and hook it right in this little handy loop
right here and close up our cover. So you guys can see there's a little bit of
wrinkling in this rubber seal. That's not a big deal because what will happen is, when
it sits out in the sun, this is gonna soften up and then it's gonna lay on here nice. In
the meantime, what I would recommend is just to kind of pull it up a little bit like that
to make sure that it's flat out on both sides and let it sit in the sun, or you can take
a hairdryer to it and just heat it up enough to soften it and it'll take this little wrinkling
out and this thing will lay in here really nice. And there you have it, guys. That's how quick
and easy it is to install the BakFlip VP tonneau cover onto your truck. So remember, until
next time, happy motoring!