Roof rack project

I planning on building a roof rack and made some very rough designs. its going to be six foot long and four foot wide and probably six inches tall on the side rails. Im gonna put the tire on it planning on running a long bolt through the main supports on the front and welding it in place. Going to put the hi lift on one side too and only have a rough idea how I'm gonna do that. I price the material and its gonna be about $200 for the materials plus it was $60 for the gutter mounts from JCR.

I need opinions/ideas before I put the money into it. I want it to be very strong and I'm not sure if the 11 gauge is going to be tough enough.




thanks

is the tire at the front or the back? Looks like front from the diagram but seems unusual.

OttawaXJ said:

is the tire at the front or the back? Looks like front from the diagram but seems unusual.

Click to expand...

Ya it is the front. I wanted to keep as much space as possible in the rack and if I did it off the back the lift gate would hit. Might look weird but it should be practical

My roof rack is made of 3/4 x 3/4 16 gauge steel tube and it's plenty strong. 11 gauge is about true 1/8 which is thicker than you think.

I had a 31" spare bouncing around up there through some gofast stuff for a while cause a chain with a bolt in the middle was all that was holding it and it bent the ~1/4 steel rod grate out a little and broke the factory roof rack mounts it was bolted to. Not my design, PO's but the frame held up fine with boogered tack welds.

I've since then lengthened it, stripped it down and am in the process of fully welding everything + making new mounts which I am still undecided on. I'm going to secure the tire with just a strap.
Also it's already heavy as balls

So you think 11 gauge is overkill? Maybe 1 1/2 11 gauge around the whole frame and no 2 1/2 stock and the 1x1 more around 16 gauge.
My new idea for the tire mount...


Old piece of a CV axle I use to run and an old wheel bearing. I'm thinking to weld the CV piece to a strip of the 2 X 1/4 for extra welding surface to the frame.


also Check out the gutter mounts they look beefy as hell. http://www.jcroffroad.com/Merchant2...D&Product_Code=XJRCKMNTS&Category_Code=XJMISC At least it might give you and idea but $10 a piece it isnt worth building you own.

I think 1.5" x 1.5" tube is gonna be big. 1x1 in whatever gauge you can get should work good. But generally the rule is whatever is available, use. I try not to go and buy steel from HomeDepot cause it's ridiculously expensive but I haven't had the chance to go "find" some steel at some of sites where we see it laying around either.

I'm liking the ideas on this!

Thanks for the feedback I appriciate it. I dont know if I want to downsize from 1 1/2" 11 gauge, I plan on putting the tire up there plus a large waterproof army surplus box full of camping gear for an upcoming trip from Moab down around Powell and the Grand Canyon. I'm worried that all the weight off road for a long time will break or smash the steel. Also thinking I can make jerry can holders on each side of the tire. Should be able to fit two on each side, two for gas and two for emergency water.

I like the wheel bearing on the broken CV shaft idea because that way I have an extra wheel bearing, shaft nut, and five lugs/studs.

Re design

So the tire hangs off the back? The unit bearing is a good idea. I know someone who use 2 for their tire carrier, one to mount the wheel and one for the carrier to swing out on.
See that black tank next to my spare? I found that with my friend in a barn and I'm going to use it for fuel. It fits just right in there and I like it cause it a cool historic piece. It's got German language on it and it was filled at the tank supposobly in the trunk. I'm gonna paint it up and try to get the cap rechromed.

Also I would still worry more about the strength of the roof rather than the rack. The gutter pinch seam is a strong point but its still sheet metal which I'm sure would fatigue and break way before the rack would. It might even be a good idea for the rack to flex and take more of the load rather than transfer all that energy to the mounting points. Plus with all that weight your adding in steel it's gonna put more stress on the sheet metal. One of the ideas I had was mounting the rack low enough and tieing it into the actual roof structure so that it supports the roof and adds strength to it rather than putting weight on top of the sheet metal.
Pull out your headliner and take a look at the roof crossmembers theres not much there plus its not even attached to the sheet metal. I'm still deciding if I'm gonna try to weld into some support into the roof. But thats my reason why I'm going a different route since my rack is already pretty damn heavy.

Ok so I'm downsizing to 1 X 1 11 gauge for the whole frame and threw in some extra support for the tire. The tire is on the front because It would be in the way of the lift gate if it was off the back. It will be back far enough so most the weight will be on the main frame.

this project looks amazing. Any updates?

Not yet waiting for a new credit card to buy the steel but I should start either next week or the week after. I'll throw up some pics of the build. Hopefully it doesn't turn out looking like hammered dog crap.

waiting for a new credit card to finance it, THIS THREAD GETS BETTER AND BETTER.

I could wait and save but I refuse to. Be American get in some more debt!

Sounds good.

update
I built most of it yesterday but ran out of gas for the welder and had to quit before I was done, which sucks because I'm using my dads shop an hour away. Anyway I had to make it a little bigger so now its 4'4" X 6' because I asn't resting on the mounts very well at 4'. I'm gonna finish it today so I'll get some more, and better, pictures. I could only fit one jerrt can on each side of the tire so I might build some more jerry can rack on the back but we'll see.

Done.







Thank you for the smaller steel suggestion. If I used the original steel it would have been stupid heavy. Its probably pushin 200 right now unloaded.

Looks good!

envious of your shop/back yard.... rack looks good too, racks arent my style, but fabbin stuff yourself IS.

that would be fun to put some chairs on and go the drive in movies with