Design and Installation of ROPS for Army Retrofit Program

The U. S. Army is faced with the requirement to provide Rollover Protective Structures (ROPS) on new and old construction equipment vehicles. Many of the commercial design practices can be followed but some military design features and operational conditions pose unusual problems. The large number of vehicles involved and the wide distribution made it necessary to study the problems and ramifications for thoroughly each machine. New techniques of design and evaluation had to be developed to cover the major constraints of previously built machines. New design features have been incorporated into the ROPS to simplify shipment, visibility, and retrofit, including refinements on the two-post ROPS, mesh design for falling objects, and mounts.