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Truck toppers are massive, difficult to ship, and challenging to test on your pickup truck. Because of that, I have researched the best truck toppers (aka truck caps or camper shells) on the market today to give you some extra confidence in knowing you are getting the right one!
Why should you trust me? While I recently sold my truck on trying out a 2007 Chevy Tahoe, I have had plenty of experience with my pickup trucks and understand how important it is to own the right gear. Truck toppers significantly impact a truck’s usability, allowing you to take, store, and travel with items you usually couldn’t.
With that said, here are my favorite truck toppers on the market today!
At A Glance
1. SmartCap EVOa Adventure
- Warranty: 3-Years
- Brands Available: Chevrolet, Ford, GMC, Jeep, RAM, Toyota
- Fully customizable
- Modular design can be built up easily
- Extremely high quality
- High price point
- Not body color
SmartCap is an African based company that is making my favorite truck toppers right now! They successfully have created a rugged, heavy-duty (stainless-steel) topper that can be torn down into five pieces and put back together at a moment’s notice. While most truck topper industry is filled with heavy, unwieldy truck caps, the SmartCap stands out as the most usable.
You can even pick and choose different components to attach to the modular design, including roof racks, or load bars, all the way to full camp kitchens and drawers that slide out the side of the topper. You can make this topper precisely what you want for your specific purposes.
While this is fantastic, you should visit your budget quickly, as it has an extremely high starting price point.
2. Flated Air-Topper
- Warranty: 1-Year
- Brands Available: Universal for pickups with 5', 5.5', 6, 6.5' and 8' beds
- Inflatable and deflatable for easy storage and removal when not in use
- Relatively inexpensive
- Can be installed with one person
- Not as rigid as many other alternatives
- Can't install a roof rack
One of the most significant issues most people have is that once a truck topper is installed onto a truck, it generally lives there for the rest of its life. Most are heavy and take multiple people or machines to remove the topper once installed.
However, with one of the newest entrants onto my truck topper favorites, this Flated Air Topper is a topper that can be inflated and deflated whenever you might need a camper shell. When you don’t need it, remove it, deflate it, and hide it in your garage. However, if you plan on going on a trip or need some coverage for a good night’s sleep in the back of your truck, you inflate the topper, carry it over (a little over sixty pounds), and then strap it to the back of your truck. Easy as that.
3. Fas-Top Traveler
- Warranty: 1 Year / Topper - 3 Year / Tonneau
- Brands Available: Chevy, Dodge, Ford, GMC, Honda, Jeep, Nissan, RAM, Toyota
- Can be converted to tonneau cover when not needed
- Reasonably priced
- Not a rigid design
- Can't install roof racks
While there may be toppers that can be torn down into individual components or inflatable ones, Fas-Top has taken it in a different direction! I am a big fan of tonneau covers and thoroughly enjoyed mine; however, the biggest downside is headroom, that is unless you have a Fas-Top Traveler.
The Traveler is a convertible truck topper that collapses to become a tonneau cover when its expanded form is not needed. This means you can have the clean styling of a tonneau cover (which still keeps things out of sight), but you can easily have a truck cap to allow for an easy place to keep more oversized items out of the weather.
4. A.R.E. Classic Aluminum
- Warranty: 1-Year
- Brands Available: Chevy, Dodge, Ford, GMC, Isuzu, Honda, Jeep, Mazda, Mitsubishi, Nissan, RAM, Suzuki, Toyota
- Very lightweight
- Relatively inexpensive
- Rigid design
- Doesn't look great
- Limited customizations
While an aluminum-style truck topper may not have the aesthetics of a fiberglass camper shell or the ease of use of modular truck caps, it does give tremendous value. While maintaining a budget price point, these aluminum truck toppers are lightweight and perfect for someone needing usability.
This Classic Aluminum version from A.E.R. is my favorite option. This is a fantastic option if you are searching for an excellent bed cap for a work truck or the truck you use for the garbage run. Otherwise, you should go a different direction to conserve your truck’s styling.
- Warranty: 1-Year
- Brands Available: Chevrolet, Dodge, Ford, GMC, Jeep, Nissan, Toyota
- Roof-top tent included
- Wired for electricity
- Extended roof, up to 36" of head space
- Extremely expensive
- Very heavy
This topper is no joke in price point (north of $14K) and capability. While you might pay for an arm and a leg to equip your truck with this topper, you will also get plenty of features.
These features include an expandable tent-style roof that gives almost 7 feet of headroom, a 2.5″ mattress, and skylights, and it all can be put together in around thirty seconds. You also won’t be stuck in the dark, with plenty of electricity available and lighting equipped.
This overlanding topper combines a rooftop tent, a truck topper, and a slide-in truck bed camper.
6. ATC LHR Mid-Rise Truck Cap
- Warranty: Limited Lifetime
- Brands Available: Chevy, Dodge, Ford, GMC, Nissan
- Painted body color
- Extra space without affecting styling
- Customizable options
- Expensive
- Difficult to remove from truck
I am not a big fan of truck toppers that are not cab-high; however, if I were to buy one, it would likely be! It has a sleek design, is built with excellent quality, and tinted windows.
Mid-Rise truck toppers like this one are fantastic, as they give you a bit more headroom and storage space but don’t mess with the aerodynamics quite as much as a high-rise version. It is a great middle ground, and this A.T.C. version is an excellent example of one.
