My DIY Cargo Panel!!

[ckossuth]

I got my Kenmore up and running again and decided to tackle a cargo panel. I basically reverse engineered Kifaru's and went for it. I made mine with 1000D on the inside and outside. I was running low on material so I had to throw some seams on the inside panel to make the length. I added an inch to the width making it 14"x36". I plan on using this as the base for my whitetail pack. It will be hauling my Lone Wolf Alpha and three climbing sticks, or Double Bull ground blind. I'll probably make a camp bag that will lay flat between the stand and the frame. It will be used when I get a kill. That way I can debone the meat, bag it, and go (no more dragging deer out for this guy). Here's a few pics of the build. Thanks for looking!

 

[mrbillbrown]

Looks great


molon labe

 

[G5Archer]

Great job!

Sent from my Nexus 6 using Tapatalk

 

[WoodBow]

Looks good man. Were you kicking yourself for not making your loops out of a continuation of your molle? I know i was after i made mine. I dont know where you live or how big yalls whitetails are, but i hauled 3 out whole in my panel last year.

 

[Lockster]

Wow, fantastic job, looks just like the original, can you do webbing bartacks with a standard every day sewing machine or do you need a heavy duty machine?

 

[reaper]

wow man,awesome job here,you got serious patience,all the webbings looks straight and nice,really good job.

 

[couesbitten]

Turned out great, well done!

 

[ckossuth]

Wow, fantastic job, looks just like the original, can you do webbing bartacks with a standard every day sewing machine or do you need a heavy duty machine?

Lockster, My Kenmore 158 series was a standard everyday sewing machine back in the day (1969 is when it was built I believe). There's nothing special about it, although I would say it is very heavy duty compared to todays machines. I also have a $67 Brother sewing machine from Walmart. It's very "plasticy" and lightweight. The Brother has it's place though. It did a fantastic job on my DIY tarp so it is now my dedicated "silnylon" machine. It will do a bartack but not near as tight and clean looking as the Kenmore. Toward the end of the cargo panel project I was punching through 3 layers of webbing, 2 layers of 1000D, and 4 layers of grosgrain with no problem. There's no way the Brother could do that. The Kenmore has all metal parts inside. I must say I was in awe the first time I opened up. The old school craftsmanship and engineering is amazing. I would say the Kenmore is a 1969 Dodge Charger with a 426 Hemi and the Brother is a 2003 Dodge Neon 4 cylinder "hoopty". Both will get you from point A to B, but the Hemi will do it in style with power to spare. These old machines are everywhere, yard sales, Goodwill, Ebay, etc. Parts for most of the old machines can still be easily found. This was a long answer to your question but I hope it helped.

 

[ckossuth]

Woodbow, Thanks! My loops have 2" of material sandwiched in between the two layers of 1000D and MOLLE. Each loop has two bartacks and two straight stitches going through them. I'm not worried about the strength. I like the look of the loops coming out from between the two layers of grosgrain better than running out over the sides. It would have definitely been easier to do it the other way but this way was just my personal preference.

 

[pods8 (Rugged Stitching)]

Lotta bartacks, if doing an array like that I wonder about just straight straight stitch 3 pass. I'm building a panel right now as well but with just 6 rows of PALS on it.

 

[WoodBow]

Actually I guess I lied. I forgot that I made mine without loops but with straps instead. So my straps are not removable but I don't have to store them or keep up with them. I haven't decided whether I prefer that or not. It certainly hasn't presented a problem though. What I regretted was that I attached my straps just like you describe attaching your loops. And then I attached my molle the same as you. Just poor planning on my part. I was pretty new to sewing at the time. A continual molle strap extending to attach to the frame would have been much stronger. But then again, how strong does it need to really be? I have rucked with it a lot with loads up to 100#s and it still looks like the day I made it....well besides the deer and elk blood stains

What method did you employ for doing all of the bar tacks? I built a pack that had like 250 bar tacks and what ended up working best for me was working down in a straight line without cutting the thread. So bar tack, lift presser foot and pull to next piece of webbing, bar tack, repeat. So just working straight across all of the webbing and then moving over and doing the next row. Then just going back and cutting the thread between each piece of webbing. It was the most efficient thing I could come up with. Curious if you had a better idea.

