- Banned
- #46
@lodoffroad
As your biggest fan, and a fan that could be wrong, in fact hopes he is, here are my top two design concerns. Please know these thoughts come from a place where I wish your product to be the best it can be, not to steer readers away from it.
The first concern is load weight fully cantilevered/extended. On this, we'll simply have to "wait on the weight," or to put this another way, wait and see what your testing reveals as safe amounts of load the rack can take fully cantilever. As you mentioned, you've moved a large amount of weight to the rack's fully open position, and shown us a "freakin snowmobile at 3/8 open" but what "can" be achieved weight-wise, and what's a safe limit for regular in use repetition may by lower.
Worst case scenario, if the rack is best fully extended with little or no gear, (and it probably will be a lot more than that) that may still be a very livable solution. The rack can be emptied at a camp sight and then fully cantilever as an awning. And while the rig is in motion, if the best reasons to "pop a top" (Freedom Panels, soft top) are air and view: the second's largely negated by a closed rack full of gear above anyway.
~~~~~
My second concern is the use of ball bearing draw slide technology in environments not protected from the elements. Perhaps those slides you use are somehow outdoor rated: and I don't mean them merely stainless steel, but far more my concern lies with the gunk that can collect in the bearings during an off roading trip and gum them up.
Maybe--even if such gunk is a legitimate concern--nothing more than a hosing down and re-greasing puts them back in service. That would be very acceptable IMHO. But I've never seen such slides used outside, except in situations where the parts of the slides that remain fixed are encapsulated in say an enclosed truck bed, or an internal compartment of a service truck. I could be entirely wrong.
If my concern, as stated, is for the best product, I'd be remiss to be critical (and possibly entirely wrong) and not offer suggestion. My inspiration comes from "mail slots:" those things in a home's front door through which letters pass, but hopefully not the elements.
The area of focus is the brush strip/weather stripping:
or the stuff in the last photo below.
Much though I don't wish to raise cost, envision the design of the area to which the sliders affix to the rack structure looking more like u-channel:
with brush stripping
on top, bottom, and perhaps sides to protect closed slides from the elements. This stuff, like the slides, could be slid out to gain access to the fixed slider channel to grease/clean it.
I hope this suggestion is not needed and I am wrong.
Peace brother.
As your biggest fan, and a fan that could be wrong, in fact hopes he is, here are my top two design concerns. Please know these thoughts come from a place where I wish your product to be the best it can be, not to steer readers away from it.
The first concern is load weight fully cantilevered/extended. On this, we'll simply have to "wait on the weight," or to put this another way, wait and see what your testing reveals as safe amounts of load the rack can take fully cantilever. As you mentioned, you've moved a large amount of weight to the rack's fully open position, and shown us a "freakin snowmobile at 3/8 open" but what "can" be achieved weight-wise, and what's a safe limit for regular in use repetition may by lower.
Worst case scenario, if the rack is best fully extended with little or no gear, (and it probably will be a lot more than that) that may still be a very livable solution. The rack can be emptied at a camp sight and then fully cantilever as an awning. And while the rig is in motion, if the best reasons to "pop a top" (Freedom Panels, soft top) are air and view: the second's largely negated by a closed rack full of gear above anyway.
~~~~~
My second concern is the use of ball bearing draw slide technology in environments not protected from the elements. Perhaps those slides you use are somehow outdoor rated: and I don't mean them merely stainless steel, but far more my concern lies with the gunk that can collect in the bearings during an off roading trip and gum them up.
Maybe--even if such gunk is a legitimate concern--nothing more than a hosing down and re-greasing puts them back in service. That would be very acceptable IMHO. But I've never seen such slides used outside, except in situations where the parts of the slides that remain fixed are encapsulated in say an enclosed truck bed, or an internal compartment of a service truck. I could be entirely wrong.
If my concern, as stated, is for the best product, I'd be remiss to be critical (and possibly entirely wrong) and not offer suggestion. My inspiration comes from "mail slots:" those things in a home's front door through which letters pass, but hopefully not the elements.
The area of focus is the brush strip/weather stripping:
or the stuff in the last photo below.
Much though I don't wish to raise cost, envision the design of the area to which the sliders affix to the rack structure looking more like u-channel:
with brush stripping
on top, bottom, and perhaps sides to protect closed slides from the elements. This stuff, like the slides, could be slid out to gain access to the fixed slider channel to grease/clean it.
I hope this suggestion is not needed and I am wrong.
Peace brother.
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