all hooked up and ready for our trip july 9 thru the damn pine trees in south jersey

 

Very nice! I like the plate logo you've got on your roof rack as well.

 

guy had it strapped to the bumper when he sold it to me, it was an added bonus!

 

It's close but not maxed out yet. For now that is as tight as I can get the turn buckle. When the cable stretches ill go back and tighten the cable.

 

You also want a spring in there to keep it tight. You could probably use it in place of the snap link.

 

More importantly than keeping them tight, a good spring acts as a shock absorber when a branch slams in to on so you don't bend your rack.

 

And springs make a cool noise when they fly across the shop and hit the floor/wall before disappearing forever.

 

I use the bearing retaining clip in my idler pulley for that.

 

It looks very Camel. I've been thinking about something like this myself. I found everything I wanted except the stainless cable (I only seem to find galvanized), but upon further thought, I wonder if we don't see them built this way simply because that's how it was done.

They have a useful purpose. Personally I haven't had an issue with limbs striking my windscreen yet, but I've had some pinion pine branches gouge my bonnet pretty good.

I wonder if I could use synthetic rope. 5/16 winchline is overkill, but maybe a 1/4" or 3/16" ATV winchline. Quote possibly just some polypropylene rope would do. I realize they're not so good against abrasion but it's not like I have to winch with it afterward. They have good UV resistance and they don't rust. The tensile strength is more than enough and you can just tie it off instead of having 3 pounds of hardware on there.

The other concern I have is whether gutter mount roof racks are really that secure. The Camel Trophy cars had their roof racks bolted to the roll cage. I wonder if my gutter mount unit would take the abuse of say 70 miles of really corrugated third-world road.

I suppose in some ways the cables help hold the rack forward and in position, but if they're struck then they could tend to pull it off, although I imagine it would take a lot of force. I think I'd be more worried about continual jouncing.

Which brings me to the other item on the agenda: hood latch pins.

 

Why does it matter? That's not the sort of rig you're building.