turnipfarmer
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| posted on 4/6/14 at 02:04 PM |
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Rapidly Deployable Half Hood
Hi, folks...
I’ve been searching, without success, for something that may or may not even exist.
What I want is a a rapidly deployable half-hood for a seven-style. Something that does not involve getting out of the car, opening the boot, unrolling
the thing, attaching straps and what have you.
In a sudden heavy downpour (of which we get plenty), you could end up completely saturated before you got the hood in place, which then rather defeats
the object of having it in the first place.
The sort of thing I’m after is a hood that rolls up into a self-contained bag that is zipped around the top of the roll bar. As my roll bar also has
back stays, the tensioners could run down those to suitable anchor points.
In the event of a sudden storm, it would only take moments to reach behind you, unzip the bag, pull out the hood and clip it onto the windscreen. You
should also be able to reach the loose ends of the tensioners to pull those tight as well.
Does such a system exist, or is the whole idea totally impractical?
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Slimy38
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| posted on 4/6/14 at 02:52 PM |
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A retractable window blind is the first thing that springs to mind from that description! 
I can't think of anything that is along those lines, but the idea isn't totally impractical. It's actually quite good to be honest.
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loggyboy
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| posted on 4/6/14 at 02:59 PM |
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Do you want one to use when you have both passenger and driver or just driver?
If just driver, you could have it so the drivers side rolls under the passenger side of the cover and is secure in place , then you could just be
unrolled and zipped/clipped.
Mistral Motorsport
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turnipfarmer
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| posted on 4/6/14 at 03:17 PM |
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Hi guys...
It was a roller blind that gave me the idea.
I like the size & shape of the half hood once it's in position, so I'd want it full width to keep out as much water as possible.
It's just the means of getting it into position I think could be made better and easier.
Can anyone post a drawing of what I'm trying to describe here in words. I'd do it myself, only I can't draw so much as a straight
line.
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britishtrident
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| posted on 4/6/14 at 03:20 PM |
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If I understand you corectly what you want is called a Surrey top.
[Edited on 4/6/14 by britishtrident]
[I] “ What use our work, Bennet, if we cannot care for those we love? .”
― From BBC TV/Amazon's Ripper Street.
[/I]
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owelly
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| posted on 4/6/14 at 03:38 PM |
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Or just a simple neoprene hood in a bag? Easy to clip to the top screen rail and stretch over the roll hoop and down to the rear of the boot box.
http://www.ppcmag.co.uk
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turnipfarmer
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| posted on 4/6/14 at 03:56 PM |
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Tried to avoid calling it a Surrey Top. Although some look just like half hoods, there's an awful lot more that don't & wouldn't
stand up to any sort of speed.
Neoprene in a bag... maybe. Does anybody sell such a thing?
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Wadders
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| posted on 4/6/14 at 05:06 PM |
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Here ya go mate, just the thing.........
 
Description
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iank
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| posted on 4/6/14 at 06:40 PM |
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Sounds more like a bikini top (common on us Jeep's) is what is wanted.
e.g. Here -> http://www.locostcar.co.uk/ under extra's
--
Never argue with an idiot. They drag you down to their level, then beat you with experience.
Anonymous
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myke pocock
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| posted on 4/6/14 at 08:38 PM |
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I think that your problem is not actually deploying it but getting sufficient tension in the hood just from the drives seat. My half hood has to be
fairly taught to prevent much flapping about at decent speeds and I also have a small bore tube runing from roll bar to the top of the screen with it
passing through two loops sewn to the underside of the hood.
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minitici
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| posted on 5/6/14 at 06:59 AM |
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inflate
Here is what you need - an inflatable roof.
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turnipfarmer
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| posted on 5/6/14 at 09:31 AM |
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Inflatable roof… mmm… nice! Hang on though… Wadders… that's more the sort of thing I could do with! Mind you, I’d prefer it with (or maybe
without!) IanK’s bikini top in place of that umbrella thingy.
But leaving that aside, imagine this…
It's starting to rain & a real storm is imminent. Pull over, stop, undo harness, climb out (rain's getting heavier). Undo boot cover
& take out bag containing hood. Unzip bag & remove hood. Unwrap. Sort out straps & attach to anchor points (now pouring down). Put hood in
place and attach to windscreen. Dash to the back, tension hood, throw bag into boot, replace boot cover. Struggle to get back into car with roof in
place (now monsoon conditions). Finally back in seat, totally saturated, thinking 'so glad I remembered to bring the hood along'. Yeh...
right!
All accompanied by the passenger giving you GBH of the earhole about her mascara and hair.
Yes, of course I'm exaggerating. But it's probably more realistic than some of the videos you see where the whole job is done in under 30
seconds... in the dry, on a windless leafy lane with no other traffic, everything perfectly prepared for action, and no sign of the previous 15 takes
where it didn't all go quite like that.
So although I hear what you say about tensioning Myke, for me deployment speed remains the main issue.
You're right about it not being easy to tension the hood from the driver's seat, but I reckon you could maybe do it by having long straps
running over the roll bar, and velcroed to the underside of the hood so you could just pull on them. That might work. Then again it might not, but at
least you’d be in the dry while you thought about how else to do it.
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Slimy38
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| posted on 5/6/14 at 10:20 AM |
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Perhaps I should have asked this earlier, are you looking for something you can purchase and fit, or are you looking for ideas on a DIY version?
I think you're on the right lines with the lines to tension. So I can imagine;
A bag, maybe three inches square, running the length of the roll bar (either at the top or at the bottom). Press studded flap for a top?
