Trunk Front Cargo Rings for North American Mach Es

[JohnFoxeSheets]

TL;DR: Cargo tie-down rings for the front area of the cargo area will soon be available for purchase for $75-$100 (possibly lower, depending on total number of orders). These are not OEM. They are custom designed to function identically to the OEM brackets and fit on the mounting studs that are in place on all of our Mach Es. I anticipate orders will ship by Labor Day.

I will be placing the production order on August 1st, so if you're interested please DM me to indicate you would like to participate not later than July 31st. If you are interested, please send me a DM (direct message) to let me know. I anticipate orders will ship by Labor Day.

Background: In his post back in March, Martin (@21st Century Pony) stated the following, “North American Mach Es have only two cargo rings in the trunk - both placed right on the hatch lip. However, non-N.A. Mach Es have all four cargo ring anchor points in the trunk. The two cargo ring anchor points missing in North America are designed to go right into the side wall divots toward the front of the trunk, just behind the seats.” Through the help of Carl (@su-ch+mache) in Germany, Martin obtained brackets for his car, and then generously organized a group buy for those interested in installing these cargo rings on their North American cars as well.

Sadly they discovered that, for a variety of reasons, the OEM brackets are in very short supply – there were only 3 complete pairs available in all of Europe! They bought them all, but there were still a number of people interested in obtaining backets, so Steve (@HuntingPudel) and I decided to try making our own design. Here is our design criteria:

1. Must mount onto the existing mounting studs located behind the side trim panels. (Martin's photo)
   
2. The cargo tie-down rings must properly mate with the existing divots in the side trim. (Note, slots to allow the cargo rings to protrude through the side trim will likely need to be cut into the divots. See Martin's excellent write up for the mounting instructions.)
   
3. The strength of the brackets plus rings should approximate that of the OEM rings. (Note, while a mechanical engineer has been involved in this project, detailed analysis has not been performed. But to the best of their knowledge, the bracket should be fit to purpose. That said, these parts are being made available with no warranty or statement of suitability for purpose. The tie-down rings will function far better than what they replace (i.e., no tie-down rings), but I cannot warrant that they will not fail in the case of a catastrophic event.)

I believe that the resulting design meets the above criteria. (The brackets to hold the rings are made as a pair and then separated. The production brackets will be black - the first engineering sample is red both because I like the color and also because it make it easier to see any issues as the color contrasts with the rest of the area under the side trim panels I the cargo area. The rings will be silver in color.)

Here are what the OEM (on the right) and custom designed (on the left) rings look like installed:

Status
I have had multiple fit-test parts 3D printed and refined the design to what you see above. The final brackets will be made from ¼” aluminum and will be powder coated black. The rings themselves will be commercially available 6mm diameter square U bolts. I have purchased a largish supply of U bolts as well as lock nuts to secure the brackets to the Mach E.

This week I will receive the “first article” i.e., the first bracket set off from the fabricator. (This is small-run contract manufacturing – I’m not running a factory!)

Once I confirm fit and function mid this week, I will start taking orders. I will be closing the order taking process on Monday July 31st so that I can place the production order on August 1st. Overseas manufacturing takes about a month to complete, and my goal is to mail put all bracket orders by Labor Day (September 4th).

Due to personal reasons, I plan to do a single production run. So this might be a one-time opportunity to obtain front cargo rings for your trunk.

More soon,
John

 

[JohnFoxeSheets]

It's here! If you're interested in ordering a set, please DM me no later than 7/31.

More soon.

 

[JohnFoxeSheets]

I will install the brackets/rings tomorrow and verify everything. Once that happens, we’ll be good for production. Orders open until Monday 7/31.

 

[JohnFoxeSheets]

I decided to install the brackets this evening and they fit just fine. We are ready for production! I will be creating a new DM thread with all confirm participants and future update will be on that thread. So if you've not already done so and you want to order a set, please confirm to me asap.

