Hickory NC family invents waterproof cover for Jeeps

Hickory High School sophomore Ford Jarrett has his sales pitch down for the Ride N Dry Jeep cover.

“Stop looking at pictures and come see it in person,” he says.

Ford Jarrett mans the Ride N Dry booth at a Jeep trade show.

Ford spends most Saturdays at Jeep trade shows helping his mother, Christina, sell the product. He developed his pitch on the fly at one of these shows over the summer after struggling to get people to pay attention to the product.

“I got mad because we had it set up in the Jeep and nobody would come look at it,” Ford said.

He said he scrounged for paper and started making signs to draw more attention to the product. He finally got a hold of some poster board and wrote his new slogan down.

“There were three more signs of arrows pointing towards the door,” Ford said. “I had to lead them to it.”

He sold three covers that afternoon before he took a nap. When he woke up, Christina sold the last two.

Christina came up with the idea for a waterproof cover shortly after buying her first Jeep. She said she and Ford were caught in a sudden downpour without the doors or the top on the vehicle. They ended up frying the vehicle’s electrical system.

Made from marine vinyl and polyester, the Ride N Dry allows Jeep owners to keep electronics dry while the vehicle remains drivable.

“Everybody said, ‘Oh, it’ll dry out,’ but it didn’t,” she said. “I had to rewire my Jeep, so I thought, ‘There’s a better way to do this.’”

She made her first sketches shortly after that.

The Ride N Dry is made from transparent marine vinyl. The product fits over the dash, keeping the electrical equipment shielded from the rain while allowing the vehicle to remain drivable.

“You can see your instrument panel. You can use your audio screens,” Christina said. “You can hook it around and you can drive with it on … you’ll get wet, but you’ll protect your electronics.”

The Jarretts have a utility patent pending for it.

“It’s a utility patent not a design patent,” Christina said. “I’ll have the rights to every vehicle, any dash design out of any vehicle, I’ll have the utility rights, too.”

Ford Jarrett hangs a sign on the front of a Jeep to attract attention to the Ride N Dry.

All the materials in the product are sourced from North Carolina vendors and the cover is currently being manufactured in Boone. The Jarretts have produced around 100 covers over the past year. For now, the product is available via pre-order only.

“We’re looking for investors,” she said.

“Without investors, we’ve basically had to do a presale type basis,” said Christina’s husband Jason Jarrett.

The product is also UV protectant, mold and mildew resistant. The marine vinyl in the cover is replaceable.

After creating the first sketches, Christina enlisted the help of her mother, Elizabeth Edy, who sewed the first prototype.

“She used to sew snowmobile suits in Canada,” Christina said. “So she went and bought an $80 sewing machine and a $2 picnic table cloth.”

Over the next two years, Elizabeth, Christina and Ford began working out the kinks in the design. They have also made changes so the product could be used by Jeep owners who have modified their vehicles.

Ford Jarrett mans the Ride N Dry booth at a recent Jeep trade show.

Ford said his biggest contribution to the design was probably the adjustable elastic hooks.

“We just had hooks, at first,” Christina said. “He had suggested why not make the bands adjustable so it would fit over their ducts, trail mounts, roll cage bars, whatever they had on top.”

Ford also helped fix problems Christina was having with the flaps. She said she was having trouble getting the cover to fit over certain modifications until Ford took over and made it work.

“I wish he’d go to school to be an engineer,” Christina said. “I think he’d do well.”

Ford has also been part of the family’s meetings with a patent attorney and contributed to many other aspects of running the new business. Ride N Dry was officially trademarked at the beginning of this month.

But Ford’s main role with the company has been in marketing and sales. He and his mother travel to Jeep trade shows most Saturdays to sell the Ride N Dry.

“Ford has been along with us on this whole process,” she said. “We juggle trade shows, soccer and school. He works very hard. He sold everything we had last weekend at Jeep Invasion and generated a lot of online sales.”

Ford said he likes being able to help his mother and make a little money at the same time.

“It’s a lot of fun,” he said. “You get to meet a lot of new people and I like to sell stuff.”

Jason thinks the process has benefited Ford, giving him experience in business most 10th-graders don’t get.

“He’s seen how hard that process is,” Jason said. “He’s been fortunate to experience all this.”

“Our family has been able to provide a lot of learning experiences to go through,” Christina added. “This is going to teach him for the long run.”

For more information about the Ride N Dry Jeep cover, visit www.ridendry.com.

Jason Koon is the Sports Editor for the Hickory Record and can be reached at [email protected].

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