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I am having a roof rack made for my 710m to haul my kayaks on. What is a "safe" clearance that I should stay away from the sides and the top to be able to get my top off/on when needed and also to roll the sides up. I don't want the rack to be too narrow nor too wide/tall. It will contour the same way as the back of the pinz, so it won't just go straight up. It will only be the length of the back. I am not coming across the cab.

Thanks.

PHIL

Phil, my rack hoops have a slight variance in spacing to the body; they get as close as about 1-1/2" (by memory) and rolling the sides up there does get tight; most places are 2 to 2-1/2" and the stock top rolls up smoothly with little effort. I have not taken the top completely off with the rack in place so I do not have any input for you there, but with 2+ inches of clearance between the hoops and top (and slighly more under the rack) I don't think it will be too much of an issue. If you can remove the canvas hoops with the rack on then you can let the canvas drop into the truck instead of having to lift it off the truck.

Not sure but these pics may help that I had saved to my computer a while back?

There is also a big difference between standard tops and the very quiet insulated tops (keep it in mind if you ever might want to put one on).

I had no problem rolling up the standard canvas sides under my cage:


The insulated material is about 2-3 times thicker. It would be difficult with the insulated top if
the vertical supports were not centered on the zippers.


The quarter rear vertical tube and wrap around ladder required that the top have another zipper behind the rear window:


As snug as this cage is, it doesn't cause too much drag at highway speeds, (but there is some!)

Thanks all for the advice and pics. I just purchased one of the hardtops from EI and am finally getting around to put it on next week, then the rack will be fabbed. I especially appreciate the comments about the "very quiet insulated tops"...these may as well have a future with me, and the additional clearance will be something to keep in mind.

PHIL