Date:         Mon, 21 Jul 1997 22:57:00 -0700
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@vanagon.com>
From:         John Thomas <jthomas@CRUZIO.COM>
Subject:      Kayak Roof Rack

I am sorry about all these questions.  ( 3 in the last hour)
I am a new Westy owner and have no answers and lots of questions.
I have looked through all the FAQs and have not found these.
One of these days, I will be an old Westy owner and I hopefully
will be able to answer some questions for other newcomers.

One of the additions that I want to make is a Kayak rack.
We have a large double kayak, 21 ft long but only about
70-80 lb..  I have been looking at the racks that other
people have on vans and there seems to be a lot that are
attached to the fiberglass top ( either on the top edge or
side mounted) and others that are attached to the roof
rain gutters.
I think that I would prefer the rain gutters and have one rail
at the very very end and the other rail just in front of the
poptop.  This way I can raise the poptop without removing the
rack  ( I would, of course, remove the kayak)

Yakima(sp?) has a "high rise" rain gutter kit that they say will
work.  Has anybody tried it.

One concern I have is the twisting stability of the post.
I saw one setup on a camper in a parking lot, that had the
posts with an "h" shaped bracket that seemed that it would be much
more stable.    Unfortunately the brand name had faded beyond
reading and I didn't think to leave the owner a note to call me.
I have drawn a side view picture below of what the posts looked like.
Does anyone recognize it?


   { }        <--- rail
    |
    |
    |------|
    |      |
  -----  ----   <-- rainwater

I would appreciate hearing from anyone that has had some
experience with setting up a roof rack for a large kayak and
then traveling on the road with it.  I imagine that it
can be pretty exciting in a high wind.