Hard cover for soft top rtf

[apruitt9]

Anybody have one, seen one or had one made? It would get ride of the hateful zipper and I am thinking would keep things cleaner/drier and if possible make it a little aerodynamic??!! Just thinking about, any ideas?

 

[Nd4SpdSe]

I thought about it for a while...it would of been a way to give extra protection against branches when off-roading, and so the cover doesn't get weakened over time from the sun. I thought about doing it in fiberglass, and maybe even integrating LED lights on it. It wouldn't be hard. Make a wood frame of the dimensions and form of the tent, wrap that in foil, then follow your form with a cloth/absorbent material, attaching it as little as possible to remove it from the frame later, then you coat that in resin. The fiberglass resin doesn't penetrate paste the foil, so your form won't stick to the frame when you want to remove it. It's a similar process I've seen done for custom speaker boxes, but I've done the form/foil trick on my own FB projects. Once that's done, you start putting on layers of FB cloth to thicken and strengthen the form.

My big question was what do I do with it when I'm setup at the site? Do I incorporate holes for poles and it turns into a makeshift shelter to cook under?

 

[NatersXJ6]

After my slushy nightmare this weekend, I've been thinking of something similar.

My idea was to:

1) Create a bracket to close the tent to the same thickness every time.

2) Create 4 short hard sides that would fold down from the top and latch / seal on the bottom (about 12" wide?)

3) Use the existing tent floor as the weatherproof top, this may need another layer, and I'm guessing line-x is my friend here.

Voila! No more canvas cover!

Feel free to steal my idea, but send me a prototype for testing. I don't have time to build it until next summer... maybe.

 

[apruitt9]

Both great ideas and I definitely see the issue with what to do with it when at site. I am thinking on this, hopefully a winter project, keep the ideas coming!! You would think there would be a market for this or others who have done this sort of thing!?

 

[bhguy]

What if you used the hard top as a table on site? Add some thread in legs on the underside of the hard top when you take it off...

 

[NatersXJ6]

there may very well be a market, but not a large enough one to develop as an add-on accessory to existing clamshell tents. While I may well spend $500 or $1000 developing my own solution, there is no way I would have spent $1200 more to buy the solution to a problem I hadn't had yet. if you multiply that across the world of clamshell tent owners annoyed enough to do something, your market or margins dwindle quickly. I'll stick to DIY and post my solution for free to all.

 

[apruitt9]

there may very well be a market, but not a large enough one to develop as an add-on accessory to existing clamshell tents. While I may well spend $500 or $1000 developing my own solution, there is no way I would have spent $1200 more to buy the solution to a problem I hadn't had yet. if you multiply that across the world of clamshell tent owners annoyed enough to do something, your market or margins dwindle quickly. I'll stick to DIY and post my solution for free to all.

I agree, winter project!