The rack sits in the gutter on 5" wide "feet". They are secured to the gutter with a slide clamp and then a set screw. I assembled the rack with all of the fasteners only finger tight. It is still very very steady . All bracketry is made from either 1/4" bar aluminum or 1/4" plate aluminum.

A significant number of people have asked about racking to carry 'boards' of all types or kayaks on the sides of their hightops, maybe in combination with solar panels on top or whatever on top. I've been concerned enough about the use of through fasteners on the tops to get to work and design and build some racking for hightops.

My criteria were:

1. All of the weight carried on the rack should be transmitted to the gutters of the van, none on the top itself

2. No through fasteners into the top

3. It must be strong enough to carry loads on the sides and on the top

4. It must be of flexible design so that folks can figure out what they want and have the rack tailored for them

5. It must have longitudinal stability

6. It must have multiple attachment points on it to attach whatevers to it virtually wherever.

7. As much as possible, it should follow the top contours and sit close to the top

8. It must be removable - not necessarily quickly but without major drama

9. It should be able to be dismantled for storage if necessary

I settled on building the rack out of Aluminum strut material because of its low weight and high strength.

The pictures below are of the rack mounted on a roof clip with attached AW top that I bought to make molds from just before I was able to acquire the AW top molds.

The two longitudinal upper struts.or the horizontal struts just above the gutters can have attachments made to them anywhere along them. Solar panels of virtually any size can be securely fastened or hangers for boards etc.

The brackets fot the rack are very labour intensive to make. It is very important that anyone wanting a set of brackets should contact me and we can discuss exactly the configuration of the rack that you want. I will them make up the brackets to achieve the configuration. Please contact me with your ideas and we will work out a cost for the brackets.

jacharl_@bell.net

I am going to make the brackets available as a package to minimize shipping costs. Folks can source and buy thier own strut (I'll give people a link to find a supplier near to them) People can then decide for themselves what they want to make the legs and horizontal struts out of - there are quite a few choices - aluminum, steel (various finishes) and stainless steel.