 

[pods8 (Rugged Stitching)]

I move the foot w/o cutting threads when doing lots of bartacking as well and then go back after snippng them all.

By the way, any reason these kifaro based ones couldn't just use a couple side straps and then just make the bottom a ladderloc with webbing to run through the common loop on the frame and adjust the lower length rather than having numerous top positions you need to move straps to? That is how I do it on my NICE frame.

 

[ckossuth]

Actually I guess I lied. I forgot that I made mine without loops but with straps instead. So my straps are not removable but I don't have to store them or keep up with them. I haven't decided whether I prefer that or not. It certainly hasn't presented a problem though. What I regretted was that I attached my straps just like you describe attaching your loops. And then I attached my molle the same as you. Just poor planning on my part. I was pretty new to sewing at the time. A continual molle strap extending to attach to the frame would have been much stronger. But then again, how strong does it need to really be? I have rucked with it a lot with loads up to 100#s and it still looks like the day I made it....well besides the deer and elk blood stains

What method did you employ for doing all of the bar tacks? I built a pack that had like 250 bar tacks and what ended up working best for me was working down in a straight line without cutting the thread. So bar tack, lift presser foot and pull to next piece of webbing, bar tack, repeat. So just working straight across all of the webbing and then moving over and doing the next row. Then just going back and cutting the thread between each piece of webbing. It was the most efficient thing I could come up with. Curious if you had a better idea.

I did mine exactly as you described.

 

[Lockster]

Well all these DIY threads have inspired me to go looking for a sewing machine that can do heavier types of work (my Mrs won't let me have a play with her sewing machine!)

after a little research online I'm looking out for a Singer 201 , if I can track down a relatively cheap, serviceable model I will start getting started on some projects that I've always wanted to experiment with but never felt like it would be doable. thanks again for posting up your project.

 

[5shot]

So...did you actually use a zig zag on your bar tacks or just a straight stitch?

Great work.

 

[pods8 (Rugged Stitching)]

So...did you actually use a zig zag on your bar tacks or just a straight stitch?

Great work.

*sewing nerd* his stitch width is set on 2 in the one photo so he was zigging and a zagging.

I zig zag mine but I bet 3 straight stitches with a heavier gauge thread would do just fine too (looks like he was running T40 there, might want to jump to T70 for straight stitches). If I was don't a heavy array like that I'd be rather inclined to just straight stitch it doing 3 passes on the webbing and just 1 pass over the fabric between to get to the next strip of webbing.

 

[WoodBow]

Realistically, one line of straight stitch with the ends locked would probably do just fine for most applications where molle is used. Small pockets will be attached to this, not bowling balls. The heaviest thing I will probably ever attach to mine is a 3 liter bladder. But you just never know.....

 

[pods8 (Rugged Stitching)]

Realistically, one line of straight stitch with the ends locked would probably do just fine for most applications where molle is used. Small pockets will be attached to this, not bowling balls. The heaviest thing I will probably ever attach to mine is a 3 liter bladder. But you just never know.....

Right but a triple stitch is still pretty easy to do and then you have insurance for "you never know". The bartacking is serious overkill most likely but its what we're all used to seeing so we do it. Not really a big deal if doing a bit of PALS to tack it all but I'd be damn tempted to triple stitch (with just a single pass on the fabric between) if doing a huge array like that. Esp. on a panel that is easy to restitch later if needed versus something on a pack or such that is a PITA to get to after the fact.

 

[Lockster]

This is all good learning! I

 

[ckossuth]

Right but a triple stitch is still pretty easy to do and then you have insurance for "you never know". The bartacking is serious overkill most likely but its what we're all used to seeing so we do it. Not really a big deal if doing a bit of PALS to tack it all but I'd be damn tempted to triple stitch (with just a single pass on the fabric between) if doing a huge array like that. Esp. on a panel that is easy to restitch later if needed versus something on a pack or such that is a PITA to get to after the fact.

I tend to over engineer everything I make it seems. LOL