For Those Who Are About To Rock....

Here are some pictures of the fantastic bending device in action - and a recipe for bending success:

First, you'll need:

• 1 Satellite dish base (the grey ring)
• 1 bike tube reinforcement piece cut from a bike that was already chopped up for this project
• Rebar bracing to help the satellite base hold it's form
  
• Seatbelt
• 2x4 lumber
• Propane torch
• Wood with 1" groove in it (this was from a pallet that had the wood bracing on it and the 1" groove was conveniently pre-cut in it)
• A square
• Gloves
  

The seatbelt holds the 2X4 lever in place on one end and the satellite dish had a bracket to brace the other end against, you heat up the tubing (held to the ring by a welded on little bracket - see the pic above)
Then you pull down on the 2X4 and you get this:I guess the images aren't that great, but you can imagine...See below for the finished result. The tube is bent in a nice radius that very closely (out of sheer dumb luck) the radius of the bars on the trailer. What is truly amazing is that the tubing didn't fold, kink, or anything. The bends are literally perfect. Not even I expected that! I figured I was going to have to weld on bracing along the sides of the tubing to keep it from deforming the tubing.
BTW, it turns out that to get the bend I need (90 degrees and 14" high) you need to measure out the actual length you need and add 9.25" for the bend. So, yesterday I knocked out about half the hoops that I will need for the stock trailer project.

PS - in case you aren't picturing what these hoops I am making are for, this is an image taken of the stock trailer and if you look closely, you can actually see where the hoops have rusted out:

See the rounded bent "hoops" that form the "roof?" Those are them.