Can You Haul an ATV With a Tonneau Cover Installed?

Of coarse!!!  But one of the biggest problems that deters many truck owners from purchasing a tonneau cover or a truck bed toolbox is because they regularly need to haul some sort of a recreational vehicle in the bed of their pickup.  Years ago, if you wanted to haul a motorcycle, ATV, or golf cart, you just could not have a hard tonneau cover.  These days we have several options for hauling equipment with a tonneau cover installed on the truck.  Even on a short bed pickup like the 5.5’ bed F150, you can haul a full-sized four-wheeler without having to completely remove the tonneau cover.  The key to the system is the Louisiana Guard Dog ATV securing system.  With the hard folding bed covers, when they are completely folded against the cab of the truck you still lose about 8” of your truck bed opening.  However, with the Louisiana Guard Dog system, the rear axle of the ATV actually sits on the tailgate itself.  You may ask if it is okay for the tailgate to support the weight of the four-wheeler while driving down the highway.  The answer is yes it can.  However, with the Louisiana Guard Dog system, you actually lift the ATV up slightly before clamping the unit in place and this relieves a large portion of the weight off of the tailgate.   Once the ATV is clamped in place with the ball on the ATV and the hitch of the truck, you are done.  There is no need for ratchet straps or ropes.  The aluminum ramps that you use to drive the ATV up into the truck bed with, fold and fit neatly on either side of the bed next to the ATV.  I use one bungee cord on each ramp, and I am done.  Literally, I can go from having the truck with the tonneau cover closed to tonneau cover folded, ATV in and clamped in place, ramps secured in the truck, and driving down the road in less than 5 minutes.  Believe that is huge when it is 8°F with a wind-chill of -10°F and 20 mph winds outside and you are trying to get your gear loaded up.   

Below are the links to the exact ramps and the Louisiana Guard Dog that I use to secure my Honda Foreman ES to my F150 with a BakFlip G2 hard folding tonneau cover.