I have sourced M8 square U bolts (as opposed to the original M6 versions). M8 are roughly four times as much metal as compared to M6 so they are substantially stronger. The OEM U bolts are ~M7 in size, so somewhere between the two. The M8 bolts will still fit just fine. I can see no downsizes other than that they're a bit more expensive.

Pricing - EDITED
Since this is a limited production run, pricing is highly order volume dependent. As of 7/29, it looks like pricing will be as below. (The $10 increase is due to finding the beefier U bolts.)

Order Volume	Price*
15 - 19	$90 $100
20 - 24	$80 $90
25 - 29	$70 $80
30 - 34	$65 $75
35 - 39	$60 $70
40 - 54	$55 $65
55 - 74	$50 $60
75+	$45 $55

*All prices are before shipping costs. (I plan to ship via a Priority Mail Small Flat Rate box and the cost should be $8.55.)

Orders close next week Monday 7/31.

The driver side is the more narrow U bolt, while the passenger side has the wider U bolt. (This was just to test the two sizes.) Each works just fine. Note that there is room to make the U bolts extend further if desired.

 

[RickMachE]

Neat!

My tie-downs cost more, but they're much stronger. They are also inside my Lightning's bed...

 

[JohnFoxeSheets]

Neat!

My tie-downs cost more, but they're much stronger. They are also inside my Lightning's bed...

Cool, so all you need to do when you want to tie down something in the rear of your MME is precede it with your Lightning so you can secure the stuff with the rings on your Lightning...

 

[RickMachE]

Cool, so all you need to do when you want to tie down something in the rear of your MME is precede it with your Lightning so you can secure the stuff with the rings on your Lightning...

Lightning has the tiedowns, plus Boxlink. Mach-E stays home, Lightning does the work.

 

[JohnFoxeSheets]

Lightning has the tiedowns, plus Boxlink. Mach-E stays home, Lightning does the work.

Yeah, I know that.

 

[kodiakng]

Yeah, I know that.

your option is cheaper than an accessory lightning purchase too.

 

[MyLittlePony2022]

@JohnFoxeSheets and @HuntingPudel Thanks to you both for coming up with this great product. I love it. I DM'd John to put in my order.

Is there any chance of extend the deadline for a few more weeks so more people can jump on this order. Give more people a chance to see the thread and put in an order. Helps out the rest of the forum. Plus, it puts the cost a bit lower.

 

[HuntingPudel]

@JohnFoxeSheets and @HuntingPudel Thanks to you both for coming up with this great product. I love it. I DM'd John to put in my order.

Is there any chance of extend the deadline for a few more weeks so more people can jump on this order. Give more people a chance to see the thread and put in an order. Helps out the rest of the forum. Plus, it puts the cost a bit lower.

It's all John. I'm just here to provide a little four-legged humor and maybe order a set or two to hit the next cost plateau.

 

[JohnFoxeSheets]

@JohnFoxeSheets and @HuntingPudel Thanks to you both for coming up with this great product. I love it. I DM'd John to put in my order.

Is there any chance of extend the deadline for a few more weeks so more people can jump on this order. Give more people a chance to see the thread and put in an order. Helps out the rest of the forum. Plus, it puts the cost a bit lower.

I wish I could extend the ordering window, but unfortunately I will be unavailable starting the second week of Sept for awhile, so I really am trying to wrap everything up prior to Labor Day. And in order to keep costs reasonable, the production is overseas so it takes a few weeks to be completed.

 

[JohnFoxeSheets]

Just a short update to say that we’re at 21 orders so far. The next price point is at 25 orders, so if you’re thinking about it, now the time. The order window closes Monday 7/31.

 

[JohnFoxeSheets]

We're in the closing days of order taking. There have currently been orders placed for 22 bracket sets which means that with only three additional orders the price will drop from $90 per set (plus shipping) to $80 as we hit the next parts fabrication volume discount. Now's the time to get any last minute orders in - the order window closes on Monday 7/31.

 

[Gimme_my_MME]

@JohnFoxeSheets what was the install process like? Was it pretty much the same as what Martin wrote up?

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