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"