How to choose the best truck tarp?

Factors to consider truck tarps are designed in various materials, thicknesses, and dimensions to accommodate different transported goods, travel durations, and bin sizes. OTEXIO helps you understand the selection criteria to choose the best truck tarp.

Defining your needs before anything else

The choice of your truck tarp depends on the type of materials you need to transport. Sharp waste like metal scraps or abrasive materials like rubble requires a more durable tarp than materials like cardboard, mud, and wood. Specific tarps also exist for hot waste, with resistance to high temperatures up to 200°C.

Choosing a truck tarp based on weight 

The weight of a tarp corresponds to its thickness, which in turn affects its weather resistance and tear resistance. Good-quality tarps used to cover bins during transport are generally made from 600 g/m² fabric, allowing for long-term use. OTEXIO also offers high-quality tarps with superior strength, ranging from 650 to 900 g/m² depending on the models.

The weight of a tarp also affects its heaviness, a consideration if your profession involves frequent and repetitive tarping and untarping. In such cases, tarps with higher weight will be chosen along with a tarping system like a frame, rail, or sliding system to simplify repeated loading and unloading maneuvers.

Choosing a truck tarp based on material

The choice of material for a truck protection tarp depends greatly on its intended use and the type of materials being transported. The purpose of the tarp is to prevent material loss during transport and to protect against humidity, weather, and UV rays.

PVC truck tarps offer complete waterproofing in rainy conditions. Treated against UV rays, they shield load from the sun and provide resistance that ensures their longevity.

Plastic tarps can be susceptible to tearing, while simple textile tarps don't provide complete waterproofing. This is why the most resilient tarps designed for truck transport are made from PVC-coated strong textiles.

Materials of good-quality truck tarps may have specific characteristics to select according to your needs:
  • Polyester material with fireproof treatment for transporting flammable waste
  • Polyester material coated with PVC on both sides and treated against UV rays to protect all types of goods, with reinforced weight for transporting pallets, metal materials, and glass
  • Polyester coated with PU for thermal tarps, with resistance ranging from -30°C to +180°C.

Choosing a truck tarp based on size and color

The color of a truck tarp can be chosen for discretion, implicit themes (green for green waste and agricultural goods, red for flammable materials, for example), and also based on your company's identity. Standard tarps come in a variety of colors, while specific tarps can be offered in yellow, green, blue, red, black, white, or gray at the same price. Color choices can also facilitate the internal organization of a company with multiple waste or load transport vehicles.

Truck tarp sizes are standardized: they are available in different models that correspond to the overall dimensions of the bin. The tarp's attachment methods should also be considered to allow for additional length if necessary. The tarp's overhang beyond the bin, based on the transported goods and your loading habits, must also be taken into account when considering a larger tarp. In addition to standard models, OTEXIO offers customized truck tarps that allow you to perfectly adjust the protection to your needs.

Why choose an expert for quality truck tarps?

Covering goods and waste with tarps is a requirement on the road for the safety of all users. Truck tarps are also meant to protect transported materials from weather, UV rays, and fire risks.

The quality of a truck tarp is crucial for multiple reasons: the safety of personnel and the public, protection of the goods, as well as longevity and cost savings. A higher upfront cost is thus justified.

An expert in tarps and tarping systems like OTEXIO is able to provide products of impeccable quality, subjected to strict checks throughout their design and production process.

Choosing an expert also gives you a wider selection: each product range is available in different quality standards to suit your usage needs. All tarps are tear-resistant, UV-treated, and durable over time.

By choosing your tarp from an expert, you can receive personalized advice, get a custom product, and obtain suitable attachment and fastening accessories at the best price.