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HMMWV cargo bows are not always readily available locally. Many owners looking to mount a cargo cover have had to deal with the challenges of obtaining bows without having to pay $400 shipping due to them being 7’ wide and 3’ tall. In most cases that’s LTL (less than truckload) truck freight territory.
Since I have been bending light walled 3/4” tubing for soft slant back frames for a while, I decided to try and make a set of bows that comes apart for shipping. I found a 3/4” EMT splicer fitting on a gardening website and ordered a handful. This is a better union than the commonly available external coupling sleeve.
The theory is that even though it will be a large package, it’s under the truck freight size penalty and can be shipped standard UPS or FedEx.
Am sending a set to two beta testers soon and will report on their feedback.
If these pass muster, I will sell them on my website for somewhere around $275, give or take.
This set pictured also has my crossbar spreaders on it. These give more structure and strength to standard milspec bows. These are already available on my site. About half my cargo cover customers buy them.
One planned improvement is making a swaging die to let me crimp one tube’s end for splicing and avoid having to buy the double-ended splicers. I am also negotiating a purchase of some milsurp bows to see how feasible it is to cut them apart and make a splicer fitting myself for the buyer to screw together.
Last photo is a cargo cover in tan sailcloth I built on the prototype bows. I will sew a window in once it’s got a buyer and they select the tint color.
BDGR
Since I have been bending light walled 3/4” tubing for soft slant back frames for a while, I decided to try and make a set of bows that comes apart for shipping. I found a 3/4” EMT splicer fitting on a gardening website and ordered a handful. This is a better union than the commonly available external coupling sleeve.
The theory is that even though it will be a large package, it’s under the truck freight size penalty and can be shipped standard UPS or FedEx.
Am sending a set to two beta testers soon and will report on their feedback.
If these pass muster, I will sell them on my website for somewhere around $275, give or take.
This set pictured also has my crossbar spreaders on it. These give more structure and strength to standard milspec bows. These are already available on my site. About half my cargo cover customers buy them.
One planned improvement is making a swaging die to let me crimp one tube’s end for splicing and avoid having to buy the double-ended splicers. I am also negotiating a purchase of some milsurp bows to see how feasible it is to cut them apart and make a splicer fitting myself for the buyer to screw together.
Last photo is a cargo cover in tan sailcloth I built on the prototype bows. I will sew a window in once it’s got a buyer and they select the tint color.
BDGR
