Peragon Enterprises - Peragon Truck Bed Cover - Product Review - Problem.

Updated 9 July 08

After Reading about the Peragon Bed Cover on their web site we ordered one in mid May of 2004. It was delivered in early July - about seven weeks after the order was placed.

Installation took place on Friday evening and Saturday morning. It took two of us about six hours to set up and install the cover. All the hardware is included in the kit, though it is low grade hardware and we had to be careful tightening it or it would strip the threads from the bolts.

Peragon has a tech line that’s open business hours during the week. They can help you if you happen to be installing it instead of going to work that day. If you’re doing it after hours or on the weekend, you’re on your own. Other people who purchased one of these covers, and tried to contact the company had very little success. Their e-mails went unanswered.

The first thing we noticed is that you’ll need more tools than the web site suggests (Peragon claims you can do it with a 7/16” wrench and a Philips screw driver). On our ‘95 Dodge we also needed a deep socket to get the rear brackets installed and some 1/2 inch tools to put the gas shocks on with.

The company claims that the mounting kit leaves the stake pockets open, but we found the the mounting bolts block the stake pockets. Our lumber rack drops into the stake pockets on the truck.

Before...

After...

The mounting bolts kept the stake from going more than an inch or so into the pocket. Not very helpful if you want to put a stake in the pocket.

While we were putting in the rear brackets we found that the supplied washers would not fit. The hole in the bracket is drilled wrong.

Once the frame was assembled we flipped it over and put it on the truck.

Peragon promotes the cover as needing no new holes. The brackets mount through the existing holes in the stake pockets. The problem we had with that is our truck is not new, it’s a work truck and we’ve used the stake pockets. The brackets, when mounted to the stake pockets on our truck, were far from level.

The company includes a lot of small washers to use in leveling the cover on the bed, but once you have that fat stack of washers between the bed cover and the bracket the track gets wobbly and tends to tip toward the inside of the bed. If the track is not level front to back, and side to side, the cover binds up when it’s opened and closed.

The crossbar that holds the bottoms of the tracks together comes with four little rubber grommets to hold it in place. We put it together in accordance with the instructions, but it just kept falling off. So we put it on with a couple of little nuts instead.

After we got the cover installed and working we noticed that the track the cover rides in blocks about the first two feet of the truck bed. That’s a big problem for us because we carry a truck full of tools to work everyday.

The rubber maid tub in the picture is a foot and a half back from the front of the truck bed. The cover only moved about six inches before it ran into the tub and got stuck.

We have since searched the Peragon web site looking for a good picture of the track and there isn’t one. All the pictures they put up show it open, or closed enough to hide the track from view - so there was no way for us to figure out before we bought it how much space the track eats up. I don’t know if they did that on purpose, but they did manage to hide one of their shortcomings from view.

Needless to say you can’t put anything tall in the front of the truck. In fact we had a bit of trouble with short stuff too.

This tool box is a foot and a half back from the front of the truck bed. It’s less than ten inches tall, but the cover hung up on it as well and got stuck. In our testing we determined that most things forward of the wheel wells will jam the cover.

The other thing we discovered was if stuff slides forward to the cross bar it can block the opening of the cover. In this picture the tool box has slid to the front and been stopped by the cross bar. When we opened the cover it hit the top of the box and stopped. The only way to fix this is to crawl in under the cover from the back and pull the tool box out.

Peragon Enterprises, the maker of the Peragon Truck Bed Cover, claims the the folded cover takes up only six inches at the front of the truck. Our measurements determined this to be incorrect. The cover actually takes up about ten and a half inches. More pictures of this fact.

We also took issue with the advertising Peragon Enterprises has on the “Our Product” page of their web site.

Firstly, the phrase “Integrity. Guaranteed.” is misleading. It implies that they are interested in your satisfaction with the purchase of their cover. The truth is NO REFUND! Once you take delivery of the cover you’re stuck with it, so be very sure it’s what you want before you order it. Read Peragons return policy.

“Key to security” Not keys, Key. They sent just one key with the cover. If you want more than one you need to get them yourself.

“Slick operator” Not really, the cover tends to be tough to open until you overcome the gas shock that holds it closed and then the cover comes open so fast that there is a warning on it to keep your hands out of the way.

If you parked with the front of the truck downhill - watch out! The cover comes flying open and crashes to the front of the truck. The first section of cover has to be pushed down against the gas strut to open it. There is a gas strut on both the driver & passenger sides of the cover and when you push one side down it twists the first panel quite a lot before the gas strut on the other side compresses.

“Weather tight” It keeps sunshine out fine. If you’re trying to keep the sun from fading the paint in your truck bed then ok - if you want to keep something dry during a rain shower then shop elsewhere. There have been reports on the Ford Truck Enthusiasts web site that it “Leaks like a sieve”.

