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I went the ATV ramp route and I am pretty happy with the look, but I have not really put it to a big test. ( few pounds of stuff to long to fit inside).
I made my own rain gutter clamps as well. One thing I did that I am not to sure home fabricators consider. Try and have your rain gutter clamps extend under the roof rack far enough so there is enough room for two bolts to attach the roof rack to the rain gutter clamp. This spreads the stress, caused by the weight load otherwise the stress is focused on a single pivot point (a single bolt). If you look at the rain gutter/cross bar connection of a Yakima or Thule, you will see that most cross bars slide into some kind of tube at least an inch long. As the stress from the weight is transfered from the cross bar to the rain gutter, just a inch or two of attachment is exponentially stronger than a single pivot point.
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