When it comes to tonneau covers, none provide better protection than the hard folding ones. But which out of these if for you?
On one side we have the UnderCover’s top of the line product, the ArmorFlex, protecting your truck with its premium design.
And on the other, we have thick panels of Extang Solid Fold, but do they provide better durability?
Let’s find out…
Table of Contents
Starting with their Design:
The Undercover Armor Flex unlike the Extang’s boy come with aluminum made solid panels and then these panels are coated with Line X coating which is pretty great, considering the cover’s price.
As the same coating aftermarket, would cost you almost 5 times more.
And with this coating, the cover can take on some abuse, so yes, it’s really worth it, as it enhances the cover’s life besides protecting it from other elements.
The cover also improved its sealing (from the previous version), and now has 3 leap seals that also goes parallel to tail gate, making this cover dual tail gate actionable, which means you can close the cover, despite the position of your truck’s tail gate.
All seals are also EPDM rubber made and they are further aided by drain tubes making a whole water system to provide protection against weather (unlike Solid Fold).
Other than this the cover has automatic latching system, and is pretty light in weight (but still heavier than Extang’s cover here), and comes with 3 years warranty and with 3 different sizes.
The Solid Fold 2.0 by Extang, on the other hand, is much lighter (20 lbs lighter than average hard tri fold), and comes for full-size trucks with 6 1/2‘ and 8’ bed lengths, with same 3 years of warranty.
The cover’s light weight is due to its unique structure.
These covers are not aluminum made like traditional trifolds, as it incorporated plastic and polypropylene.
Maximum of its 1 inch think panels are made out of this polypropylene core which is then sandwiched by thermo-plastic layers, and which are then coated with matte black finish, making these covers very powerful.
The powdered coating on top also adds to its looks as its color matches the OEM bed caps (of most of the trucks out there).
So are these more durable then Armor Flex?
You betcha!
Protection & Durability of these covers:
The Extang Solid Fold 2.0 is a master piece when it comes to its composition. They engineered a unique organic compound which is lightweight, very durable and at the same time flexible.
The cover provides you with the weight bearing capacity of 600 lbs. So this cover has a weight rating at the higher end, where it’s weight is at the lower.
The structure of it’s polypropylene core has molecules that are separated by a lot of gaps, and because of this, the cover is pretty good insulator to heat and takes on the bumps nicely.
So this means, you are going to keep your things cooler underneath, in summers and the your ride would also be quieter.
In terms of protection, the cover is again great with its multiple lip seals.
Its panels are also caged with solid polymer rubber corners, hinge caps and snap on seals, so they provide extra sealing needed.
But if we compare here both covers provide similar protection against water leakage, as no cover is 100% waterproof and there’s always leakage seen in all of them.
In case of Undercover Armror Flex, although you get 400 lbs of weight rating. The cover is also durable enough.
But the cover provides you with superior protection against UV and corrosion with its LINE X coating.
The cover also has same performance in harsh weathers, as it’s also equipped with 3 lip sealing and EPDM rubber seals with drain tubes (missing in the Extang’s Solid Fold).
The cover can also come in handy when propped up, where it would protect your cabin from any heavy cargo. And you can simply lean it against the pilled up panels.
But note that the cover does not provide you with rubber shoes (with the last panels position only), which is odd, but you can install them on it easily.
Which has the better Performance?
Working with both covers is easy. But overall, nobody can beat the Extang Solid Fold cover here.
They must have some sort of record when it comes to installation time for these.
And taking them off is even easier and even less time consuming. Literally under 2 minutes.
On the other side, it takes abut 30 to 40 minutes to get the UnderCover Armor Flex installed. As this cover comes with all sorts of traditional stuff like the bed rails with draining system and 3 clamp system and of course hard panels and you have to set those all up separately.
Other than this the working mechanism for both covers are pretty much similar.
Both have cable latches, dual tail gate sealing, and automatic locking latch systems.
They both can be secured to 2/3rd position, but only Armor Flex can further be propped up to access full bed, and with Extang, you can just remove the cover, if you need your bed with it.
I’d worry about storing the cover more than taking it off.
Also one think I like about Armor Flex is that it contains a skid-resistant surface for improved traction when loading or unloading heavy cargo.
So whats the verdict?
Well both covers have their place.
In durability section, nobody can beat the powerful 1 inch thick Extang Solid Fold covers, which are reinforced with their Endura Shield as they call it.
But the Undercover Armor Flex with it’s line x coating provides you better protection against UV.
And although the looks are subjective, some people really like the low profiled design of Armor Flex more, I like the bulky look of Extang Solid Fold (also its other one, the Encore) better.