Bed covers, seat belts & Storage ideas for M998

[Duff ace]

I'm all for safety, especially if you're hauling kids...or anyone else.

But before you price yourself out of the market with a NASCAR-worthy safety cage, couldn't you build a a 4-point structure like you see on old CJ-5/7s and soft top Jeeps to this day?

A rollbar that fits INSIDE the standard soft top.

Not perfect, but if it's good enough to meet current government safety standards, it should be good enough for normal (not dangerous off road or Baja-race type) use with a HMMWV. Especially if you avoid doing aything stupid (I drove a short wheelbase CJ-5...a vehicle CBS's 60 Minutes called a death trap...for seven years as a daily driver and lived to tell the tale).

Find out the size and material used by Jeep, and have a expert welder fabricate it. You could even put mounts on it for back seat harnesses.

Something to consider before forgetting the whole HMMWV-thing in the name of an over abundance of caution.

If course, the key phrase is not doing anything stupid, and in case any attorneys are reading this:
Do not attempt...
Professional driver on a closed course...
Caution, contents are hot.

Good points and advice. I'll look into it.

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[McSpeed]

You probably saw the episode of Dirt Everyday where they get a GOV PLANET Humvee and take it out through sand dunes, jumps, and rock crawl. Before they do, they weld a cage in it working with the existing system. It is pretty slick, they bore a hole through the B pillar roof and run tubes through using the sandwich steel plates on the floor. I'm sure it could be done with the C pillar too and then run across. Tube bending kits are readily available now, and there are also plenty of fab shops that can build something for you. Be careful with roll bars though - if they are near the passenger area you honestly should wear a helmet with them because they put a head injury probability in a low speed street accident very likely without head protection since we don't normally have molly steel that close to our head in any other vehicle.

I am an insurance professional by day, and deal directly in auto claims. All I see essentially is the aftermath of various types of collisions and losses. It is amazing how we as a society have moved to the point of safety that we view today. When most of us were growing up and getting our driver license, safety was a three point harness and padded dash (if that...I had lap belts on my first car). High strength steel and roll over protection wasn't even in our vocabulary. A modern day convertible has ultra high strength windshield pillar posts and some have pop-up roll bars for the back seat (popular on German cars). Almost anybody would jump at the chance to take their kids for a ride in a 1970 convertible Chevelle. But, you are going to be in some big trouble in a roll over anyway. Even a 2019 Jeep four door soft top...a full blown roll over is going to at a minimum send everybody to the hospital. But agreed...far better than a 25+ year old Humvee...or anything else of that age. I couldn't imagine rolling a 1987 Chevy K5 blazer for the people in the back seat.

Just trying to put things in perspective. Safety of my son and his friends and any passengers in my vehicles is also highly important to me.

However, tough decisions really. I think we are all so comfortable now and have such an expectation of air bags, Ultra High Strength steel, crush zones, and more...that it honestly seems criminal to revert back to how we all grew up.

I have a 1923 T bucket...fiberglass. I installed lap belts. I wear them...I have no idea why. If I hit something or roll even at a low speed...well, that's it for me any anybody on-board. I once tech wrote for an automotive magazine and got to try lots of swag on my stuff for the readers and to document it. I did a three point seat harness in my 69 Camaro. I feel 100% better driving that knowing how fast it can get out from under me now with the three point belts, but honestly, it is a funeral bill wrapped in cool shaped sheet metal any way you slice it.

This is also coming from a guy that grew up as a kid riding on the gas tank of dad's Goldwing...and later on hanging on the back when I was big enough...and later terrorizing the streets on a Kawasaki Ninja in Jacksonville, FL bumper to bumper traffic.