The tonneau cover by Smittybilt will be one of the most affordable coverage options that
you can get for your cargo area for your '07 to '17 four-door JK.
When you have the top off of your Jeep, the cargo area is very easily accessible.
This can be a good thing, but with wandering eyes, unexpected weather, hard bumps and turns,
your things can get damaged, lost, or stolen if nothing's covering them up.
I'd like to mention that this will require the use of a factory soft top tailgate bar
and tailgate bar retainers.
So if you do not have that hardware, I would recommend checking out our soft top hardware
and accessories page.
Hardware aside, attaching this is very easy, and it gets a one out of three wrenches on
the difficulty meter, and I'll go into that in just a moment.
This tonneau cover will cover the whole rear cargo area of your Jeep.
I would like to mention that there is also an option for the two-door models, so make
sure you get the right one for your JK.
The material that this is made from is a black diamond vinyl material, very similar to the
OEM soft top.
The fabric is custom-cut to the cargo area for the four-door, and even has a flap that
will come up and wrap around the roll bar on each side with heavy-duty Velcro to prevent
it from flapping around in the wind.
With that, the edges of the cover have thick plastic tabs on the inside seam that insert
in the groove that goes around the back of the whole body of the Jeep.
What I like about the cover is that it comes with little nylon straps that you can pull
to insert the plastic tabs for a very tight fit, making it super easy to put on and take
off.
Like I mentioned, this does use the factory tailgate bar and the tailgate bar retainers
to secure the back and seal the tailgate.
So if you have a hard top, I would recommend to check out our options for those components
on our hardware and accessories page.
Since this uses the tailgate bar in the rear, this will not be able to work in conjunction
with either the hard top or the soft top installed, and to reinstall the hard top, the tailgate
bar retainers would have to be removed.
Also, if you would like to put your seats down and cover those as well, Smittybilt offers
an extension piece that zippers onto the front of the tonneau cover and covers all the way
up to the front seats for about $60 more.
Like I said, this is the most affordable tonneau cover on our site right now for the 4-door,
coming in at about $70.
This is very inexpensive considering that there are fabric options on the site that
are up to $135 and solid metal options for up to $650.
So more expensive fabric options will not require the use of any soft top hardware,
like the JeepTopsUSA tonneau cover that attaches to the tailgate with magnets.
If you have a hard top and you need those additional items, you are looking at about
$80 more for the tailgate bar and retainers off of our site.
If that was the case, and you didn't wanna purchase those items, I would recommend to
check out the tonneau covers with the magnets, because in the end they will be a bit cheaper.
Now, a one-up from one of our more expensive options is that this offers an extender piece
that will cover the back seats when they are folded down.
There's another tonneau cover by Bestop that offers that additional extender, but the price
of the Smittybilt cover and the extender is about the same price as just the Bestop tonneau
cover.
Overall, this has some pretty great reviews for a low price.
So if you're looking for an affordable and good quality cover, this is your best option.
The install on this is very simple, like I said, coming in at a one out of three wrenches
on the difficulty meter.
This doesn't need any hand tools and shouldn't take you any longer than 30 minutes to install.
First lay the tonneau cover over the cargo area and open up the roll bar flaps on each
side, securing them down around the sports bar, then you can attach them very loosely
to keep the cover in place.
Then you can install the OEM tailgate bar onto the tonneau cover by sliding the C-channel
on the bar over the sewn-in channel on the tonneau.
Once that's done, you can insert the bar into the tailgate bar retainers on each side of
the tailgate opening.
Start securing the sides of the tonneau cover by sliding the sewn-in plastic strips into
the channel of the Jeep just like your soft top windows.
Lastly, you can adjust the roll bar flaps and tightly secure them down.
So if you were looking for the most affordable tonneau cover to protect your cargo area,
Smittybilt has you covered.
This is Merideth with XT, and you can find this and everything else Wrangler right here
at extremeterrain.com.