So I completed a Maxtrax project today, and I'd like to thank
@Zimm for guidance along the way. I have an Alu-Cab Gen 3R with a 200w Redarc solar panel mounted on my Grenadier and, of course, I was trying to figure out what to do with the remaining empty real estate on top of the tent and, naturally, started to look into Maxtrax mounts. I looked hard at GP-Factor's
offering, pictured
here (which also shows the solar mounting bracket I used), but decided that would not work well, because you would have to reach to the middle of the boards to lift them up, and I knew that would be a difficult reach on top of the tent from the sides. I wanted a solution that would have the pins positioned near the edge of the tent so I could access them easier with my RTT ladder. So, I looked into mounts, but so many of them wanted to mount things to the
top of load bars. I wanted a flush mount approach like GP-Factor provided with the solar mounting bracket. I then did a lot of research and figured out I could cobble together some pieces and parts that should work.
I found this
Rago Fabrication Hi-Lift Maxtrax Mounting Kit and my eyes lit up when I saw the two plates that had the Maxtrax 10mm mounting holes perfectly positioned. I though I should be able to combine those plates with a set of Alu-Cab low profile load bar feet and a set of Maxtrax pins and another Alu-Cab 1250mm load bar, and I'd be in business. Well, I was, but Jesus Jumpin' Catfish, the tolerances were tighter than two coats of paint! I had to judiciously use 3mm stainless steel spacers and some low profile 10mm nuts to make the whole shebang work with what I had, and then had to tighten everything down in a certain order, but at the end of the day - success! The first thing I had to do was drill out the 6mm holes at the end of the plates to 8mm. Then I went round and round to sort out the magic combination of nuts and spacers to make this work (if anyone wants to replicate this and needs more guidance than what the pics show, just let me know). Anyway, here are some pics to show the progress - and note to GP-Factor - improve upon my design and make it so the Maxtrax pins can fold down when not in use, like these Cobbers figured out at
Pirate Camp Co. (feel free to send me a prototype for testing).
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