How to Measure Truck Bed for Cover

Check out the best covers for the most common truck models at the following links.

Ford F150 2015-20 Tyger Cover
Ford F150 2004-14 Gator Cover
Dodge Ram 1500 2019-21 Rugged Cover
Dodge Ram 1500 2012-19 TruXedo Cover

How to Measure Truck Bed for Cover – Are you having issues figuring out the exact size of your truck bed? No worries, getting your truck bed’s measurements really doesn’t have to be anywhere as difficult as a tailor having to get your measurements to create some stylish new garb 😊. If you follow the guide on this page, you will very quickly learn to measure your truck bed. And, if you are shopping for a new tonneau cover, a truck tool box or even a topper, you will find that our guide has all of the necessary information to get you moving in the right direction in no time.

Yeah, we know; there are quite a lot of different ways that one can check a truck’s specifications and dimensions without doing any work yourself. However, do keep in mind that in order to help you avoid any confusion, manufacturer’s errors or just good old uncertainty, the absolute best method is to just go ahead and do it how your grandfather used to do it (the old fashioned way), and bring out your favorite measuring tape or stick to manually get your truck bed dimensions without employing any outside sources. Because, if these spec sheets are wrong, it could end up being a very bad, time consuming and costly mistake.

For more information about Tonneau Truck Bed Covers (Ford F150 specifically), check out our Ford F150 Tonneau Truck Bed Cover page.

How to Measure Truck Bed for Cover Introduction

When measuring, don’t get stuck trying to get the exact measurements

What we are after are just the rounded ballpark numbers. When it comes to pickups, most truck manufacturers offer only a few different styles of a truck that usually just has a couple of options in terms of bed length. These two particular options are typically just around the 1 to 2 inches or so apart from one another’s length size.

Also, when it comes to truck beds, the measurement technique of measuring truck bed for cover varies quite a bit. Each manufacturer has their own place of where they start measuring the truck bed. If you keep that in mind, you will know that your measurements are most likely never going to be exactly what the manufacturer has printed in their manuals and brochures.

If your truck bed measurements are roughly within just a few inches off to the printed measurement, you shouldn’t have anything to worry about. The measurements are usually pretty close. For example, take a look at the below scenario.

Use our Truck Bed Lengths by Make and Model list towards the bottom of this page, or jump straight to the best truck bed covers with our top 5 best tonneau truck bed covers chart below.

How to Measure Truck Box

If you want to learn how to measure truck box, you’ve come to the right place. If you look at the above table, it contains measurements for some of the most common models trucks and their respective truck boxes out there. If you however still want to double check the size and want to know how to measure truck box for your vehicle, then keep on reading.

Below, you will find detailed instructions, methods and information on how to measure truck box the correct way. All you need is a little bit of time, measuring tape, some good weather and a little patience.  Measuring a truck box for your truck is easy.

Next, how to measure truck box for a tonneau cover or for any other use.

How to measure Truck Bed for Cover – Step by Step Process

Measuring the Truck Bed’s Length

The very first thing that you should measure is the truck’s bed. Sometimes this is the only thing that you need to measure.

• Step #1. Go ahead and lower your tailgate and stay there at the very end of the truck’s bed.

• Step #2. Roll out the measuring tape longways in the middle of the tray and line up the tip with the truck’s bulkhead. See the image above to get an idea as to where the bulkhead is.

• The measurement of the truck’s bed length goes all the way from the bulkhead to where the bed tray ends and meets the tailgate.

Now that you have measured your truck bed’s length, go ahead and select your cover. We created a comparison chart of the top 5 best truck bed covers for this year, here is the Comparison Chart. When you have chosen your idea truck cover, you will need to choose from a few different truck lengths. Make sure to select the one that is very similar in your truck bed’s length measurement. Important note, you could come across some additional factors that you might have to consider when selecting your truck bed cover. This will all be dependent on the particular make and model of your truck.

