: Also, what are you using to protect your car finish from the wood? Could you
: add some height by using a thicker gasket material?

: Looking at my Yakima cradles right now I think you will need a min. of 1.5
: inches of clearance for the bolt and knob that holds the cradle to the
: bar. That is less than I thought.

: Good luck !

: Mike

The 1 1/2" clearance gives me a better understanding of this problem but I'm still unsure how I will solve it yet. I found a nice indoor/outdoor matt with a thick neopreme type backing that I will contact cement to the feet. You guys mentioned, if I would move the rails inward to shorten them I would have the clearance for the bars but I would have the ugly bolts running several inches across the roof to fasten into the wood rack runners. And it would seem the rack would also be more unstable. I could make much larger clips curving next to the car roof and stopping next to the wood rack runners but that seems unsightly also. I may cut half circle seats for the bars on top of the oak runners and then make half circle seat oak strip tops to bolt on top of the main wood rack runners and hold down the bars. That would give me more height but still probably not enough. It's all up in the air until I get the saddles and can look at them. Right now it looks like it will require higher wooden runners.

John

: -----------------------------------
: You can see that I will either have to build the wood part of the rack