Interested in buying a Softopper or Bestop for the Dakota since it's easy to install and remove when hauling things that need the extra room. I love my tri-fold tonneau cover and don't want to get rid of it, so the soft top is the next best thing. Problem is I can't find any information that they are made for Dakota's. So does anyone know of any other small or mid size truck with a 6' bed (like our Club Cabs) that have very very close dimensions that I could use a soft top from?

 

The bed interior dimensions are the same, the outer edges of the bed rails are tapered. Any 2nd gen topper will fit, it just sticks out on the rear sides a bit and is "inside" the rail at the front.

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I looked into getting a SofTopper for my 2011 Laramie. They make them that fit the Dakota. You just have to specify the bed length.

However, when I was working on the purchase with one of the customer service reps, I mentioned that I have the utility rails mounted in my Dakota. He wasn't aware that Dakotas came with those rails. So, I sent him pictures. He then said that the SofTopper wouldn't fit on the Dakota if the rails were installed. After looking at the few pictures that I could find of 3d Gen Dakotas with SofToppers, I pretty sure that he was right. If I wanted to use the SofTopper, I'd have to take the rails off. I like having them; so, I held off on getting the SofTopper.

To the best of my knowledge, BesTop doesn't make one that fits the 3d Gen Dakota. The interior bed sizes are the same between the 2nd and 3rd Gen Dakotas. But, as jkeaton mentioned, the outside dimensions are slightly different.

 

They do make a softopper for our trucks, I've had mine for about 3 years now. Honestly, the amount of utility you get out of it is hard to beat at any price. Additionally, it has held up great aside from a bit of fogging of the rear window that is mostly my fault for not using the cleanest of towels to clean it, luckily I've been able to polish it (mostly) back to transparency.