Quote:
Originally Posted by COcyclist
Great project! A very low tech solution may be to lift it manually (I think it will be very light) and prop it up with a couple of rods or poles. As long as they are wider at the bottom by the tailgate hinge, the trapezoid shape should stop it from shifting in the wind. However, you may want to add some straps to tether it down so the wind cannot lift the whole thing while it is set up. It is amazing how quickly the wind can come up when you are camping.
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Yes, some sort of tie-down will be necessary. As someone who's designed a couple of airplanes (none that were actually built), my eyeball tells me that your pop-top is going to have enough of a Cl (Coefficient of lift) to lift that very light mass right off the bed at highway speed. Definitely clamp it down, clamp your lift system to the rail, and have some means of locking it in place. People behind you probably won't appreciate your little airplane landing on them.
By the way, this is a very nice looking project! I've been contemplating making one of these on and off since about a month after I bought my first and only pick-up. Still haven't done it, mostly because the details of the clamping and lifting parts aren't quite obvious enough to me. It seems to me that the bed of my 2000-1/2 Silverado 2500 HD twists slightly relative to the cab and so I must have a gap between the bed and the cab. I'm looking forward to seeing how yours turns out!