Every daily driven truck should have a tool box. They provide additional dry, storage space in your bed and help keep tools organized. Unfortunately, they usually reduce storage space in your bed and most of them don’t work with a tonneau cover. Another issue is that you have to climb into the bed of your truck to access them. I don’t know about you, but I hate being at a job site and climbing in my truck every time I need a part or a tool. It’s a waste of time and productivity! Recently, I stumbled upon a product I thought would be the perfect solution, the Undercover Swing Case toolbox.
RealTruck is one of my go-to retailers, so I called in and ordered one for the passenger side and one for the driver’s side. I also purchased the GatorTrax tonneau cover. I wanted to see if these toolboxes would work with the bed cover! After installing both products, here is my full review of the Undercover Swing Case Toolbox!
MY FINAL RULING ON THE Undercover Swing Case Toolbox
The Undercover Swing Case Toolbox is one of the best toolbox solutions for truck owners with tonneau covers. Even if you're not going to use your truck as a work truck, I definitely still recommend these for storage! They provide easily accessible and lockable space to store essentials like recovery straps, ratchet straps and other basic tools. The Swing Case toolbox solves two major issues we commonly find with toolboxes as well. For one, this toolbox allows you to access it without climbing inside the truck. This is a huge relief and provides substantial benefits to less mobile truck owners. The Undercover Swing Case also provides storage in what is commonly "Dead-Space" in a truck bed, the area behind the wheel wells.
While there is a lot to love with these toolboxes, there are several things I didn't like. One example being the durability of the toolboxes themselves. Because they're plastic, I'm not sure how they will hold up to direct sunlight. The black plastic finish could fade, however, if these are being used with a tonneau cover, you don't need to worry about it! Our other complaint is that you have to buy the tool boxes separately. I would like to see the tool boxes sold as a kit!
Overall, I highly recommend the Undercover Swing Case toolboxes as a set, meaning you should purchase two of them. They take maybe five minutes to install each, and I believe they're priced fairly at $199 each.
Quality isn't an issue with the Undercover Swing Case toolbox. The brackets, hardware, and toolboxes look great and they've performed very well thus far. The toolbox smoothly swings out and returns to a locked position very easily. The locks seem to work pretty well. I don't think they could really keep someone out of the tool boxes themselves, but when paired with a locked tonneau cover and tailgate, these tool boxes will definitely get the job done. Personally, I've never been very impressed with the locks on tool boxes, they all seem to be sub-par.
PERFORMANCE
The Undercover Swing Case toolbox performs as advertised! It utilizes the wasted space of your trucks wheel wells and the area behind them. The boxes swing out easily and latch back into place without issue! As far as storage space is concerned, I was really impressed and surprised at the size of the Undercover Swing Case. I thought they were going to be much smaller!
I have very few complaints about the Undercover Swing Case. For one, the toolbox doesn't open up all the way when it's against the side of the bed. It only opens about 75% of the way. The idea behind the Swing Case is that you open the toolbox after pulling it out, so I found this to be a non-issue.
Another potential problem is the longevity of the tool boxes themselves. While these are pretty stout Poly tool boxes, I don't think they will hold up as well to direct sunlight and being hit by heavy objects like 2x4s. I would definitely recommend the Swing Case to be used in conjunction with a bed cover or tonneau cover.
VALUE
The Undercover Swing Case toolboxes cost $199 each, for a grand total of $400 for a complete set. Quality tool boxes are expensive! There are some that approach upwards of $1000. Most side-mounted tool boxes are in the $200-300 dollar range so I believe the Undercover Swing Case is priced appropriately. Unlike other toolboxes made of aluminum, the Undercover Swing Case is made up of Poly. The result is a super lightweight, and durable tool box!
Will the Undercover Swing Case hold up over time? This is a question we will have to find out! I don't believe the Swing Case will hold up as well to constant abuse as the aluminum boxes. I definitely wouldn't recommend throwing 2x4s or other heavy objects against them! Another thing to keep in mind, the sun could take a more significant toll on the Undercover Swing Case! I'd recommend these to be used in conjunction with a tonneau cover.
DESIGN
The design of the Undercover Swing Case is very near perfect. The toolboxes utilize the wasted space of the wheel wells and have the ability to swing outward for easy access. These toolboxes save you time because you no longer have to climb up the truck to reach your tools and materials. My favorite part is without a doubt that they can work with a tonneau cover. I installed a manual-sliding tonneau cover after installing these and there was absolutely zero issues.
Inside the Undercover Swing Case, there are actually three different compartments and one moveable "shelf". These toolboxes also have a key-lock and a place to lock the whole toolbox in place using a padlock. Tool theft is a serious thing but with these toolboxes, you won't sweat it!
The brackets and hardware are pretty solid too. On my 2018 Ram 2500, we were required to insert self-tapping screws into the bed. I'm not typically a fan of drilling or weld-on products, but the installation of both tool boxes maybe took ten minutes. The installation instructions were very clear and concise too which seems not to be the case very often. Great job Undercover!
There are only two noticeable flaws we discovered that could be improved upon. First, the Undercover Swing Case tool boxes don't open completely when they're pressed flat against the truck bed. They open about three quarters of the way. Now, obviously the purpose and benefit of these tool boxes is that they swing outward to where you can access them when standing on the ground. Therefore, we didn't believe it to be a major issue!
Another issue is when your truck is equipped with two of these boxes, they won't both come out simultaneously without hitting each other. This isn't a big deal as I believe any normal person would open one at a time.
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ABOUT Kamil
Founder of Diesel Resource and a complete diesel head. Has a little
bit of problem buying too many trucks. Learn more about him by checking out his truck.
