Which hardtop to choose? Review of available versions.

After, or even before, buying a vehicle, you should select the proper hardtop. Let’s face it, a pickup without additional accessories does not enable the car to be used to its full potential. Apart from protecting the items carried on the truck bed from the weather conditions or the interest of bystanders, let’s imagine a family holiday for four people and suitcases packed loose in a partially filled boot – the suitcases are bound to move around and bump into the sidewalls whenever there is any sudden braking, starting or sharp cornering. For how to secure loads, see this post.

Knowing that the hardtop and additional accessories are essential to significantly increase the potential use of the pickup, let’s focus on the hardtops themselves. The most important thing is to adapt it to your own needs. Of course, the hardtop’s performance must go hand in hand with its nice body which will match the vehicle. In recent years, a trend that a pickup should look like a pickup has been observed in the domestic market, i.e. we do not mount a high hardtop, but stay with the laminate, ABS or aluminium hard tonneau covers or install the roll cover. Without a doubt, the pickup nature is maintained, but what if we have to transport something higher than the truck bed sidewalls? Of course, we can retract the roll cover into the case located next to the cab or remove the hard tonneau cover within 1 minute (the Road Ranger’s Sportcovers are fitted with the Fast Remove system, which quickly removes the cover to leave only the installation frame), but what if the load must be covered during transport or if we carry valuable things and do not want anyone to know about it. In this case, we decide on a higher hardtop.

For more demanding users, the selection of a hardtop is not a quick purchase. If this is not their first hardtop, they often concentrate on the same brand if they were satisfied with the previous product. If this is their first purchase, they look for opinions on the Web, among their friends or rely on the sales representative’s knowledge.

Before the purchase, attention should be given to:

Brand (manufacturer)

Brand is a kind of a signature of the manufacturer, and we can expect its products or services to possess a certain level of quality. It takes years to gain a good brand name, therefore attention should be paid to well-known manufacturers and modern factories where great emphasis is attached to the quality management in the production process. Considering the availability of the parts and the factory location is also important, and I will write about this later.

Production technology

Hardly anyone will question the salesman about the hardtop’s production technology, nevertheless technology has an impact on the final product. Most of the hardtops available in the market are produced from polyester glass laminate, and there are fewer made of aluminium or ABS because of the susceptibility to temperature of this material. Manual lamination is a simple, yet old-fashioned technology compared to the vacuum laminating called the Light RTM. Despite this, manual lamination is used by most hardtop manufacturers in the Far East, Turkey and smaller manufacturing companies in Poland. However, the Light RTM requires more know-how and higher financial expenses when launching the product, mainly due to the costs of the production equipment. By using the Light RTM, the product is lighter by approx. 30% and the hardtop’s construction is more robust compared to a product manufactured using the manual lamination technology.

Hardtop’s height

This subject was partially described in the first paragraphs. Flat hardtops (hard tonneau covers, roll covers) keep the nature of pickup, but they will not protect the carried load against weather conditions or the access of bystanders in all cases.

Hardtop versions

The hardtop “versions” mean differences among high hardtops, or more precisely, among what you can find on their sides. Most manufacturers (not all) provide some options when selecting the version of a particular model, e.g. you can have solid side panels without access to the interior or you can have windows or unglazed panels, opened or tilted. In its latest RH04 and RH05 hardtops, Road Ranger offers a Standard version with solid side panels, a Special version with tinted non-opening side windows, a Profi version with unglazed flaps opened upwards and a Profi+ version with side windows opened upwards. The choice depends on the user’s aesthetic preferences and the possible need to take something out through the opened side of the hardtop.

Features to enhance the comfort of use

A hardtop is not a complex accessory, yet even in such a simple design some features can be added in standard version to enhance the comfort of use. These include, but are not limited to, the solutions used by Road Ranger, i.e.: heated rear door, wireless opening of side flaps or windows, gravity sensor to switch the internal LED lamp on and off or a rear door lock integrated with the car’s central lock system (the hardtop’s rear door is closed and opened using the original car key).

Extra options

Local manufacturers are often more flexible than importers of finished products, which means that you can order a hardtop that differs from its basic version not only for tender contracts, but also for individual orders. Such options are offered by the factory manufacturing Road Ranger products. Some of the accessories, such as the gravity ventilator, roof rails or additional LED working headlights, are available as an option. The others, such as the replacement of the interior upholstery for an easily washable surface, opting out of having a front window or the reinforcement of the hardtop’s roof structure are possible under a special order.

Warranty

A point frequently overlooked by many people, yet very important. When you buy a hardtop, you should ask your dealer about the warranty period and how claims are resolved. Road Ranger products are covered by a 24-month warranty period for all mechanical and electrical components and a 36-month warranty period for the laminate structure and paintwork. All warranty repairs are carried out free of charge for the user in authorised service stations.

Spare parts availability and factory location

Everything may happen during the use of the hardtop: the lock may get damaged, the internal lamp may burn out, the effectiveness of gas springs may decrease, the window may break due to a mechanical action. In such a case, each user would like the spare parts to be available within the next five to ten years after purchase. Equally important to the availability of parts is the order fulfilment, and here we come back to the manufacturer and the location of its factory. Even the best distributor of products from the other side of the globe has not all elements matching the wide range of offered products on hand, and therefore you should select a local manufacturer. The parts for Road Ranger products are available for at least ten years after the hardtop has been manufactured, and they are sent from the factory warehouse in 14-100 Ostróda within 48h from the order confirmation.

We hope that this text will make it easier for you to take a decision on the selection of the hardtop for your dream pickup.