Roof Rack

[nyrockingchairs]

Hello all,

I was wondering what people did for roof racks. I have seen pics of some of the larger cages people have contructed and I think this is the way to go. I shopped around for Off-The-Shelf roof rack systems and they wanted around $60 a mounting foot (need 4 feet at least) plus the rack system itself plus the load bars. Which put it over $400 just for the canoe rack, no other storage. I can get lots of scrap steel for $400.

Unfortunately, I do not have a welder at this time and my back-up plan is to do the cage when I go down to my father's this summer/fall with his equipment. Plus he has a steel scrap yard down the road that would supply the materials we need. I want something to hold a 19' canoe and offer some frontal protection so it doesn't get chipped and stuff from flying debris. Ok, so if flying debris can make it up and over a school bus to hit the front of my canoe just right so it gets chipped I should stop off and buy lottery tickets, but...after putting a few hundred hours into the canoe project...hey the strips are almost ready for the routers...

So I am thinking of just putting a 24' long cage on top of the bus with the width almost across the entire bus, that way I can throw all kinds of crap up there as well as mount some kind of 1-person canoe loader/unloader system. Anyone close to Western New York that has some free time to build this cage? Along with a ladder to attach to the back of the bus.

Also, anyone aware of what the DOT height restrictions are? I know from driving in our area our lowest underpass restriction is 12'11" and most tractor trailers are closer to 14' height.

[nyrockingchairs]

Looking at the blue Ragbrai 2004 album by Steve, that is pretty much exactly what I am thinking about.