On Thu, 25 Mar 2004, Mark Carrig wrote: > My question is, is the fiberglass rack strong enough to support the 3' > antenna in moderate road winds that you encounter when driving at speed ? > > Will it crack, of fatigue ? I would be very concerned about that. Not so much from wind load, but if anything hits the antenna. With a 3' antenna sticking up above a 6' van, it *will* hit something sooner or later -- a tree limb, a drive-thru overhang -- heck, I hit a bird with an antenna once. I think it's very likely you'll crack the rack if this happens. Why not sacrifice just a little height and mount it to the solid metal pillar behind the door? I had a 5/8-wave 2m band whip antenna mounted pretty close to that location, with a gutter mount, for quite a while. It worked well, and never suffered any damage, even the time my mechanic put the van on the lift without removing it and shoved the antenna into the roof of his service bay. If you really have to mount it to the luggage rack, I would think about making an L-bracket inside that bolted to the cab roof, and then bolt the antenna mount through the rack and to that bracket. At very least, use some big fender washers inside the rack to spread out the load.
David Brodbeck, N8SRE '82 Volkswagen Diesel Westfalia '86 Volvo 240DL wagon |
Please note - During the past 17 years of operation, several gigabytes of
Vanagon mail messages have been archived. Searching the entire collection
will take up to five minutes to complete. Please be patient!
Return to the archives @ gerry.vanagon.com
The vanagon mailing list archives are copyright (c) 1994-2011, and may not be reproduced without the express written permission of the list administrators. Posting messages to this mailing list grants a license to the mailing list administrators to reproduce the message in a compilation, either printed or electronic. All compilations will be not-for-profit, with any excess proceeds going to the Vanagon mailing list.
Any profits from list compilations go exclusively towards the management and operation of the Vanagon mailing list and vanagon mailing list web site.