I knew up front I would need some kind of weather protection for any truck I bought, but I was far from sure what kind I would want.

I looked at roll up, folding, and one piece tonneaus, abs and fiberglass, as well as fiberglass caps.  Some years ago I had a truck and put on an ARE roof high camper shell, and really liked it, but was not at all sure I wanted to go that way again.  Pricing one pretty well made the decision for me.

As far as I can tell, camper shells and the one piece covers - fiberglass or abs plastic - are the only way to get reasonably complete weather protection.  I thought a painted-to-match cover would look really great, but there was a voting bloc which thought it should be black, to match the wheel flare trim.  That made the decision easy - black abs is the cheapest one piece option.

I am very surprised by how much I like it.  It sheds water perfectly so far, and even has a rubber flashing strip across the back of the bed so that you don't dump rain run off into the bed when you lift the lid.  The weight is half that of a fiberglass unit -about 45 lbs. - and we can easily lift it on and off in under five minutes.  It will hold my weight and probably much more, should I feel compelled to stand on it.

Security is probably about as good as any similar cover, which is to say just fair.  A locking tailgate helps a lot.

There is no question the black abs plastic will take more abuse than a painted tonneau.

I definitely like the unrestricted view out the back window of the truck vs. the highly restricted view through two little windows of a camper shell.

One final surprise is that the truck is quieter now at highway speeds.  I am assuming that wind turbulence across the truck bed is greatly reduced.

I will make a couple of removable dividers for the bed and that should pretty much finish up our tow vehicle.