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Building a roof basket

RedHeep

NAXJA #1499
NAXJA Member
Location
Landenberg, PA
I'm in process of building a basket for the roof, not to put stuff up there when wheeling, but to and from the trail. I thought I had a good plan, but now I'm second guessing myself. I'm concerned that I don't have enough support under the bottom and the two rails on the ends that run down the length of the basket are going to fold in the middle when I put stuff in it. I thought about running a rail down the middle under the bottom, but i'm trying to keep it from being to high. It's 14 ga 3/4 sq tube. Any thoughts on what I can do better?

basket1.jpg
 
basket1new.jpg

Just add two pieces of square tube where the red lines run then weld where the circles are. That should give you ample support for anything you have up there. Hope that helps.
-Allen
 
on this topic what is a normal weight for a home built roof rack like this, or a mass produced one?

I can get at a lot of dif square and round tubing, but am wondering what I should be looking at for weights? and is there a preference between round or square to build this type of thing? vibrations and noise.
 
depends on weight and cost.

you can get a light titanium one that will run you some decent $$

you can also get an aluminum one that may or may not hold up

and you can get a steel one that will hold up but be heavy.
 
ok well lets say steel.
as I said I can get the material, and do the work, I just wonder how HD I would want to make this. round or square stock and why. that design looks good, I would prefer rounded corners, but not to worried.
one other questiong, for mounting, I took my stock rack system off, all of it, to put one on now can I use the bolts the stock one used, or is the gutter mount the prefered mounting system. I would prefer the bolts as I think it would look cleaner and keep it close to the roof line (obviously need something to get it up on sides over the roof line)
either way thanks again for any help, sorry to jack the thread.
 
I'd run 2 bars down the length as swbooking stated or at least just one right down the middle. Another option would be to cover the entire floor with expanded metal (nothing real heavy) and weld it to every single member of the rack. This does a lot to tie things all together. Nice job!

on this topic what is a normal weight for a home built roof rack like this, or a mass produced one?

I can get at a lot of dif square and round tubing, but am wondering what I should be looking at for weights? and is there a preference between round or square to build this type of thing? vibrations and noise.

I've seen manufactured racks that were pretty light, I'd estimate around 40-50 lbs but they were made from really light gauge tubing and didn't have a very good capacity. On the flipside I've seen homebuilt ones that made the XJ so topheavy they had to scrap it. One aluminum homejob was really slick, wish I had my camera with me.

Square is easy to work with, miter cut it and weld it. However there is a trade off in a bit of wind noise. First rack I ever made for myself was square (didn't have a bender) and you definitely knew it was up there. I added on a slanted and covered "air dam" to try and push the air up and over which did help. Few years later I built a round tube rack, kinda shocked me the difference in noise.
 
Mine's getting mounted gutter mount, two load bars and I picked up the fairing from the guy too, so that should help.

I've got enough tube to do the two pieces down the middle, so looks like i'm headed in that direction.

Like AJ said, I used square tube because it's easy to work with and I don't have a bender/notcher setup. Put a chopsaw metal blade in my power miter for 5 bucks and cut all my joints square for welding.

I used 14 ga, don't know what the cost savings or strength sacrifice would have been to go to something thinner, but yeah, it might be a little heavier than i anticipated, but acceptable.

Thanks for the advise and compliments. Pics to come when I'm done.
 
i had my winderness cargo rack (gutter mounted), similar to the edited photo above, fly off the top of the jeep when a tree reached down and hooked it, full spare and hi jack lift with an air dam built for the front, held up just fine. Personally, i'd come across each corner with a 45 degree angle just to keep it all square incase of a blow to the rack or something similar...

other than that, i'd say my rack with tire (31) and hijack if @ 100 lbs.

my penny's worth.
 
acrid said:
i had my winderness cargo rack (gutter mounted), similar to the edited photo above, fly off the top of the jeep when a tree reached down and hooked it, full spare and hi jack lift with an air dam built for the front, held up just fine. Personally, i'd come across each corner with a 45 degree angle just to keep it all square incase of a blow to the rack or something similar...

other than that, i'd say my rack with tire (31) and hijack if @ 100 lbs.

my penny's worth.

More triangulation? Nah, if I hit that thing on something that hard and bend/break it, I've got way more issues than dents in my roof basket. I don't want it to be heavier than it has to be.
 
imo, 1 more pound of steel on each corner isn't breaking the bank. prepare for the worst, expect the best, right. :cheers:
 
I would bolt a sheet of aluminum to the floor just get the gauge you think is right and be sure to isolate the dissimilar metals to prevent galvanic corrosion. even a thin sheet would add serious strength.
 
he shouold just take the titanium off his trailer and use that.
titanium=ultimate bling :D
 
hey, no need to talk about stuff we don't need to talk about. For the record, I found it in a dumpster.

Here's a test fit, still have to pick up some hardware to mount to the rack.

rackfit2.JPG


rackfit1.JPG


My welds came out functional, I learned a lot about good joints and good technique and how they really affect the outcome. Some of them look ok and some of them look nasty, but I think she'll hold together.
 
Here is a link to a post I started last year when I was making my roof rack. http://www.naxja.org/forum/showthread.php?t=50161&highlight=roof+rack+weighs I never posted any pics of it but it only weighs 40 lbs. I have my spare and my highlift on it at all times and have carried a queen size matress and ladder up on top of it while hauling them to the garbage dump, so you'd be surprised how strong a light weight rack really is.
My rack is made of 1" square tubeing (.060" wall) on bottom with 3 pieces going the length of the rack and 1/2" (.080" wall) for the upper rail. It works very well and has been very useful.
 
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