Out of this bag comes a length of fabric (previously mentioned neoprene or some other roof fabric). It has a round metal bar on the leading edge,
similar to a projector screen. The trailing edge is fixed within the bag, such that the fabric ISN'T under tension.
You pull this metal bar over your head and hook it to the screen (I daresay you'll need to review the fixing as well as the strength of your
windscreen).
At this point you're dry but not 'flap-proof'. Within the fabric (or fixed with loops every so often) are webbing straps that are
also fixed to the front bar. Once the bar is fixed to the front screen (and you're dry), you can then reach behind you and tension the webbing
straps through buckles that are fixed to the rollbar/car. One near each end and one in the centre might suffice?
Does that sound reasonable? If you put the bag at the top of the roll bar, it's easier access but you have no rear protection (and it'll
probably be quite noisy when it's down). If you put it behind the roll bar where it joins the car, it could come up and over the roll bar, but
might need a bit of a contortion to get it lifted up from the drivers seat.
Taking it back down might be a bit more awkward (you'd have to gather it up in the bag) but that is generally done when the weather has
improved.
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Irony
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| posted on 5/6/14 at 10:51 AM |
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As per what Slimy said I think. We have roller banners are work where the mechanism is spung and the banners roll back up into the metal part when
not in use. I think a bag or metal tube that clamps to the roll bar but can rotate around the roll bar. The material is rolled up within the tube
and connected to a rigid bar that is pulled out and hooked to the windscreen. To straps go from the metal tube to the area where the seat belts are
fixed with some quick adjusters on. Quick pull on these and the whole assembly rotates around the roll cage tightening the hood.
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turnipfarmer
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| posted on 5/6/14 at 01:21 PM |
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Ideally, it should be something you can just buy and fit, but obviously it isn't.
Still, I'd prefer something I could buy and adapt, rather than having to make it entirely from scratch.
You're both thinking along the same lines as me. I don't mind if it's something that's sprung, or whether it has to be rolled
back up into a bag afterwards.
Zips, hooks, poppers? Don't mind any arrangement.
What Slimy says is spot on, though I'm not entirely sure how the tensioning works.
Oh, Irony... if only I could rotate it round the roll bar. That would be perfect. Trouble is the back stays are in the way.
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Slimy38
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| posted on 5/6/14 at 02:59 PM |
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quote:
Originally posted by turnipfarmer
What Slimy says is spot on, though I'm not entirely sure how the tensioning works.
Yeah, I've just tried drawing it and possibly confused even myself!! Think about when you close up a backpack, you first clip the straps in
place on the opening and then you pull the straps ends through the buckles to tighten it up. For the roof, the front bar clips in place, then on the
back end you pull the ends through the buckles to tighten it up. The buckles would be just behind your shoulders coming out the bottom of the bag, so
you'd reach behind you and give them a good pull until the roof was tight.
Another example would be when you use a tie down strap to hold a car cover in place. But instead of having the tie down strap on top, it would be
underneath and secured to the roof with loops.
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turnipfarmer
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| posted on 5/6/14 at 05:59 PM |
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Confused? Me too! We're on much the same wavelength, though.
Forget the bag idea for a minute & imagine this...
The back of the hood has long tensioning straps sewn to it, with adjusters on them.
With everything unrolled, lay the back end of the hood over the roll bar. The tensioners hang down behind the rear panel.
The adjusters should sit about half-way between the roll bar and the top of the rear panel.
Now assume that there are some sort of roller devices anchored to the back edge of the rear panel. It doesn't matter what these are.
Run each tensioner over the top of the roller, then underneath and back up again.
It then passes through the adjuster and back over the roll bar, between it and the hood. There is a bit of velcro at the end of the tensioner that
marries up with another bit on the underside of the hood to keep it out of the way.
Attach the front of the hood to the windscreen, and that's it in place. To tension, just reach up and yank on the tensioners to pull the back of
the hood down taut. It will stay there because the adjusters self-lock.
Once the sun comes out again, slacken the tensioners, detach from the windscreen and roll up. No need to remove anything else ever again.
All you have to do now is work out how and where best to secure it to the roll bar. That's the bit I can't fathom!
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Slimy38
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| posted on 5/6/14 at 09:06 PM |
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Yep, sounds like we're both describing the same thing. As for fixing, does it need to be fixed to the bar? Once it's under tension
it's not going to slide sideways. At most I'd suggest some stiff wire (coathanger wire) that is welded in a loop to the underside of the
roll bar, wide enough to accommodate the straps and maybe leaving a quarter inch gap to thread the strap through.
The only thing left might be the tail end of the hood, but a strip of velcro along the back of the roll bar would stop that flapping about.
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turnipfarmer
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| posted on 5/6/14 at 09:22 PM |
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Nope. Once deployed the hood with the tensioners underneath simply run over the top of the bar. As you say, no need to attach them.
The only thing is once you've finished with it and roll it up, how do you then lash it to the roll bar ready for next time?
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Slimy38
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| posted on 5/6/14 at 10:03 PM |
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quote:
Originally posted by turnipfarmer
Nope. Once deployed the hood with the tensioners underneath simply run over the top of the bar. As you say, no need to attach them.
The only thing is once you've finished with it and roll it up, how do you then lash it to the roll bar ready for next time?
Same straps, wrapped round the hood and the roll bar and velcro back on themselves? You've already said the tensioners have velcro on the end to
keep them out the way, you just need another bit so they can loop round.
[Edited on 5/6/14 by Slimy38]
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Slimy38
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| posted on 6/6/14 at 07:51 AM |
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By the way, if you do put this together, I'm going to need to see pictures so I can shamelessly steal your idea!
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turnipfarmer
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| posted on 6/6/14 at 08:21 AM |
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Go on, then - seeing as it's you!
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