Video Review & Installation

Hey, guys. Adam here with americantrucks.com. And today, we're taking a closer look at, and of course, installing the Proven Ground Locking Roll-up Tonneau Cover available for your 2019 and newer Silverado 1500 with the short and standard bed. You should be checking this out if you're looking for a very simple, very traditional tonneau cover, one that has a soft top and a roll-up style design. Now, this particular option here uses some pretty high-quality vinyl on top. It's got some really nice weatherstripping throughout to make sure that your cargo is safe and secure from all-weather elements all-year-round. There's also aluminum slats, three of them to be exact, quarter of the way, halfway, and then three-quarters to make sure that it's supporting any added weight on top, like say a couple of feet of snow. Now, this guy here will have the downside of not being a hard top, which means that it can be knifed through, which is something to keep in mind if you're looking to keep away from would-be thieves. If that is the case, a hard top is something that's going to be a lot more high-quality in that category.As far as operation goes, this guy is really high-quality and very easy to use. When you've dropped the tailgate here, you'll have a pull cord right in the middle with a string that makes it easy to reach and it'll unlock from the top here at which case, you can then roll it back. Now, there are some other options out there that have snaps which require you to go to both sides, which can be just a little bit more work. I'm a big fan of the pull cord design, which Proven Ground uses right here in this option. Now, it does come in right around 250 bucks. So, it is a little bit on the lower end of the spectrum as far as pricing. If you're looking to get some of the other bells and whistles included in some of the premium options, you will be looking to spend a little bit more money there. This is definitely a bare-bones kind of tonneau cover, but the locking mechanism there is definitely high-quality. Once the tailgate's closed, you can't open it and you can't get into it, so your cargo is secure in that way.One thing worth mentioning here, and this falls under the personal preference category, this tonneau cover here isn't necessarily low profile. Now, you might see low pro or low profile in the title of some of the tonneau covers in the category and what that basically means is it's going to be really flush with the top of your tailgate and the top of the sides of your bed rails there, making it a little bit more discrete, a little bit more subtle on your truck bed, not really standing out. This guy here is pretty thick, not very low pro again, personal preference, but worth mentioning there that it comes up about an inch or so off the top of the bed.There's one aspect of this that isn't exactly my favorite in terms of features among the tonneau of cover category and that's gonna be the weatherstripping on the side when it comes to opening and closing it. The weatherstripping on the side does tuck into a lip on the bed rails that you'll be installing out of the kit, but what that means is when you start to close the tonneau cover, you may want to go back and retuck in the weatherstripping after each use. Now, if your tonneau cover is going to be closed for the most part or most of the time rather, then that's not going to be that big of a deal, it's honestly going to be very secure and it's gonna make sure that no weather is getting in there. Now, if you're constantly opening and closing your tonneau cover, eventually I can see it being a little bit of a pain in the butt there, in which case, I'd recommend looking at some of the more premium options. Even some options from Proven Ground will do the trick, making life a little easier, but at 250 bucks, it's definitely more traditional and more basic.Now, the install for this gets one out of three wrenches on our difficulty meter. Anybody can tackle it in the driveway at home, give it about 30 minutes from start to finish and you can do it by yourself. The tonneau cover itself is really not that heavy, so it's pretty easy to get up there in the bed and set up. Now, I'm gonna walk you through the entire process from start to finish. What do you say we get started?Tools used in this install include impact gun and a 3/16 hex socket. But the Allen key is also included in the kit. All right. First up here, very simple. You're just gonna grab your driver side bed rail and you're gonna lay it up here, flush against the edge. You're gonna pull it back so the silver part here is by the tailgate matching up right with that edge. Head down and make sure it's flush at this end as well. All right. You want to grab one of the clamps included in the kit and loosen it up here. You're gonna slide that under the factory bed rail. And there's a little lip here, you want to hook that onto the bed rail you just put on top of the factory rail. Now that that's hooked on, you want to make sure it's pretty close to this wall here of the bed, closest to the tailgate as it can get. And you're gonna tighten that down using a 3/16 Allen key or Allen socket. All right. So, then we're going to slide along the rail. Find that slot that's on the bed rail right here, and you're gonna go right to the right of it. Just like that and tighten it down. All right. And your last one is gonna go toward the bulkhead. All right. Repeat that on the other side.Next up, we're going to install our support bars. Now, you'll see at the ends here, they have F, M and R. Front, middle, rear. You want to install them in your appropriate positions because they're different lengths. We're going to start with the F, the front, which is gonna go toward the front of the truck under your bulkhead. You're going to insert it into the slot and go diagonally, bringing it into the little notch. Just like that. There you go. Now, we can do the M for middle. Now you wanna make sure you're not trapping yourself in here, move backward toward the tailgate as you do this. Now we can do the rear.Next up, we're going to take our tonneau cover rolled up right out of the box. And we're gonna put this black thumbscrew and plastic tab through the back slot of your rail. Now, you may need to adjust its position in order to get this guy to fit there because it is a pretty squeeze. All right. Do the same thing on the other side. Once you have that slotted in, tighten that thumbscrew. All right. At this point, we can unsnap our tonneau cover and unroll it. All right. Right here, we're just holding our weatherstripping back into those slots on the bed rails.All right. Now, when it comes to unrolling your tonneau cover, you're just gonna drop your tailgate and you'll see that there's a pretty solid strip of weatherstripping that'll lay right across the top of that. This rope here, you pull this back, it's attached to a pull cord right here. So, this guy slides all along, so if you want it a little bit closer to the driver side you can, a little closer to the passenger, right there in the middle, pull it and it unlocks. And you can start rolling this guy back. Once you have it rolled all the way up, take this clip and you can snap it back. And you can do the same thing on the other side.That's going to wrap up my review and install for the Proven Ground's Locking Soft Roll-up Tonneau Cover available for the '19 and newer Silverado 1500 with the short and standard bed. Get yours right here at americantrucks.com.