Mike sed: >An alternative, if you are into metal racks instead of wood, is to match the size of >the crossbars on the rack to the size Thule uses, or use round crossbars that match >Yakima's. Thule Racks are about 7/8" by 1 1/4". There aren't any rectangular steel tubing sections that are available that size. However, due to the way most Thule accessories are mounted (square-ish U-bolt), you could probably substitute some 1" square tubing that would work nicely. Yakima racks use an 1 1/8" round bar. Standard 3/4" steel water pipe is still about 3/32" too small (snap-arounds won't get that tight). You can either take those vinyl shower-rod covers and glue two of them around the pipe to make it Yakima-sized, or buy vinyl-coated gas (natural,propane) pipe that is exactly the right stuff. The only problem (maybe good, maybe bad, depending on your point-of-view) with the gas pipe is that it's bright yellow. I used the 3/4" dia steel pipe with shower-rod cover approach to build a custom rack for my topper on my 89 Nissan pickup. They're just a tiny bit bigger than the standard Yakima bar, so slippage seems to be less of a problem. Shawn *************************************************************************** PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List Submissions: paddlewise_at_lists.intelenet.net Subscriptions: paddlewise-request_at_lists.intelenet.net Website: http://www.paddlewise.net/ ***************************************************************************
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