Other Potentially Important Factors When Trying to Figure Out How to Measure Truck Bed for Cover

When it comes to truck bed cover measurements; for almost every single truck out there, all you typically need to know is the truck bed’s full length. Although, you could come across a few other things to consider. Take a look at our list below to see some of the other more common truck bed options that are specific to different truck models. Protect yourself from having to worry about returning the product, and select the correct truck bed cover on the initial purchase!

Owners of the Dodge Ram Truck: Are you familiar with the RamBox? Do You Have One?

Just like what the step-side truck beds do for your truck, the RamBox will also make the side rails and lip of your truck bed located more inwards than outwards. Us truck owners do crazy stuff like this I order to get that awesome extra storage. For most of the tonneau truck bed cover manufacturers, they will provide you with a couple of options. Option #1 is to accommodate the RamBox addition to your cover, and option #2 will not include the RamBox accommodation. This is a very important thing to consider when trying to figure out how to measure truck bed for cover and ultimately, to buy the perfect tonneau truck bed cover.

Here are some awesome RamBox accessories for your truck: RamBox Accessories

Here is a great Dodge Ram Truck Bed Cover that works well with the RamBox: Dodge Ram RamBox Friendly Tonneau Truck Bed Cover

Owners of the GMC Sierra or Chevrolet Silverado Trucks: Are you familiar with the Cargo Management System? Keep reading below to find out more.

What this particular type of system does, is that it turns your truck bed and rails into an awesome setup that utilizes a system like a sort of building blocks setup. But you should keep in mind that if you have such a rail system in place, that you will need to have the correct type of a truck bed cover to go along with it. Make sure to keep this in the back of your mind as you look for a tonneau truck bed cover for your new truck. Most truck bed covers for the Chevy Silverado or Sierra that are built to include this system in their design will mention it in their advertisement.

Here is a good Tonneau Truck Bed Cover that should fit your Chevy Silverado or Sierra with a CMS (Always double check with the seller before buying to make sure the cover fits): Chevy Silverado or GMC Sierra Content Management System Friendly Tonneau Truck Bed Cover

Owners of the Toyota Tundra or Tacoma Trucks: Does your truck come with the built in Deck Rail System?

These particular tie down addons to your truck’s bed are handy, however the truck bed covers designed for them are a bit different than the ones without the rail tie down options. Most of the tonneau truck bed covers out there offer two different types of truck bed covers. You need to do your homework on a particular truck bed cover to make sure it fits your vehicle!

Here is the Toyota Deck Rail System for your Tundra or Tacoma truck: Deck Rail System

And of course, here is a link to a truck bed that should work for your Toyota Tundra or Tacoma that has the built-in Deck Rail System: Toyota Tacoma or Tundra Tonneau Truck Bed Cover with Deck Rail System Friendly Design

Does your truck have a truck bed that features step side technology?

Although these particular types of truck beds are fairly rare these days, it is still something that is very important to consider due to the fact that the truck bed’s width could be of a different measurement.

Alright, You’ve Done Your Measuring. What Do You Do Now?

The next step would be to find the perfect tonneau truck bed cover for your truck. You should look for a cover that meets all of your needs and that fully accommodates your budget. Although you may think “ohh this should be super easy”; ohh no, sorry to spoil the moment. This might end up being the most difficult part due to the fact that there are a multitude of different types of covers out there with different styles, designs, features, etc. If you need some help in narrowing down your options, we have a good comparison chart as well as our own reviews on what tonneau truck bed covers we like best based on the truck make and model. We also have a guide on the different types of truck bed covers below. Check out the two links for more information.

1. Top 5 Best Truck Bed Covers Comparison Chart
2. Different Types of Tonneau Truck Bed Covers Guide

If you would like to learn a bit more about some of the other features and options that you have available to you in order to fully customize your truck, check out the additional topics below for some good reading.

Adding a Great Hammock to Your Truck

Are you one of those truck owners that loves a good hammock, but could never figure out where to put it when going out picnicking and camping? Well, with your truck in hand, you are never going to have to look for the perfect hummock spot again. In fact, a full-size hammock, the one that has the wood bars on the sides, will actually be able to hang by itself along the full length of your awesome truck’s bed.

If you don’t already have a hammock, you should first measure the complete length, width and depth of your truck’s bed. Once you do so, go ahead and pickup an awesome hammock that is just perfect for your truck.

Check out some of your hammock options here: Hammocks for Trucks

Hammock Hitch Stand for Trucks: Hitch Stand

Building a Camper for Your Truck – How to Measure Truck Bed for Cover

Yep, you can actually easily build one yourself. There really is no need to spend a ton of money on buying a good camper shell. In fact, some camper shells require more than one person to put up on your truck’s bed. Instead, what you can do is to go ahead and build a fully customized truck bed camper. You can easily do this by just placing a truck bed tent, adding your own custom-built cabinet (using any hard materials), and or adding a good comfortable foam pad to your truck’s bed.

A truck bed can easily provide enough space for at least one person (often times two). You can also elevate your camper in order to provide more room for both you as well as to accommodate more people.

If, however you don’t really feel like building your own camper, you could always just pick an already built one up for a very reasonable price. Check out some options here: Truck Camper Ideas

Adding a Kitchen or Workshop to Your Truck’s Bed

Here is a cool idea. You can actually add a kitchen or workshop to your truck’s bed. Think, roll-out or fold-out compartments, cubicles, slide out cabinets and more. All of these options can add a ton of great storage space to your Truck Bed.

Some of the benefits of having these additions are; great storage during camp-outs, picnics, tool storage, beer cooler storage area (yeah, we are for real), full on kitchen areas and more. You can either build these yourself, or you can just pick some up from a variety of retailers specializing in such storage compartment designs. With these storage areas, you will be able to bring you tool belt with you, have a working carpentry table and just general areas where you will be able to complete any project that you may be working on. And the best part of it all; since you are mobile, you can complete your projects anywhere.

Adding a Lounge to Your Truck Bed’s Tailgate

This particular truck bed option allows you to continue an American life-long tradition, tailgating. What this involves is to pack up a number of large ice coolers filled with ice, food and drinks and to setting up camp at a sports stadium or a parking area and setting up a cookout. Although most people like to just bring their camping chairs or to sit on their tailgate, it doesn’t have to stop there.

In fact, you can actually convert your truck’s bed into a full out lounge area. Think, adding seating and even a big screen TV (since most trucks nowadays come with a built-in power source).

How to Measure Truck Bed for Cover & Additional Accessories to Help Customize Your Truck

With some many awesome ways to customize your truck’s bed and tailgate, you are sure to get the full use of your truck. In order to get all of these customization’s just right, you will need to make sure that you have the measuring process down 100 percent. Just like tonneau truck bed covers require measuring, these additional items should also be properly measured for the best possible fitting

Here are step by step instructions on how to fully measure your truck’s bed.

Step #1. You Will Need to Measure Your Truck’s Bed Length with the Tailgate in the Closed Position

Get a second person to help you hold the tape on one end, while you go to the other. Extend your measuring tape from the front of your truck’s bed, the left side (driver side) to the back of the truck bed (staying on the left side). This time we are not running through the center like we did earlier in the guide. The goal here is to measure the truck bed’s length from front to back. This process is best done inside of the bed. You should also make sure that your measuring tape is straight from front to back.

If your measuring tape is crooked or not straight, it will not give you accurate measuring results.

Note: when writing down this measurement, you should give it a label of “length.”

Step #2. Measure the Exact Width of Your New Truck’s Bed

Alright, onto step #2. This time we will be measuring the width of your truck’s bed. Just like on the last step, we will go ahead and once again extend the measuring tape from the front left area of the truck bed and this time stretch it over to the right side of the front of the truck bed (the passenger side). We recommend having somebody help you hold the tape in place on the left side so that it doesn’t move when being extended. As in step #1, make sure to keep the measuring tape straight during this whole process.

