New Roof Rack for Vanagons

[SyncroHead]

[Schnippzle]

Ok, cool.

[SyncroHead]

[SyncroHead]

[SyncroHead]

[SyncroHead]

[DuncanS]

Excellent reasoning. Has anyone tested a rain gutter on a wrecked car to failure? It would be interesting to know what this point would be. I would imagine a 2" section might withstand three or four hundred pounds easily as the gutter is a double layer spot welded frequently. With the kind of well designed shaped foot you have, Jim, I can't imagine any failures. I suspect if you had a single foot at the joint giving three supports per side, there would be no way anything could fail. Maybe that small cost savings could help. Leave the mounting holes for the supports on the side rails where you have them, so half racks can work, but add some extra holes in the joiner for a six legged insect.

I'm also wondering if it is possible to be able to mount the side rails at a different height to supports. That way if the rails were mounted right side up, the platform would have cross rails flush with the top. However if someone wanted the "tray" feature where the sides project above the cross rails, they would have that versatility. That seems to be a feature many like.

Good luck with your project. It is well thought out.

Duncan
P.S. Since your topic was posted, I have been noticing aluminum tracks for pickup trucks for construction guys. The forward cross bar on many is over the windshield, yet the support post goes into the bed socket leaving a 4' or so overhang cantilevered to the cross member. I know guys regularly load up pressure treated 2 xs up there which are heavy as hell. And the side rails don't appear to be that beefy. If the driver were to load 500 pounds of material, the front cross member sees a 250 pound load with each side rail carrying 125 pounds on a 4' unsupported beam. If they failed, they would be outta biz in seconds. Hmmmm. Could you lighten your side rails to also help with the cost, I wonder?

[xclemjustinx]

Do you happen to have any pics of the half length version? Do you know the dimension of this rack? How tall does it sit above the roof, width etc? Do the rain gutter supports have a foam/rubber material that protect the clamps from scratching/scuffing the rain gutters? Also have you designed a bracket for the ARB awning or will the Vanagonlife one somehow incorporate into this? I am curious in this rack. Thanks.

[DuncanS]

SyncroHead--Funny, but this came up just now on another thread. This is the kind of upward forcing of the under gutter clamping action I was talking about.
https://www.amazon.com/Smittybilt-HDS-6-Heavy-Gutt...amp;sr=1-1
For the towers to be really secured to the gutter, it seems like something like this is needed.

If you click on the link, it says they will not fit a Vanagon. Wonder what that is about as they look OK to me.

The J shape you have on your foot is far superior to what Smittybuilt has. And the U channel bend stiffening your tower is better than just their flat plate.

Duncan

[DuncanS]

Then clicked on a link just now on another topic and lookie here!

The rust is demolishing them and see how the flat plat has bent down under the load.

So much for Smittybuilt which is actually Won Soo Chen built.

[DuncanS]

SyncroHead--Funny, but this came up just now on another thread. This is the kind of upward forcing of the under gutter clamping action I was talking about.
https://www.amazon.com/Smittybilt-HDS-6-Heavy-Gutt...amp;sr=1-1
For the towers to be really secured to the gutter, it seems like something like this is needed.

If you click on the link, it says they will not fit a Vanagon. Wonder what that is about as they look OK to me.

The J shape you have on your foot is far superior to what Smittybuilt has. And the U channel bend stiffening your tower is better than just their flat plate.

Duncan

[DuncanS]

Then clicked on a link just now on another topic and lookie here!

The rust is demolishing them and see how the flat plat has bent down under the load.

So much for Smittybuilt which is actually Won Soo Chen built.

[DuncanS]

SyncroHead--Funny, but this came up just now on another thread. This is the kind of upward forcing of the under gutter clamping action I was talking about.
https://www.amazon.com/Smittybilt-HDS-6-Heavy-Gutt...amp;sr=1-1
For the towers to be really secured to the gutter, it seems like something like this is needed.

If you click on the link, it says they will not fit a Vanagon. Wonder what that is about as they look OK to me.

The J shape you have on your foot is far superior to what Smittybuilt has. And the U channel bend stiffening your tower is better than just their flat plate.

Duncan

[pemz0r]

[DuncanS]

That is one fabulous rack. The guy that did it certainly knew what he was doing. I liked the upside down pic as I had previously mentioned that as an option. Odd that the ends are beefy. They don't do any more than the crossbars. I guess I wouldn't have bothered with anything other than a standard crossbar, and instead added another tube to fill in the triangle between the curved cross bars and the lower side rail for rigidity. That would have saved some weight. Another option is to have the sides be lighter weight in material and become a true truss like an open web bar joist.

Duncan

[jashv]

Just found this thread, are you still making these racks @SyncroHead?

[trihartsfield]