Truck Topper

Last month I upgraded my GMC Sierra from a LoPro roll-up tonneau cover to an A.R.E. fiberglass truck topper shell. The tonneau was a very nice truck bed cover. Mainsail, sail bags, rudder, gin pole, and all the other stuff for the boat fit well inside. On my old Colorado truck, had the same model cover. Slept under it one time to get out of the rain shore side. The fiberglass shell obviously has more volume and better protected in the rain. It is a great truck bed cover. Can comfortably sit inside with a camp chair, stretch out on a cot and chill when camping on the shore.

Can't remember if I mentioned the gas mileage on the Colorado while pulling the Astus trimaran. The mileage was ok at about 12 mpg. Only took about 3 minutes to go from 55 to 65 mph. So passing anything other than a bicycle on the interstate was out of the question, and that did need to happen very often. The Colorado was a base model, manual transmission, 2.9L 4-cylinder. Around town the Colorado got the job done. However on the interstate, it worked but was at the limits. Not so much on the tow weight, but the towing wind load. So I got the 2015 Sierra, a no big deal work truck with 5.3L V-8. Pulling the tri now is just a walk in the park, duh.

Looking back at my mileage data, the Sierra with the tonneau and pulling the tri, was getting about 13.8 mpg on the interstate. With the fiberglass shell, the MX model profile, clocked 15.3 mpg on the last trip from Tampa to Goodland FL at typical 65 mph. The fiberglass shell provided a better wind loading profile to that wind drag of a boat on the trailer.