Note: when writing down this measurement, you should give it a label of “width.”

If there is a wheelbase in your truck’s bed, go ahead and measure that width as well so that you have that measurement for future use.

Step #3. Now Measure the Complete Depth of Your Truck’s Bed

The last required step in how to measure truck bed for cover and other accessories, is to measure your awesome truck’s bed depth. This measurement will be focusing on measuring the distance from the truck bed’s floor all the way to the top of the tray. To start this process, place the tape right next to the side of the bed (either left or right side) to keep the measuring tape well extended. Keeping the tape straight is important here as well.

Note: when writing down this measurement, you should give it a label of “depth.”

Step #4 (Optional). You Might Consider Converting Your Truck’s Completed Measurements into Mathematical Fractions

For finding the perfect measurements for accessories like a tonneau truck bed cover, a liner or even a bed rug, you can probably get a better idea of the perfect size by converting your measurements into mathematical fractions. This process is really simple. All you do is to go ahead and divide your measured inches by 12.

One thing to keep in mind, is that most truck bed accessory manufacturers tend to always round off their measurements to the absolute nearest mathematical fraction. For instance, if your truck’s bed is measuring 5.4 feet in length, your accessory is probably going to arrive with a length of 5.5 feet.

Here are some additional options and ideas on how to measure truck bed for cover and to measure other important things for your truck.

You Should Figure Out Your Truck’s Hauling Capacity

Now that we were able to get the measuring process down and out of the way, you should figure out how to calculate your truck’s maximum hauling weight. The hauling weight just gives us an idea on how much a truck can actually carry in terms of weight capacity. Here is the best way to go about figuring this out.

Step #1. Have a look at your truck’s Gross Vehicle Weight Rating. This weight number is usually labeled on your truck’s drive side door frame. This number shows us the absolute total weight that your truck is able to carry without any issues. This weight includes both truck weight, passenger weight as well as the weight of any additional items stored in the truck’s bed.

Step #2. Figure out the actual weight of your truck. This weight is usually listed on your truck’s documentation (like the title or the truck’s owner manual). If you are unable to find this information yourself, you can always take this truck into a local auto-repair garage to have it weighed.

Step #3. Once you have steps 1 and 2 completed, the next stage is to calculate your vehicle’s maximum payload capacity. As I’m sure you guessed by now, all you have to do here is to deduct step number 2’s weight from step number 1’s number. So basically the equation goes like this; Gross Vehicle Weight Rating minus Vehicle Weight equals exact maximum payload capacity weight.

Your Truck Bed Lengths by Make and Model

Well alright, now that you know how to measure the truck bed length, truck bed width, truck bed depth and the truck’s payload capacity; you can go ahead and look up your particular truck’s make and model below in the provided table of data and match up your own truck bed measurements with the measurements of the manufacturer’s advertised lengths. It is broken down by truck type, truck bed type, manufacturer’s length and actual truck bed length.

Important Note: Just keep in mind that the measuring tape that you use might not always be 100 percent straight and that there is a good chance that this could have altered your particular measurements. It is best to just look at your own measurements as approximate, and to then go and match them up to the nearest bed length and style.

Our Final Words – How to Measure Truck Bed for Cover

Alright, you have now become an official expert on how to measure truck bed for cover. Since you now have all of the correct measurements for your truck’s bed, the truck’s style information and hauling capacity details, it is now time to get some of those accessories that we have been talking about for your awesome truck. Things like tonneau truck bed covers, truck bed liners, truck camping tents and more. The whole process is just made that much easier if you know your truck bed measurements.

Learning how to measure truck bed for cover and how to measure the truck bed in general isn’t a very hard thing at all, and really should not take a lot of time to complete. If you come equipped with a measuring tape and a family member or friend to assist you with the process, the whole process is a piece of cake.

Tip: This Year’s Best-Selling Truck Bed Covers Compared.