[Brew461]

Originally Posted by Tufftoy

By looking at where you are from, I think the AF would consider that just a little bit of fraud, waste and abuse.

Since when does big blue do interior completions?

10 years active duty bud. Not anymore.

Mid yer business

[cueball]

i dunno.. i think i have made it through all of the posts in this thread. I am not a big fan of the brass grommets. bungie balls, i am okay with i guess. My biggest question (and i dont think it has truely been answered), is "are these manufacturered by SW or by a vendor of SW 'specifically' for this use?"

i had searched some of the links and am inclined to think that if it was a custom made product from bulk material, that the grommets would be black (like found on some other mesh tarps). there are other places to get all sort of various sizes - including 3x4, so you could do a multiple piece set up or get a larger mesh tarp and just go with the one piece.

from my pricing, i can do a custom set up (with bungeeballs $1.83 at walmart for 4), for $30.

marketing is one thing, but i am not sure if sw has patents on a mesh tarp. the last i have heard, you cannot patent the use of an existing product. just the creative product (or thought).

[SpiderWeb]

Originally Posted by bman9089

Here's a quick sketch of my plans. They are very rudimentary, so bare with me.




Keep in mind that this is if the rear roll bar didn't bend (the bend isn't visual, this is 2D).

The colored strips are straps. The red is the front piece, the green is the rear piece, and I haven't started the jammer yet. I'm not going to give away specifics, but the yellow top pieces are the bolts that go into the rollbar for the soft top door pieces. Straps go around those. The blue pieces in the rear are going to be sewn in pieces of plastic that will bend as you shape the top to the roll bar.

It'll do just as good a job as the current top, cover all areas without any gaps (except the front where the windshield visors and latches are, there's a small gap), but nothing on the sides, using straps with either buckles or velcro and the rear will bow keeping things tight and looking good.

These are small fixes but big improvements, IMO.

Let me know if you guys have any other suggestions.

Looks good bman, but my customers like the bungie balls, it is kind of Jeep thing. However I am very interested in these Magical Plastic Straps please keep me posted. In the meantime Watch Amanda install a SpiderWeb ShadeTop:

[YT]<object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/Y0guQsBf-dk&hl=en&fs=1"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/Y0guQsBf-dk&hl=en&fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object>[/YT]

Thanks to JF feedback we have made many improvements to the SW1 and are anxious to give you SW2 and SW3.

Take a look: www.spiderwebshade.com

[bman9089]

Originally Posted by SpiderWeb

Looks good bman, but my customers like the bungie balls, it is kind of Jeep thing. However I am very interested in these Magical Plastic Straps please keep me posted. In the meantime Watch Amanda install a SpiderWeb ShadeTop:

1.) Don't lecture me on 'jeep thing'. I think I get it. There are plenty of people here who won't be purchasing your top because of the bungee balls and grommets. That's the only reason I have plans for straps.

2.) The straps aren't plastic. The pieces in the rear are. Those are 2 seperate things.

So tell me up front, are you still going to change SW3 or are you going to stick with what you have right now?

[buellwinkle]

Just stare in the video, watch Amanda real close playing with the bungee balls, surrender, resistance is futile!

[SpiderWeb]

Originally Posted by buellwinkle

Just stare in the video, watch Amanda real close playing with the bungee balls, surrender, resistance is futile!

Amanda loves the bungie balls!!!

[SpiderWeb]

Originally Posted by cueball

i dunno.. i think i have made it through all of the posts in this thread. I am not a big fan of the brass grommets. bungie balls, i am okay with i guess. My biggest question (and i dont think it has truely been answered), is "are these manufacturered by SW or by a vendor of SW 'specifically' for this use?"

i had searched some of the links and am inclined to think that if it was a custom made product from bulk material, that the grommets would be black (like found on some other mesh tarps). there are other places to get all sort of various sizes - including 3x4, so you could do a multiple piece set up or get a larger mesh tarp and just go with the one piece.

from my pricing, i can do a custom set up (with bungeeballs $1.83 at walmart for 4), for $30.

marketing is one thing, but i am not sure if sw has patents on a mesh tarp. the last i have heard, you cannot patent the use of an existing product. just the creative product (or thought).

The SpiderWeb ShadeTops are manufactured by US in the US specifically for this use. IF this was a "mesh tarp" I have NEVER seen one this size, or made of this material, that is because we designed it to fit Jeeps. Did I mention that we reinforced the edges with seat belt material for added durability? Did I mention that the high quality brass grommets patina beautifully in the weather? Try it if you are unhappy I will refund your money.

Yes you are correct "you can NOT patent a mesh tarp" however our custom SpiderWeb ShadeTop and attaching method are our intellectual property time and date stamped.

Thanks.

[the mad hatter]

Originally Posted by SpiderWeb

The SpiderWeb ShadeTops are manufactured by US in the US specifically for this use. IF this was a "mesh tarp" I have NEVER seen one this size, or made of this material, that is because we designed it to fit Jeeps. Did I mention that we reinforced the edges with seat belt material for added durability? Did I mention that the high quality brass grommets patina beautifully in the weather? Try it if you are unhappy I will refund your money.

Spider I think it's great what you're comapny is doing , but you can't honestly say that these aren't very common materials you are using. It's more like paying for the convenience of not having to take the time to do it yourself.