“Quality. Period.” Apparently no one at Peragon was an english major. Quality. Period. is the same as writing “Quality...” The panels are powder coated aluminum, though they only finished the topside. The bottom has baked-on over-spray from the top. As noted before, the hardware is low -quality steel and the seals, where the tracks sit on the side of the bed, apparently melt & fall off in the hot Texas sun. Our seals started to peal off while were still installing the tracks.

The rear mounting brackets have a lot of potential to move as the truck goes down the road and when that happens the cover gets stuck in the track and won’t open.

“Sexy fit” You can be the judge.

“Easy Install” We didn’t think so.

“Save fuel” Not really. According to MythBusters you get about the same mileage with a hard cover as you do with the tailgate up, or the tailgate removed. The only way to get better mileage is to replace the tailgate with a net style gate.

“Nice in ice” Ice, the cover keeps out, only when it melts does the water run through the cover into the truck bed.

“Stake holes open for accessories” The top of the hole is open, but if you plan to put a stake in there, forget about it. The bolt head and the large area washer inserted through the side of the stake pocket use up about half the space in the pocket.

If you want to put a motorcycle in the back of the truck you have to fold up, and then remove the cover. The company claims that this is easy to do. Maybe if you’re a monkey.

The gas struts are held on with little clips that have to be pried loose with a small screw driver. No easy task since there is very little room to work and you can’t see the ends of the struts. Both the top and the bottom of the gas strut have to be removed or the strut will hang-up on the track when the cover comes out. The track (made of soft steel) is fairly easy to bend so you want to keep things from hitting it. (If you’re loading something long into the truck be careful you don’t push it into the track and bend it. If the cover misses the track on one side it’ll jam.)

The cross bar between the tracks needs to be removed. If it was held in with the little rubber grommets then it’s probably fallen off already, if it’s held on with nuts they need to be removed.

There is a pin that has to be pulled from the right side of the cover. It’s at the front and hard to get a hand on unless you’re standing in the truck bed. Once that’s pulled the cover is twisted in it’s track and the drivers side falls out. The lower bearings on the cover will hit the track so the track needs to be pushed out of the way (be careful not to bend the track). If you don’t want to damage the cover it’ll take two people to remove the cover.

We managed to bend the cover when we removed it. The aluminum at the bearing mounts is pretty small so it’s not hard to do. The bearings themselves are held on with pop rivets. You can see the ball end of the rivet opposite the bearing in the picture. There have been reports on the F150 web site that the little ears that hold the bearings tend to crack as well.

Putting the cover back in the track is basically the reverse of taking it out. There is a fixed pin on the drivers side of the cover that goes in a pivot hole. The pin is a short bolt with a nylon washer. We had some trouble getting the pin (bolt) to stay in the pivot hole while we installed the removable pin on the other side. Again two people make the job easier. We took the short bolt out and replaced it with a longer one so it’ll stay in the pivot hole while we set the pin on the other end. Pictured here is the original bolt. It’s barely visible in the right hole, just the very end of it is engaging the hole in the cover.

Given the difficulty of removing and then reinstalling the cover I recommend leaving it installed once it’s in. It’s easier to rent a truck from U-Haul than it is to remove & replace the Peragon Cover.

One of the things we carry a lot of is Rubbermaid tubs. They fit under the cover from about the wheel wells back. (As noted above they won’t fit in the front two feet because the cover needs that space to fold up.) One thing we noticed was that when a tub sides to the front (under the first three panels of the cover) the tub jams the cover in the closed position. You can’t push the cover down at the front because it hits the top of the tub. The only way to open the cover is to take everything out of the truck, crawl under the cover to the front and pull the tub that slid forward out.

We’ve heard from some people that talked or e-mailed Peragon Enterprises about the cover locking in several positions. Apparently Peragon claims the cover can be locked at several partially open positions. We don’t think that’s possible. The locking mechanism on the cover is in the first panel (the one closest to the cab). Once the cover is partly open the locking mechanism is blocked by the second panel. In any event the locking pin is nowhere near the track so it cannot engage. I suspect what they mean is you can tie the cover to the tail gate with the closing strap so when you stop the truck the cover does not slam open.

We were so disappointed with the Peragon Bed Cover that we contacted the company and asked them to take it back. They refused. No refunds they said. We filed complaints with several agencies, including the Better Business Bureau. The BBB sent four notices to Peragon over the course of a month and none were answered. Other agencies had the same problem, all attempts to contact them failed. After more than a month went by Peragon finally sent the BBB a letter which basically said “No Refunds” Clearly customer satisfaction is not a priority at Peragon. Read Peragons return policy.

If you have not visited the F-150 Ford forum you can read other peoples comments here.

If you have not visited the F-250 Ford forum you can read other peoples comments here.

I gave the cover away for free. That person gave it away too...

More Pictures...