(moderators: please leave this in the PUP section as it's specific to those trailers)
I'm about to break down and drill holes in my PUP roof to put a rack on my Flagstaff 228. It will be nice to be able to transport a canoe and occasionally put the bikes on the PUP when I don't have enough payload remaining in the tow vehicle.
Before he retired, the always helpful Sam Buckles confirmed that there are pine studs on the sides of the roof: 1" thick and 1 1/2" wide. 1/2" sideboards are attached to those studs, with the aluminum extrusion that caps the top edge covering both the 1/2" sideboard and approximately 1/4" of the studs. The picture below shows my understanding of this structure, which Sam confirmed as correct.
As such, there appears to be a 1" wide strip on top of my roof on the inner side of those caps that I can mount a rack to, indicated by the "1" oval. Yet the other PUPs I see with roof racks mounted, including by my dealer, are in the "2" oval area, apparently on the sideboard which Sam recommended staying away from, although perhaps the aluminum edging provides additional structure to latch on to.
Additionally, I think the "Sports Enthusiast" series mounts their racks closer to the "2" oval, although they might have a different frame since I did confirm that they do have a slightly different roof with plywood throughout for added support.
So beyond sharing this research for the benefit of others, I'm curious what the group opinion is on the best mounting position. Most racks out there like the Prorac used by the Sports Enthusiast or the Sportrack used by my dealer would go on the outer part of the roof, attaching to the side boards (or perhaps in between the sideboard and stud). The Swagman Roamer LT has a 1" wide mount that would fit the "1" oval area nicely (
https://www.etrailer.com/Ladder-Rack...an/S80510.html). However, I'm a tad bit concerned that the screw would be awfully close to the end of that stud and just want to crowd source my design to make sure I'm not overlooking anything.
Perhaps the engineer in me is over-complicating things just like I do with my spreadsheet of tow vehicle and trailer weights before every trip while watching completely overloaded setups barrel down the highway, often times with a bike rack barely hanging off the back until a big bump knocks everything off
I'm sure most would simply throw everything on the tow vehicle and take off, but I'm trying to stay under capacity on both that and the popup.
Thanks in advance everyone! I'll be sure to post the installed pics once decided upon and completed.
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