We worked on the roof rack system for the garage pod this past weekend and today we test fit it.
The rack started as a aluminum Hauler II truck rack for our Tundra which we never got around to installing. It was long enough on the sides but the cross beams were not nearly wide enough (our garage pod is 8'4" like our camper pod). 8020 to the rescue. After cutting about 3/4" off of some standard 97" 8020 aluminum t-slot (2010 series 2"x1") we installed them as cross beams. We added 2"x6" 3/4" thick rubber blocks in three places attached to the 8020 beams to provide extra support from the roof but prevent damage. We machined side brackets that bolt into the steel frame of the garage pod from the side thus keeping to our mantra that a roof should not have any holes.
It is a pretty neat setup. The 8020 T-slots will allow us to put holders anywhere along the beams for different size items (canoe, kayak, aunt Edna) and the 8 foot wide by 10 foot long rack area is fairly large for a truck camper. The garage pod sits a foot shorter than the living pod (which is covered in 1080 watts of solar panels) and thus the items placed on the rack will not cause the overall height of our rig to increase by much if any.
We are not happy with the single cheap winch solution so we are going to go with twin Superwinch Terra 3500 pound models. This is a much better built and much quieter winch. We will pull on the door from each side using the Amsteel winch cable which means you don't have to unhook a Y-harness to drive a motorcycle up the ramp. They can still be unhooked when you want to use the ramp as a porch or work table. We are going to wire the two winch motors in series which will force them to equally share the load of the door (as one winch loads down it's back emf will increase, which diverts power to the other winch which will speed up). They will not have as much power running in series and will be slower but these winches are rated at 25fpm zero load and the cheap winch was 13fpm zero load (and was plenty fast). It will be a safer solution as either winch and cable can support the door on it's own if the other brake or cable fails.
Anyway, here are the pics of the roof rack test fit:
