When I got to bending the top of the ladder I did it by fitting it the van gutter. Bent it so it was about 1/8" short. That provided tension on the unique gutter attachment. Very simple but requires ladder to be under slight tension to stay in place. It has worked out fine. I did cut up an old bike tube to put rudder under it so it didn't scratch the van paint.
The bends were located just to keep the ladder about equal distance from the side of the Chevy van. More or less an eyeball job. Bend, fit, bend, fit, etc. Looks like put a bend just below the second step and another at the forth step.
I bought 1/8" x 1" flat stock, heated it and bent it to shape. Easy to do if you get the stock red hot where you want to bend it. Also requires a vice.
Wow, talk about bringing a thread back from the dead! It''s timely though, I am in the middle of fabricating some EMT as a template for a roof rack / limb lifter system. Did you find it easy enough to notch the tubing by simply holding it down, between a couple pieces of wood? Do you think that set-up would be sturdy enough to notch just the end, rather than starting in the middle of the tube?
The method I used to notch the tubing was the same as I saw in posts by others who made EMT ladders on SMB forum. The drill press fixture method was very easy and very accurate. I wanted the joint fit as tight as possible to assure a strong brazed joint. The notching method worked out quite well.
AWOL
Linear Mode