7. A.R.E (4are) Overland Series
- Warranty: Limited Lifetime
- Brands Available: Chevy, Dodge, Ford, GMC, Isuzu, Honda, Jeep, Mazda, Mitsubishi, Nissan, RAM, Suzuki, Toyota
- Lined with tougher paint for off-roading
- Limited Lifetime Warranty
- Body color paint
- Quite expensive
This has to be one of the most popular truck toppers right now, as I constantly see them on pickups wherever I go. While it is a standard cab-high bed cap, it adds rugged bed-liner style paint to the bottom of the topper.
It makes the truck look a little more distinctive and gives the added benefit of fending off branches and tall grass without scratching the body color-matching paint.
The Overland Series also has a limited lifetime warranty and a heavy-duty build. If I were to buy a fiberglass, body-matched truck topper for my truck, this is the one that I would go with.
8. LEER 122 High-Rise Topper
- Warranty: Limited Lifetime
- Brands Available: Chevy, Dodge, Ford, GMC, Honda, Mazda, Mitsubishi, Nissan, RAM, Suzuki, Toyota
- Additional head-room for larger items
- Plenty of windows
- Optional roof rack systems
- Messes with the aerodynamics
Leer has to be the biggest name in the industry, and you see these truck caps everywhere for a good reason. While I am not a fan of the styling of these high-rise truck toppers, this is by far my favorite. It is a fantastic deal with large tinted windows, body-color paint, and a limited lifetime warranty.
You can also always upgrade your topper with optional sliding windows and a variety of Thule-branded roof rack equipment.
9. Bestop Supertop
- Warranty: Limited Lifetime
- Brands Available: Chevy, Dodge, Ford, GMC, Jeep, Lincoln, Mazda, Nissan, Ram, Toyota
- Collapsable
- Inexpensive
- Easy to install with one person
- Not a rigid design
- Can't have roof rails
Any truck topper that offers the ability to remove or collapse down and away quickly gets my attention, and this budget-oriented Softopper is a great deal. It folds at the front of your truck bed when not in use.
That means you can have a topper when needed but stow it away when you don’t. Not to mention, it’s one of the cheapest truck toppers on this list.
The major downside to these is security, as you can’t lock these truck toppers, so they are only meant to keep your gear out of the rain rather than out of people’s hands.
10. SmartCap EVOc Commercial
- Warranty: 3-Years
- Brands Available: Chevrolet, Ford, GMC, Jeep, RAM, Toyota
- Modular design
- Extremely high quality
- Plenty of accessories to make the job-site easier
- Stainless steel construction
- Quite expensive
This EVOc Commercial modular topper from SmartCap is at the bottom of this list, not because it is my least favorite, but because it is a commercial topper that only a few people may need daily.
It still has all of the excellent features of our top pick at the top of this list. That includes a modular design, integrated roof rails, a rubber-mounted fixed window, and automotive paint.
If you are looking for a truck topper for your truck that you regularly take to the worksite, your searching stops here. With plenty of accessories that can make your life so much easier, these things are amazing.
What should you think about when shopping for a truck topper?
1. Materials
This is the top thing to watch when shopping for your new bed cap. These can be made of fiberglass, aluminum, and even canvas. Fiberglass tends to be highly durable, can easily be painted the same color as your truck, and can come in many different styles. However, they could be more convenient and take much work to remove or put on.
Aluminum shells tend to be lightweight and durable; however, they only sometimes look all that great. Canvas versions are highly portable, easy to put on, and quickly take off the truck. However, they struggle with durability.
2. Style of topper
Before you go further, you also want to ensure you get the style you want. This means if you want one that is flush with the cab of your truck (Cab-high) if you want it slightly above for a bit more storage (Mid-rise), or even if you want it to slope way above your cab for maximum storage (High-Rise).
3. Sizing
Before buying a truck cap, topper, or whatever you want to call it, you must take all measurements of your pickup’s bed. This will keep you from buying the wrong one!
Ever see those trucks where the topper is either hanging off the back too far or not covering it completely? This is why. This is especially important if you are buying a used unit, as you will need a tool to figure out which one you need when buying it that way.
4. Color
Truck caps are a large part of a pickup and will likely stay on there for a good portion of its life! Because of this, you need to make sure you either find a topper that has a complementing color to the truck or is body colored. This will leave your vehicle looking great and even more usable.
If you can’t find or afford a topper the same color as your truck, I recommend getting a black topper or even thinking about using something like Plasti Dip to change the color to what you want.
5. Windows or no windows
Removing the windows in a truck cap is a brilliant addition if you’re looking for extra storage. This is especially true if you have something like a truck bed that needs to be covered up, as having windows makes it so you can’t stack things up relatively as high, and they also let people look in.
However, windows look more excellent on your truck if you only need a little storage.
6. Locking mechanisms
Keeping your pickup truck locked up is essential, as you likely will be keeping valuables underneath this topper. So make sure it has the type of lock you like and know you will want to use it daily.
Frequently Asked Questions
Conclusion
This article answered some questions about truck shells and helped you find exactly what you wanted to buy!
If I had to buy one right now (I currently have a tonneau cover on my truck), it would be the 4are Overland Series, as I like this overlanding style craze going on right now, and it looks so cool.
