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Equipping your pickup truck with a tonneau cover, or truck bed cover, can greatly expand the potential of your vehicle. A tonneau cover can improve your truck’s gas mileage and make the storage space in the back of the truck a little safer. Some covers even have drain tubes that can help keep water out of the truck bed, even if they can’t prevent it entirely. However, a tonneau cover will inevitably reduce the degree to which you can mod your truck. Many commonplace truck accessories, such as cross-bed toolboxes, are incompatible with a bed cover, while others are much more difficult to install. It’s essential to know what you’re giving up before installing this accessory.

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However, almost every modification that you have to give up on has an alternative solution that is still available to you. For example, a crossbed toolbox might be out of the question if you own a tonneau cover, but most low-profile truck storage solutions will work just fine. Then there’s the question of which kind of tonneau cover you’re looking to install. This article primarily focuses on hard covers, as they offer numerous advantages; However, many high-rated soft retractable covers are more adaptable than their solid counterparts.

Ladder racks can help you regain some of the carrying capacity lost when installing a truck bed cover, so it’s natural to want the accessories to play nicely together. However, racks come in all matters of sizes and shapes; It’s only natural that some won’t fit over a tonneau cover. Thankfully, you can often find out if a rack is incompatible with a truck bed cover or other accessories before mounting it by reading the product page carefully or by asking the manufacturer. Of course, you also need your tonneau cover to be compatible with truck racks. Those are usually mounted on top of the tray’s side panels, which is why most, but not all, can only be used with between-the-rails tonneau covers.

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Once you know what tonneau cover to get and how to look for the right truck rack (you will have to search for one that fits your truck model). Finding one shouldn’t be too hard. Some compatible racks include TruXedo’s Elevate Track Rack System, an expensive option dedicated to vehicles already equipped with a tonneau cover. One option that can be adapted to many different truck sizes is the Low Profile Truck Bed Rack by TKM Auto. It’s even compatible with some tonneau covers that are mounted above the side panels.

This isn’t going to be a surprise, but it bears stating, considering how popular this kind of truck toolbox is with every major truck bed toolbox maker. Crossbed toolboxes are inherently incompatible with tonneau covers, since they are attached to the top of the truck bed’s side panels and reach close to the bed floor. The same goes for most truck toolboxes that aren’t especially low profile, though if you look hard enough, you’re bound to find one that fits. Just look for one that is meant to rest on the truck bed and that is not so high as to interfere with the bed cover.

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Many different types of truck toolboxes work well with bed covers. You could go with something as simple as the small Buyers Products All-Purpose Storage Chest, which is just 13.75 inches tall and should be easy to fasten to the truck, being made of lightweight plastic. Another intriguing option, specifically designed to be compatible with some tonneau covers, is the TonneauMate Toolbox. It’s not exactly clear which covers are compatible with this toolbox, but at least one user was able to contact customer support and check if their model was compatible. That said, the response given by the brand wasn’t perfect, which led them to make some small adjustments, so you might want to double-check.

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Just as it was for regular truck racks, not every headache rack is going to be compatible with every tonneau cover, but you can easily find some that are meant to be used in conjunction with a cover. But first, why would you want a headache rack? Composed entirely of a metal barrier between the cargo and the diver’s cabin and a means of keeping the barrier in place, headache racks are mainly a safety device. However, in order to protect you properly, a rack can’t have large holes in its metal net, which means it has to reduce visibility. That’s why many brands, such as the tonneau cover-compatible Realtruck Backrack, offer various types of racks that aim to strike a balance between the direct safety provided by the accessory and the indirect safety of improved visibility.

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Some of Realtruck’s headache racks, such as the Original Headache Rack, don’t significantly obstruct the view, but it’s hard to imagine they make things much safer either. Others, like the aptly named Safety Rack, are made of a thick metal net. This is certainly better at blocking smaller objects, making it safer, but it’s bound to obstruct the driver’s view more. The same goes for the similar Louvered Rack. As for whether or not you need one, it depends. If you often have dangerous cargo sliding on your bed at rear window level, then maybe. If you just like how it looks, then you might want to keep in mind that headache racks come with drawbacks, especially in visibility.

Like a tonneau cover, a hardtop canopy is used to close the open section of a pickup truck’s bed. Unlike a cover, the canopy extends far higher, usually reaching the same height as the driver’s cabin. It goes without saying that the two are incompatible, since they are placed in the same position and modify the truck in similar ways. Even if you were able to mount a canopy on a truck that is already equipped with a tonneau, and you might be able to do so with quite a bit of work, you wouldn’t have achieved anything of use. Those accessories do the same thing, after all.

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Hardtop canopies are obviously very different from tonneau covers, but they’re close enough to warrant some comparisons. The canopy gives you more space and might be a stronger deterrent for thieves, but it takes more time to install and uninstall. It’s also a radical change that transforms a pickup truck into a much more traditional vehicle. There’s no hauling long cargo by resting part of it on the driver’s cabin with a hardtop canopy, while a tonneau cover can be removed; some can even retract automatically.

Unlike most pickup truck accessories, you won’t have any difficulties installing a tonneau cover and a bed liner at the same time. This accessory is usually made of a rubbery material and functions more or less like a truck tray mat, keeping things dry, preventing scratches, and hopefully making any cleaning a little easier. Any bed mat will do, but the TripleAliners Truck Bed Mat seems to be a popular one that’s available for many different vehicles. You can achieve more or less the same results as a bed mat with roll-on paint or a spray can. Of course, nothing prevents you from adopting more than one solution at a time.

