Tarpaulin cover system

Claim 1

In combination with a truck box including a front wall and two generally upright side walls each having a generally horizontal top edge, a tarpaulin cover system including a tarpaulin; tarpaulin supporting rods fixedly secured to the tarpaulin and including a leading rod and a plurality of intermediate rods, said rods extending across said truck box; means for moving and guiding said rods along the top of said truck box to unfold or fold and to guide said tarpaulin and to maintain respective ends of the rods in proximity to the respective upper edges of said side wall, wherein: (a) the length of each of said rods is in excess of the width of said box, while the width of said tarpaulin is less than the width of said box, each rod having two end portions disposed between the respective ends of the rod and a respective side edge porion of said tarpaulin, each of said end portions being fully exposed and resting on the top edge of the respective side wall of the box; (b) said means for moving and guiding said rods including two flexible cable means each secured to the box, one of each of the cable means extending along the respective horizontal top edge in proximity to same and exteriorly of the box; (c) each of the intermediate rods having at each end thereof a transverse passage means for slidably receiving the respective cable, the spacing between each passage means and the respective adjacent edge of the tarpaulin being greater than the thickness of the respective side wall at the respective top edge thereof; (d) each of said cable means being fully exposed along generally the entire length thereof, whereby undesired accumulation of solid particles or the like in proximity to the respective cable is prevented, to improve reliability of operation of said system.