Installation of 2007-2010 Ford Sport Trac Tonneau Covers

Step 1:

Using a common razor blade, cut off heads of the factory black plastic 'hole plugs' in both front and rear mounting holes of the truck bed.

These plugs are factory installed to prevent damage to the threads behind them. (If you pry them out, you may skip step 2)

Step 2:

Using a nail or or something similar, punch the remainder (the stems) into the holes. This exposes the threaded mounting nuts.

Step 3:

Line up stainless-steel 'female' hinges with front mounting holes. Using the large thick washers and the metric bolts that are provided (green arrows), bolt on the front hinge. Make sure the female hinge is pushed forward and down (red arrows) before tightening the bolts.

Step 4:

Assemble the rear 'strikes' and mounting brackets for the strikes. In the photo below, you will see the brackets and strikes in a various state of assembly. The top left blue arrow points to one of the 4 carriage bolts. The carriage bolts are inserted from behind, and the strike is assembled behind the mounting bracket. The bottom portion of the photo shows how a correctly assembled assembly looks. Leave the nuts (yellow arrows) a little loose for right now.
The red arrows show the "ball stud".  The ball stud on the bracket is mounted toward the front of the truck.

Step 5:

Using a wrench, and the four remaining metric bolts, attach the 'strike assembly' to the rear mounting holes. Remember, there are lefts and rights of this bracket. They are mounted with the ball studs toward the front of the vehicle. You can see the bolts better in the photo in step 7 (red arrows). Tighten these bolts.

Step 6:

Using another person to help you, insert the tonneau cover into the opening of the female hinges. If it doesn't quite fit, loosen the nuts on the 'male' hinges and spread them out to the appropriate width.

Don't forget to re-tighten them!

Step 7:

Adjust the height of the rear strike (yellow arrows) so that the latch will go underneath the strike. You can slide the latch in or out by loosening the the nuts (blue arrows). You can always adjust this later if it doesn't quite fit the first time....

Step 8:

Attach the gas props by snapping them on to the ball studs.

Here's a hint: Always install them so that the 'barrels' are on the top. This allows the oil in the cylinder barrel to lubricate the shafts as they open and close.

Step 9:

Try it out!

If things are quite how you'd like them, we've built in quite a bit a flexibility that should be self-explanatory... otherwise, if you have a problem you can't quite solve, feel free to call us and we can help you over the phone.