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You might be wondering, “Why do I need any of those accessories to keep my truck dry if I’m already protecting the truck bed with a tonneau cover?” After all, you don’t need to spray your car’s interiors with bed liner to keep them dry. The reason is simple: Tonneau covers, generally speaking, are not waterproof. No matter what model you have, a cover doesn’t guarantee the truck bed will stay dry. Tailgate seals like the ESI Ultimate Tailgate Seal are another accessory that will help you keep what’s under the tonneau cover dry and clean, but even that might not be enough on its own.

There are many reasons to buy a tonneau cover, and one of them is security. If that’s why you picked this accessory, then a tailgate lock is a must. By tailgate lock, we mean a mechanism that can keep the tailgate closed, not one that prevents it from being stolen. It doesn’t matter how resilient your tonneau cover is if the hypothetical thief can just open the tailgate. Of course, this only makes sense if you have a hard cover that can be locked and can’t easily be sliced open (even though soft bed covers have their perks). And even then, most truck bed covers and cheap tailgate locks aren’t especially resistant, so you probably shouldn’t leave your valuables in there anyway.

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Some of the most popular tailgate locks are made by Pop & Lock, a brand that specializes in locks and other safety equipment for pickup trucks and similar equipment. Those aren’t the best car keys and locks ever made, but you might not have another choice. You’ll need to find your truck’s exact year, make, and model to buy the right lockable handle, and Pop & Lock seems to be one of the few online stores to cover such a wide variety of vehicles. The brand sells a lot of manual locks that use regular keys, as well as many power tailgate locks. The latter, of course, are a lot more expensive. There’s even a Power Pop Kit that makes a hard tonneau open like the trunk of a car, though it’s really expensive, and it doesn’t seem like it can function as a lock.

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Though it ultimately depends on the size of your vehicle, you can almost certainly fit a spare tire under a tonneau cover. However, whether you’ll be able to fit a tire carrier is a different question entirely. One thing is certain: You need to avoid vertical spare tire carriers like the Rough Country Universal Bed Mount. It doesn’t take much to see just how far above the side panels of the truck bed this mount extends. In case you need some numbers, the minimum height supported for the tire is 33 inches. Truck beds rarely have a depth of greater than 20 inches.

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For the same reason, you’ll want to avoid tire carriers positioned at a slanted horizontal angle. While some are just 7 inches high, the space taken by the tire makes it incompatible for our purposes. Does that mean you can’t drive with a spare tire and a bed cover at the same time? Not at all. There are pros and cons to replacing your spare tire with a donut tire, but that’s one way to reduce the space taken up by it. Another solution might be to use Y Straps to secure the spare when it’s resting flat against the truck bed.

If you’re willing to pick a budget option, cargo trays are some of the cheapest and simplest accessories you can equip your pickup truck with. While they aren’t exactly cheap, even a named brand like Rough Country offers some sub-$200 options that are extremely easy to install. The Rough Country Truck Bed Cargo Storage Tray is made of two large, flat pieces of plastic that slide on the truck bed and can be secured in place using a system of straps and hooks. The prospect of modding your vehicle can be intimidating, but this is one of the simplest DIY truck bed mods you can do by yourself. There’s no real risk of damaging the truck, either.

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More complex in its installation and many times more expensive is the Bedslide 1000 Classic Sliding Truck Bed Organizer. With its price of $1,491, this product is well above the sub-$200 limit of the Rough Country we looked at before, but it’s also a more complex and potentially more useful product. For one, the Bedslide doesn’t grind over the truck bed, meaning you can load it with heavy cargo (up to 1,000 pounds, if evenly distributed) and expect it not to scratch your vehicle. Then there’s the fact that this accessory can be pulled out of the truck bed, at least partially, making its content easier to access. Alternatively, you can choose to build your own DIY sliding toolbox, which might help save money, but will definitely cost you some time.

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A tent is one accessory that is sure to transform your pickup truck bed, but it shouldn’t come as a surprise that this whole concept is incompatible with a tonneau cover. Anything that rises above the top of the side panels of a pickup truck is incompatible with bed covers, and a truck bed tent is no exception. You don’t need to learn the ins and outs of truck bed camping to see that; You just need to look at a picture of one such tent to immediately see how there is no way the two will play together nicely.

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So, is truck bed camping not an option if you have a tonneau cover? Not necessarily. A roof tent like the Roofnest Condor Overland 2 appears to be compatible with a bed cover, though you will need a tonneau cover compatible with platform racks if you’d rather not mount the tent to the driver’s cabin. But the Roofnest Condor doesn’t exactly benefit from having a tonneau cover. The alternative, of course, would be to sleep directly in the truck bed with the (hopefully soft) tonneau cover closed. It definitely won’t be comfy, and it’s hard to imagine it would be safe in case of emergency, but lots of truck owners do it. Some even sleep in their Cybertruck’s vault without that awful Tesla tent accessory. Hopefully, you’re not claustrophobic.

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As we mentioned before, there are lots of toolboxes that won’t interfere with your tonneau cover. The wheel well toolbox is one of the best designs for maximizing storage space while avoiding the use of valuable space. When’s the last time you placed something in that awkward spot between the tailgate and the wheel-shaped depression on the side panel? If you had something like the UnderCover SwingCase Truck Bed Storage Box, you’d probably have that space put to good use right now. UnderCover’s pickup truck toolboxes are popular with users (this one has over 2,700 reviews, averaging 4.4 stars out of five), but they don’t necessarily come cheap for a pair, and aren’t available for every truck model.

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However, it seems like $200 might just be the right price for a swinging toolbox like this. Every cheaper product of the same kind has significantly worse reviews than the UnderCover model we looked at before, and even the (more expensive) alternative solutions, like the wheel well drawers by Dee Zee, have mediocre reviews. The only exception seems to be getting a simple metal bin that surrounds the wheel area, like the Joytutus Truck Bed Storage Box. This solution, however, is less elegant than a toolbox that slides out of the truck bed, and almost as expensive, coming in at $117.99.