One of my biggest questions when developing these was “can the go fast still go fast with these mounts”? I recently drove a 5 hour long highway trip at speeds up to 90mph. There were no markings on the roof from the brackets bouncing in the wind and all the mounting hardware remained tight. Success!
It was brought to my attention that there were concerns about the floating nature of the brackets. To help protect from incidents where the floating brackets could inadvertently be pushed down onto the roof (washboards, tree branches, etc.), I have added rubber bumper pads under the far nuts for support/protection.
Preorders should be available soon. As always, any questions/comments are greatly appreciated.
@psymmes That was my plan all along. For the location I wanted to mount these I would have needed two beef bars and after market mounting plates. It would have cost more to mount the boards than the boards themselves. They also would have sat pretty high off the roofline, and being on a lifted full-size truck means height is already a concern. Glad you like them!
just thinking that method may be the only option for those who are running cross bars and solar panels as those set ups usually leave a bit of real estate at the rear
They would probably do fine in that situation since other objects would potentially be diverting the wind. I’d be willing to offer a discount to the first person who would want to do a trial for me.
Finalized the product specs and tested for multiple weeks on my truck. I’ll be opening pre-orders this Friday, September 23rd. There will be a $50 deposit with the remainder being due before shipping.
There will be 3 tiers to choose from depending on your needs:
Basic: Two (2) Wild Mitten mounting brackets, eight (8) track nuts, and eight (8) bolts - $200 + shipping
Essentials: basic package plus Maxtrax MkII mounting pin set - $260 + shipping
VIP: essentials package including mounting and trimming of maxtrax pins - $280 + shipping
I’ve had a few people reach out already so I’ve decided to open the pre-order early! Anyone interest should dm me on here or @Wild_Mitten on Instagram to place their order.
These are very clever. I would like to order 2 sets from you. The DM is not working for me, perhaps because I just created the forum account. How else can I get in touch with you?
@seelyb We don’t really have a good way to test that up here in Michigan, but the stainless brackets are pretty sturdy. They also have rubber bumpers that support the ends of the arms and cushion the vibration. I wouldn’t see it being an issue.
These look great, and I’m interested. It’s a clever design, but as others have mentioned, I’d definitely like to see some real world testing in desert and mountain conditions like we have here in Colorado and the southwest. Corrugations are real, and they don’t call ‘em the Rockies for no reason.
Hey, I would be willing to discuss guinea pig mounting to the back of the camper. I also live in Southwest colorado, so my normal use case is all around the San Juan mtns, the nearby deserts and rivers… so it will be “thoroughly tested” every time I go off grid.