Screen:
http://www.homedepot.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/ProductDisplay?storeId=10051&langId=-1&catalogId=10053&productId=100578020

Grommets:
http://www.homedepot.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/ProductDisplay?storeId=10051&langId=-1&catalogId=10053&productId=100200416&marketID=29& locStoreNum=6674&categoryID=500464

Bungees:
http://cgi.ebay.com/HEAVY-DUTY-8-BLACK-BALL-BUNGEE-CANOPIES-BUNGIE-50-PCS_W0QQitemZ300245728734QQihZ020QQcategoryZ20721Q QssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

[the mad hatter]

Originally Posted by thedirt

In defense of Spider, isn't your logic applicable to any product on the market? I mean, I can go to my local home depot/michaels and buy some metal, fabric, and castors and make my own chair. Or perhaps I'll go buy some fabric and some thread and sew my own clothes.

I was only commenting on his "I have NEVER seen one this size, or made of this material" statement.

I'm not bashing the guy. He's more ambitious than I am. I'm inspired to make my own just because I think it'd be a good project.

[bman9089]

Originally Posted by thedirt

In defense of Spider, isn't your logic applicable to any product on the market? I mean, I can go to my local home depot/michaels and buy some metal, fabric, and castors and make my own chair. Or perhaps I'll go buy some fabric and some thread and sew my own clothes.

This is more of a 'are you buying premade shoes and including some laces' type of deal.

Originally Posted by thedirt

When buying a product, you aren't paying just for the materials and labor. You are paying for the time spent engineering and testing a product along with the processes/people/equipment supporting the production of that product. I'm not saying that Spiders product is perfect, just that there is a lot more involved than just "the convenience of not having to take the time to do it yourself".

95% of the products on the market are nothing more than a clever assembly of off-the-shelf materials.

Indeed, that's true if in fact this is being specifically made which I cannot tell one way or the other. I see the same materials with the same brass grommets and bungee balls you can pick up for yourself.

I just don't know what happened with new line of tops. The first SW1 back on the first couple of pages was nearly perfect. That's the top that people liked. What happened?

I'm not passing judgement but I have a lot of suspicion. If you can prove me wrong spider that these are custom made, please do.

[fromme]

Originally Posted by SpiderWeb

Looks good bman, but my customers like the bungie balls, it is kind of Jeep thing.

SpiderWeb, there are also lots of people that aren't your customers because they don't like the bungie balls and the brass grommets. If you fix those two things, or at minimum the grommet color and odd looking extra one in the middle rear, I bet you'd have even more customers. Even if it were to cost more.

On a side note, I bet SpiderWeb is laughing all the way to the bank. For every person that bumps the thread up I bet 5 people go to his site and buy one!

[-Rudy-]

All of this hype and no production model SW3? I'm disappointed.

[bman9089]

Originally Posted by thedirt

I was responding with the assumption that these are completely custom made. If you assume that they aren't custom made and the situation is analogous to the premade shoes with laces type of deal, then ignore my post. I'm suspicious too, it's just that I have nothing to prove that these aren't custom made, so I'm keeping my mind open.

Same here. But whenever I ask a legitimate question, it's dodged altogether and instead we get another advertisement. That only adds to the suspicion.

And I am suspicious after taking measurements yesterday. The front and back of wranglers are square/rectangular shaped. Perfect for a one sized fits all tarp that anyone can buy. If you actually made something custom, first off, it would fit the roll bars. As in, there would be no gaps. This presents a problem with the knobs that hold the soft top door pieces to the jeep though. They get in the way.

Now, you could sew around it, extend the top horizontally so there aren't any gaps between it and the rollbar, ditch grommets and bungee balls and just use straps and not have any problems.

But that requires special fabricating.

I just don't get it. I see very little in this product that sets it apart from a typical tarp. Look online and you'll find many other tarps that come with brass grommets. That's not a special feature, that's just the way they come standard. I don't get it. All I see is a lot of advertising. Personally, I hope I'm wrong in every sense.

[SpiderWeb]

Originally Posted by bman9089

This is more of a 'are you buying premade shoes and including some laces' type of deal.



Indeed, that's true if in fact this is being specifically made which I cannot tell one way or the other. I see the same materials with the same brass grommets and bungee balls you can pick up for yourself.

I just don't know what happened with new line of tops. The first SW1 back on the first couple of pages was nearly perfect That's the top that people liked. What happened?

I'm not passing judgement but I have a lot of suspicion. If you can prove me wrong spider that these are custom made, please do.

Bman please relax...

What are you suspicious about? Would you like to come to Florida and see our shop? It is called VehicleSpa

We clean a lot of beach/trail Jeeps, including my 77CJ, 94Sahara and 04Rubi I do not have a JK they really have not grown on me yet...

Too much PLASTIC, I think your top would be perfect!

I love my Jeeps I love all Jeeps, but I hated sweating in traffic and wind noise so we made the SpiderWeb ShadeTop. People liked it, so we made more and sold them cheap... lots of them and we still do.

Please define "custom"

better yet buy one and measure it.

[SpiderWeb]

Originally Posted by RudyxTJ

All of this hype and no production model SW3? I'm disappointed.

Rudy, I am trying to get these done, keep in mind I can't just run to Home Depot, Harbor Freight, Northern Tool, and pick up some tarps. I committed to creating these additional products like 2 months ago. If I turned around two new additional custom Jeep Wrangler Tops that quickly...

I wonder how SUSPICIOUS you think bMan would be???

I am trying.