At 11:20 AM 3/19/2004, Joy Hecht wrote: >Here's the details: They kayak is 19 feet long and weighs 48 pounds. I >have it strapped on about as far back as it can reasonably go, so as to have >the weight at the bottom of the poptop. It overhangs the back of the van >but not the front. I am 5'3" tall and have very good upper body strength >for a woman (years of rowing crew, swimming, kayaking, and lifting weights). >With nothing on the roof it's a bit of a stretch for me to get the poptop >fully up and pull it down, but not a problem. How much overhang is there, and how much weight can you reasonably hang off the end of it? Or reinforce the roof and add a couple brackets on top to accept a suitably sized stick of wood or metal square tubing with a couple feet of overhang -- use a come-along or 3-4-part block and tackle to tension as many garage-door springs as will suffice; then unrig it or not when the top is secure. Do the calculations carefully for moments and forces, and I'd suggest talking to a structural engineer or similar about the roof reinforcements, and paying great attention to stress-raisers when doing the fiberglass work. And do use safety wires in the springs. Lots of ways to vary that last, trading force and distance back and forth, using a bottle jack to tension the springs etc...but I'd go with something with as much overall length and as much overhang as would both comfortably stow inside or out, and give a decent angle of pull to a hard point at the rear of the van. Of course ultimately your overhang is limited by being far enough from the ground when the top is up to hang a weight from. Might not take all that much of a weight in that case... david -- David Beierl - Providence RI USA -- http://pws.prserv.net/synergy/Vanagon/ '84 Westy "Dutiful Passage" '85 GL "Poor Relation" |
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