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Stowable Pick-Up Truck Bed Cover

Protect your load from the elements
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(+4)
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The pick up truck is something of a cultural icon here in the US. In certain parts, if you get rich, you don't buy a Mercedes or whatnot, you just tick more of the options on the F150 ordering form. Anyhow the basic formula has been in place for some time: Engine at the front, cab in the middle and a bed at the back. The latter is where you put your cargo, which can be anything from hay bales to your children sitting on hay bales. Occasionally however, you might be carrying something that might be damaged by rain or that might fly away in the wind*. Perhaps in urban environments, you may have a valuable cargo that's vulnerable to theft by miscreants while you're buying spur polish. This is a clear problem.

The solution many take, is a bed cover, or perhaps a Tonneau cover. This is a fiberglass addition with windows that makes a pick up into a counterfeit van. The latter is popular, but they're expensive and inconvenient to fit/remove/store.

My solution involves two inverted U shaped** frames, most of the time these live tucked away against the back of the cab, trying to blend in. When a bed cover is needed, one of these frames slides to the back of the bed and locks in place. Then, on one side of the bed there is a pole with fabric attached. The ends of the pole slot into grooves in the two frame and you then pull the pole/fabric over the bed unrolling more from a hidden roll in the first side of the bed. You clip it into the other side, and you have a bed cover to keep the sun/rain/wind off your precious cargo.

*like UN baled hay, heaven forbid.

**more accurately, they're the shape of the back of the cab, so the general shape of the cover will look like a continuation of the cab to the back of the bed.

bs0u0155, Jun 17 2021

Solid ones https://www.google....mgrc=SeQuKgg5FYJ7dM
Like an old roll-top desk. [neutrinos_shadow, Jun 17 2021]

So many options! https://www.google....=979&biw=1920&hl=en
There are lots out there. [neutrinos_shadow, Jun 17 2021]

[link]






       So sort of like a tent right? Ok. [+]
doctorremulac3, Jun 17 2021
  

       I didn't know you got pick-up trucks without a hooped canvas back cover.
pocmloc, Jun 17 2021
  

       //So sort of like a Softopper?//   

       Not quite, none of the links are exactly what I had in mind. I think this is very much an OEM feature, as you'd have to build in the cover roll into one side of the bed. The hoops aren't just hoops, they're channeled so the cover is guided and held. And at least one hoop is essentially a part of the back of the cab.
bs0u0155, Jun 17 2021
  

       Good idea [+]   

       But why are the United Nations baling hay?   

       Reminds me of the news reader who announced “...an unorganised conference. No, sorry, that’s a UN-organised conference”
Frankx, Jun 18 2021
  

       //But why are the United Nations baling hay?//   

       They're not. There was a motion put forward by a coalition of Belgian hardliners to fund a hay baling sub committee planning group, but it was vetoed by the Russians following a mix up over car parking.
bs0u0155, Jun 18 2021
  

       //supports could have wheels on tracks, with canvas between. A bit concertina like.//   

       I think this is a packaging issue. There isn't spare space behind the cab, anything you add there is subtracted from the bed and therefore the utility of the vehicle. Plus, you're stuck with the hoop shapes. In the sides of the bed, there is spare volume, the wheel wells and styling mean the bed sides have a thickness that's already used by some manufacturers for tool boxes/inverters etc. So there is somewhere for the roll to go. Another advantage is that you need not use the frames, you could stretch it straight across as a flat bed cover.
bs0u0155, Jul 08 2021
  
      
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