Date:         Sat, 7 Mar 2015 10:46:13 -0800
Reply-To:     "Mudd \"Not Jack\" Sparrow" <rummaging@YAHOO.COM>
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From:         "Mudd \"Not Jack\" Sparrow" <rummaging@YAHOO.COM>
Subject:      TracRac TracVan
Content-Type: multipart/mixed;

With the biggest XXL Sonic Thule, racks best placement were 

60 inches from front door jam to front of "rear" black bracket 

25 inches from front door jam to front of "front" black bracket 

Black bracket is the part that fits in the rain gutter

Hooks supplied are inadequate. Custom hooks are good but need to be a bit different next time, where outward curl begins a bit higher up, to avoid pinching bracket as the hook exits the square opening of the bracket.

Span from the "rear" of the rear rack (silver colored) to the "front" of the front rack is 38 inches.

There is an upward invisible line that is formed by the rear hatch.

The rearmost point of the Thule Sonic lines up, or touches, this invisible line, from by continuation of the rear hatch.

With the XXL Thule all the way over to the starboard side (passenger side), there is enough room left over for a Kyocera 140 watt solar panel, where the Solar Panel will go past the racks by about a half inch.

The wire of the Solar Panel could be fed through the AC Vents of the rear glass of late model Vanagons. Where a charge controller could be placed on the driver side wall of the rear hatch. Or 'maybe' in front of the ECU under the rear seat. Twisted and protected wire, could then be fed under the van to the battery at the front.

The hooks I had fabricated were covered with 1/16th black rubber gasket material from the plumbing section of a hardware store. But I should have covered both top and bottom so that the ends of the hooks would be less likely to scratch the paint. 

The hooks come closet to the body to grip at a stronger point, and avoid touching the outer part of the top outer edge of the rain gutter. But that means if a nut jams, because the thread gets twisted by failing to keep the nut aligned, as you tighten, that you could end up scratching paint off.

That's exactly what happened. I lost some paint as a result. 

So I should have covered the ends if the hooks by wrapping the gasket over the edge, and I should have kept the nut aligned.