A Platt Monfort tonneau cover?
 

I was looking at some of the tonneau cover threads here and noticed nobody here has used Platt Monfort's ideas for construction of such covers, or any other aero shape. Take a look at his website:

Geodesic AiroLITE Boats - ultra lightweight SOF canoes and boats; plans, projects and tutorials

He's no longer with us but his wife is selling his designs now. I am in the process of building one of them, the Whitehall Jr., and it just struck me how well this technology could be used in an ecomodder project. He uses dacron shrink-wrapped over ribs.

There are various versions and copies. You can see some on youtube, for example:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KfbnPpBqCuc
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xZDwSI1PYgc

The neat thing is that after you have your tonneau cover done like this, you can take if off your truck and use it as a boat! Well, maybe not a very pretty boat, but it's at least worth thinking about. Anyway this might be a way to get a very light shape that can be curved in two directions...

There are two ways of looking at this:

1) Use the technique to build a cover and use it only as a cover.

2) Build a boat that can substitute for a sort of cover - but it is primarily a boat, perhaps modified a bit to fit the shape of the back of the cab. For example, look at this design, pointing the nose backwards of course:
Black Fly 8 - Geodesic AiroLITE Boats

You might eliminate the curve (sheer?) in the gunwales so they sit flat on the edge of the pickup bed. The nose of the boat would overhang the back of the truck a couple feet.

http://images.thesamba.com/vw/gallery/pix/400320.jpg

http://vintagebus.com/image/bus-boat.jpg

Are you going to post pictures of your project somewhere? I've got a lot of 1/4" redwood that would make nice laminated curves. So I'm full of questions.

This post was more a suggestion to others that this technique was available, especially for those who drive pickups a lot. I tend to leave the pickup in the driveway as much as I can!

But if I ever manage to finish my real boat, I might try another one for my pickup bed just to try this out.

Oldie and still waiting.

The idea is not new but the application serves some answers to the recent questions. Here's a modification of a fabric convertible top keeping the best aero-slope terminating into a clean fastback. The frame could be made retractable or use a rigid frame profile (as shown on the idea). There has to be removeable crossbars to reinforce the shape. The immediate cons of a soft top aero-shape would be the excessive lift to weaken the fabric materials.

The major themes are the aero-profile & relative ease of convertibility - completely open the back.

The donor truck I used may not be the best aero sample but it just looks damn cool to create more 'sport truck enthusiast' converts.

http://ecomodder.com/forum/showthrea...over-7060.html
http://ecomodder.com/forum/attachmen...p;d=1234218475
http://ecomodder.com/forum/attachmen...p;d=1234218475

I wonder if slats on top of that frame would work, arranged so that there is a space between them for visibility. Sorta like this: