Product Reviews : A.R.E. Truck Caps and Tonneau Covers

When the CX topper arrived it was missing one of the rear door latch pieces and one of the windoor lift cylinders was missing a clip to hold it on so it just fell off. Also the windoor frame had a hole drilled through it when the frame was being installed. The screw went through the frame, was backed out, and then re-installed properly. The hole was never patched. All four window frames on the unit were installed sloppily and the screws holding them in were severely over-tightened in areas bending the black aluminum frames. I chose to not get the interior carpet and the interior fiberglass was so rough and spikey (large flakes of fiberglass sticking up that would catch your head and back as you loaded materials in) that I had to have the dealer sand it down. I still need to go back and sand it some more. I expected to see the glass fibers, but not to have them sticking up everywhere causing me to bleed. The pigtail for the 3rd brake light was so short I had to give the installer some of my own stock of wire to add extra length to reach the tail light location better. I also had to give them some heat-rated wire loom to run it in as well. I expected that to come with the topper for a more professional install. After the install I left for a 2 week, 3000 mile road trip. During the trip nothing leaked or got wet during several hard rains while parked and driving at highway speeds. I re-visited the dealer to have additional foam added to the rear corners since they were digging in and crushing the plastic bed rail top plates, but that is a minor issue overall. They also re-attached some weatherstripping that was falling off. I hope things hold up over time and the unit keeps working for the next 10+ years without issues. For the troubles with everything I was given a small refund back which helped but I would have rather seen a better overall quality on the unit. It seems that ARE has a large back log of orders and is rushed to get them out resulting in sloppy work. Overall I would not buy ARE again without first shopping LEER or SNUGTOP to see if they have a better quality than ARE. I'll keep this one for now as long as it doesn't leak which is critical for long road trips or carrying around tools/materials for work.