Hi gang,

        I finally have all the bits and pieces for my roof rack and am
looking for some list wisdom on the installation. The rack is a Thule
clone with Thule artificial rain gutters. Its main purpose will be to
carry my canoe on my 84 Westy. Questions:

1) Any advice/tips/tricks for drilling holes in the poptop and installing
the artificial rain gutters?

2) I read on the list that it's a good idea to have the front rack
slightly lower than the back one. Thoughts? --- anyone done this?

3) Any thoughts about positioning the racks themselves  --- I figure
putting the rear rack about as far back as I can, but I'm unsure about
placing the front rack. I'm thinking maybe a couple of feet back from the
front of the poptop with the idea that this would give me a little bit of
mechanical advantage when trying to lift the top with the canoe on. Does
that make any sense?

Any and all advice gratefully accepted.

Thanks,

Doug