My neighbor has had the auto-retracting model on his Tacoma for about a year, and I got the same one for my Lightning on his advice. I got it for the same reason as you're looking, I had my RTT mounted to T-slot crossbars on my old truck and wanted to be able to reuse them. So far it's worked...
I'm looking forward to doing this on the way to Chattanooga from Nashville in the near future.
Chiming in as a new XLT 312A owner to say that the only Lariat feature I really wish I had is the panoramic roof; I came from a Honda Ridgeline RTL-E that had leather seats and the sunroof, and I...