BakFlip G2 Selection, General Comments and Installation:

After picking up the new Ford F150 I searched high and low to find the "perfect" tonneau cover.  I had a pretty specific list of "musts" so it made the search more difficult than it should have been.  My requred features:

•  Able to haul tall items without removing the cover
•  Hard and lockable for security reasons
•  Easily removable
•  Look nice.

The above requirements ruled out a fiberglass cover because of the tall items and a soft tonneau because I wanted it lockable.  I narrowed the choices to a Torza Hardhat, Roll-n-lock, Rollbak, and the Bakflip.  I had a Torza previously on my Dakota (soft cover) and while it was ok, I wanted the lower profile tonneau because the bed walls are so high on the F150.  I ruled out the rolling covers because they don't remove easily and the roller compartment takes up prime bed area.  That left me with the Bakflip G2 Tonneau Cover by Bakliner.

I purchased the Bakflip online and paid a reasonable $616 to the door.  This was $200 less than local shops wanted for it installed.  I have a drop in bedliner which Bakliner told me would not be a problem.  Well, they were sort of right.  I had to trim my bed liner with a Dremel tool on the front left and right corners a little bit to make room for the drain tube housing on the front edges of both rails.  Beyond that installation was excessively straight forward and actually easy.  If not for the trimming necessary it would have likely taken less than 25 minutes.  With the necessary trimming and calculating it took me close to an hour start to finish.

A few words of warning, advice, whatever you'd like to call it. There were three things that troubled me after installation was complete.  I will detail them below.

The edge of the seals were bubbled up at the hinge seams from shipment. 

This picture was taken immediately after installation but these "bubbles" did not go away even after a week on the truck.  They were on both sides and equally as bad on each.  I called Bakliner and they were very helpful.  They asked what the average temperature is where I life and when I told them 50 degrees or so they had the fix.  The rubber has a "memory" but if it gets out of whack requires heat to go back to it's memorized position.  At their recommendation I borrowed my wife's hair dryer.  A few swipes up and down the edge of the seals at close range with the hair dryer and the problem was gone, the seals were flat just as they should be.  All total I probably spent 5 minutes with the hair dryer and it looked perfect.  It has been 2 weeks since I did this, and they remain flat and perfect.  problem solved.

With the tailgate up the rear latch was very tight.

With the tailgate down the Bakflip closed nicely with no problems.  With the tailgate up it requred a good bit of pressure to latch the rear right latch.  This bothered me tremendously.  While on the phone with Bakliner they assured me this would go away once I applied heat to the seals.  I was more than skeptical because this thing was tight!  Well I'm happy to report I was wrong.  Now the latch closes pretty much just under it's own weight.  No effort is required to shut the BakFlip and it seals quite nicely. 

I had to lift the bakflip to close the tailgate.

With two problems solved so easily this shouldn't be a problem right?  Wrong.  The Bakliner rep advised that there is a lip on the F150 tailgates and therefore you cannot close the tailgate without releasing the bakflip, then closing the bakflip once the tailgate is closed.  While this irritates me still, it's honestly not that bad.  The Bakflip opens effortlessly but pulling on the cable and just sets back down on the closed tailgate, latching itself basically.  While this is a small pain in the butt, if it is required to maintain it's waterproof seal then it's a small price to pay.

Overall Impressions:

After about three weeks with the BakFlip I would have to say I'm pretty pleased.  The few problems I had with the product have worked themselves out.  The seal is great and my items stay dry in the bed.  I like that it's a hard tonneau that secures you're items as long as you lock your tailgate.  It is a low profile tonneau so if you are more than a few feet from the truck you flat out can't tell that it has one. The tonneau looks pretty nice.  I was worried about the hinges looking a little silly every two feet but honestly it doesn't detract from it's appearance. Whether this is the tonneau for you or not is not something I can tell you.  I can tell you that after a lot of research it was the cover for me. 

Pictures of the Installed BakFlip G2:

At the request of several viewers I've added several more pictures of the cover.  Pictures of the cover completely opened, partially opened, and underneath have been included.  Check the next page for the pictures..