This step-van belongs to a commercial painting contractor. This customer needed a platform that could provide 2 functions: carry ladders, and be used as an elevated deck for the crew to stand on when needed. Since the van's thin, translucent roof material could not support any substantial weight by itself, we were called upon to provide a solution. After considering several options, we decided upon an all aluminum design that would be relatively lightweight, and could let snow and ice pass through.
Here, Gary is checking the angle of the saw before starting to cut the next aluminum extrusions.
After bringing the prepared aluminum parts to the welder's shop, they're all jigged-up and ready to be welded.
The welding operation is under way, and after a while we can bring the finished rails back to our shop to begin the installation.
The rails are fitting up nicely because we had checked, and re-checked all measurements almost to the point of monotony.
This photo shows the inside of the van, and the fasteners for the rails coming through. We used thick backing plates and grade-8 bolts with nylock nuts for this task.
The cross rails are almost done, and the decking is going on next.
Here, the decking is being installed with special stainless steel clips and hardware. The finished product should really be an asset, and will get a lot of use.
The ladder roller can be seen just above the rear door. This prevents the roof from getting all beat-up from ladders being loaded and unloaded.
ROOFRACK & DECK
