Hi all,
When I acquired my 73 Mini, the previous owner included a Portarack for a Minor. Long story short, it was given to him from a person he never met, a note was on his car one day offering the rack to him, he replied "sure!" and the rack was magically on his car the next day. Anyways, he never used the rack and it was in storage, then I came along and bought the car.
I am going on a road trip and will be picking up a transmission, I want to use the rack to store some of my tools and stuff. The rack was in pieces and binded up by rope and VERY old cloth straps with hooks that look like they would go under the rain gutters, there are 3 of them . From what I've seen online, it looks like everyone just uses the two steel straps on the sides, I've never seen any with the cloth straps. I am wondering about the following:
1. Does anyone use these cloth straps with hooks? It looks like they would just loop around one of the parts of the rack and obviously tighten on the rain gutter.
2. What is the maximum weight these racks can handle? I'm not planning on using it to haul my transmission, but would like to at least carry one of my tool boxes and a low profile aluminum jack on it.
3. The rack came with no suction cups or rubber on the legs, save one old rubber donut way past it's life expectancy, it's just as old as the Mini, if not, older. What originally came on the legs? Suction cups, that rubber donut, etc? I am ordering this: http://www.mcmaster....#1638k2/=npo779 (sorry about the measurements, I'm from the states) and am hoping it will be a good replacement.
4. I'm assuming the rack should be safe at highway speeds around 110 kph with just the two steel straps. I also plan to drive around a canyon road at a relatively good pace for about 160 km, can the rack handle this loaded?
Any other miscellaneous information regarding these racks would help.
Thanks!
-glenn
