Taco Tested: Seal Skin Supreme All Weather Car Cover Reviewed!
Toyota Tacomas tend to live outside in the elements, but that doesn’t mean you have to let the elements ruin your paint and plastics!
Full disclosure: Seal Skin Car Covers is a YotaTech sponsor.
We work and play with our Toyota trucks outside in every type of weather imaginable. But that doesn’t mean we have to let our paint and plastics and interior bits fade and crack over time. So in a world where a garage might not be possible, you probably need a car cover.
But which one to buy? There are far too many options, and believe-you-me, I’ve tried most. Enter the Seal Skin Supreme All-Weather Car Cover, which Seal Skin sent in for review on three separate vehicles: a 2014 Toyota Tacoma, a 2006 C6 Corvette, and a 1992 Buick Roadmaster Estate Wagon. (CARB Legal LS3 Swap coming soon!)
We’ll focus on the Taco here for obvious reasons.
Custom fit …ish.
Check out the full list of specs and features below, but here’s a quick Seal Skin Supreme overview. It’s a waterproof, hail and UV-resistant, outdoor car cover designed to last at least 10 years. The heart of the cover’s technology is what Seal Skin calls GORE-MAX, a “performance grade oxford polyester specifically built to repel water and resist rips and tears.” In other words, it rejects rain while remaining breathable to prevent mold and mildew.
Perhaps most interesting is Seal Skin’s choice to forgo side-mirror pockets. A common feature on custom car covers, Seal Skin claims mirror pockets are “unnecessary and are usually the first part of a car cover to deteriorate or rip. This guarantees that you will get maximum durability from your car cover.” I was admittedly surprised at this. But in retrospect, mirror pockets are exactly where all of my previous custom covers deteriorated first.
Color me intrigued.
Seal Skin Supreme Specs & Features
Tough on the outside, soft on the inside.
Courtesy of SealSkinCovers.com
- GORE-MAX™ Technology (outperforms 5 layer covers)
- 10 Year Warranty (covers rips, tears, waterproof and breathability)
- Protects Against Extreme Weather (sun, rain, hail and snow)
- 100% Waterproof
- Hail Resistant
- UV Resistant
- Soft Fleece Interior Lining
- Breathable (protects against mildew, odors and paint damage)
- Ultrasonically Welded Seams
- Snug Fit (built in elastic hem)
- Reinforced Grommets (free lock and cable kit included)
- Free Shipping
- Free Storage Bag and Antenna Patch
Installation
Pro tip – skip the supplied rope and head to Home Depot.
Installing a car cover is a relatively simple affair, but it’s easier with a friend. (Especially the first time, or in any kind of wind.) The Seal Skin Supreme arrives in a gray carrying bag with one cover, one tie-down rope, one metal cable and a small lock for security, and a grommet for antenna placement. To install:
- Only cover a clean truck. Covers installed on dirty paint will GRIND those imperfections into your clear coat.
- Also, if you have a fixed antenna, remove it from the vehicle.
- Unroll and extend the cover, looking for the tags marked front and back.
- While keeping the cover taught between two people, lift the cover up and over your vehicle, not touching the paint.
- In position, pull the front and back elastics around your front and rear bumpers.
- Check for any snags (mirrors, etc.).
- You can now locate your antenna base and use it to cut a small hole and install the supplied grommet. (Personally, I just like to keep the antenna off when a car is covered to preserve the cover’s structural rigidity.)
- Use the tie-down rope to secure the middle of the cover. This is VITAL for anything stronger than a gentle breeze, or your cover will blow off, scratching paint in the process. I also recommend going to a hardware store to get thicker nylon rope.
- Optional: use the provided locking cable to slow or ward off potential thieves.
In UNinstall your cover, first fold up both sides until they meet in the middle. Then roll the cover front-to-back of the vehicle until you have something that looks like an inside-out sleeping bag. The goal here is to NOT let the dirty exterior touch your paint or the cover’s clean, fluffy interior. Store in a clean location and re-install in reverse for most future applications
First Impressions
Strong enough to pool water in the bed.
In California, vehicles face extreme sun, blustery afternoons, morning dew drying to water spots, and a few months of winter storms sent our way from the arctic waters of Alaska. (Plus, city air deposits a lot of dust and grime.) Over the years, I’ve tried almost every type of car cover. Different costs. Different brands. Different materials and styles.
(I may have a problem, don’t tell my wife.)
With this experience in mind, I’m excited to test Seal Skin Supreme car covers. But please know this isn’t a full review. Car covers tend to reveal themselves about one or two years into ownership. And I’ve only had these for about two months.
So call this a first impressions review, based on how the Seal Skin Supreme fits into other experiences.
Make sure the middle strap is tight!
First, the Supreme’s materials and craftsmanship are above average despite the mid-tier $150 pricing. The exterior is indeed waterproof as claimed. It kept paint dry from several showers and a few hose-based experiments. And the interior is soft to the touch, perfect to keep paint safe from swirls and scratches. The cover as a whole also does a nice job keeping dust out (wind can be very tricky). I also admired the cover’s side pockets for the way they prevent tie-down ropes from contacting painted surfaces running between the two middle grommets.
However, we did run into a few quirks. Some of the supplied covers didn’t include all of the accessories (missing rope, etc.). And only the Corvette cover was what I’d call a perfect custom fit. The Tacoma cover seems to be for an access cab, not a regular cab. And the roadmaster’s cover bunches too much around the front wheels.
Also, generally speaking, these covers are quite bulky. That’s not a flaw, mind you, but you should think about storage when buying one of these.
Look, Ma, all dry!!!
My last note is more of a question than a nitpick. Although they are holding up well now, I personally don’t trust elastic bands for car cover security. As designed, the Seal Skin Supreme utilizes elastics on the front and rear bumpers, with rope holes to secure the middle section. My fear — based on other brands, not Seal Skin — is that the elastic will wear out and then the cover will flop around too much. In my opinion, I’d love to see Seal Skin add nylon straps to the front, middle, and rear, cover tie-down locations. I own one cover with this feature, and it’s wonderful.
What’s better than one cover? TWO!
Speaking of which, the supplied Seal Skin rope is stretchy and hard to tie. I’ve used this type before and, in my experience, it either loses its knot, or makes knots completely undoable. I personally recommend heading over to a local hardware store to get thicker, stronger rope for securing the cover. I’m also not sure if the supplied locking cable provides much security in a world where fabric is easily cut.
Overall, though, at this $150 price point, I’m impressed with the Seal Skin Supreme and have since recommended it to a few people who saw it during our first impressions review period. The materials are strong and soft where needed, and thus far they are performing as advertised.
If we’re able to, we’ll check back in a year or so to update this post, but so far, so good.
Final Thoughts
While I’d love to see nylon straps in places of ropes and elastics, I’m overall impressed with the fitment, build quality, and waterproofing capabilities of the Seal Skin Supreme All Weather Car Cover. It seems built to last. The fitment on 2014 Tacoma regular cab was good, but not great. The interior materials are soft and breathable. And the exterior seems durable, providing water-proofing as advertised.
In short, I’ve seen a lot of covers over the last two decades — some universal, some custom — and the Seal Skin Supreme is among my top outdoor cover choices in this price range. Recommended!
What do YOU think about the Seal Skin Supreme?
Let us know HERE in the forums!
Photographs by Michael S. Palmer
