Heavy-duty, adjustable rain gutter clamps? Roof rack build

Hey guys,

I've designed a low-profile, full-length roof rack for my XJ, but am now hitting a brick wall when it comes to finding weld-on gutter clamps for it.

The first two options I've found have caveats I'm not a big fan of:

1. JCR's clamps - strange angles would mean I'd have to design the rack around the feet to some extent. Possibly not a huge deal, but not what I'm wanting.
2. Defender's clamps - adjustable, but have been criticized as being weaker than desired. Also a bit on the expensive side for their reported shortcomings.

I then found C-Rok's clamps, mentioned on their exo-cage kit page:

http://www.c-rok.com/ec.html

Unfortunately, these are no longer available (the new owner no longer offers the exo-cage kit, and has no inventory or information on where to obtain them).

Does anyone know of any feet like C-Rok's that are still available? Once I can get this matter settled, I'll be printing the parts list and handing it off to SSS Steel for processing (at $1/cut, it's cheaper than me investing in a cold cut-off saw for this project) and will document a full build.

Thanks in advance!

Just found these as well:

http://www.diamondrax.com/bulldog-heavy-duty-rain-gutter-clamps.html

They appear to be super-freaking-beef, but at $40/ea they're worth their weight in gold (well, maybe silver).

Can you mod the one with the best gutter bite to work for you?

X E Ryder said:

Can you mod the one with the best gutter bite to work for you?

Click to expand...

Not sure I understand - care to elaborate?

http://www.prolineracks.com/proline-gmr165-rain-gutter-racks.html

I used these when I built my rack out of electrical conduit. They hold my spare 33" and the rack along with a bunch of stuff when I moved. They aren't weld on but could be an option

anthrax323 said:

Not sure I understand - care to elaborate?

Click to expand...

Sure. Well you clearly have some welding skillz, so take the clamp with the most effective grip of the rail and modify / design it to cooperate with your rack. Just throwing that out there.

I had Kargomaster brackets on my 96. They were thick steel, clamped on the gutter nice and tight, stainless hardware, lock nuts, etc. and powder coated. They held my Surco roof rack, high lift jack and 32" M/T spare tire on black steelie for 8 years no problems. Sorry, I just realized that they were clamped to the factory roof rack rails, not the gutter. Sorry man. Here's a closeup picture.

Thanks for the input guys - definitely food for thought.

I've decided to go with feet that can bolt on to the rack for the sake of future re-use and fine-tuning when fabbing the rack given the taper in the XJ's rain gutters (about 1" variance in overall width from front to rear), so the Bulldog 2.0's are most appealing, next to these guys (the classic Con-Ferr design, or original Bulldog):

http://www.gamiviti.com/html/products_roofrackparts.html#anchor_rackclamps

I'd save about $65 on six of them, with the caveat of exposed hardware and higher risk of whistling (which I'm honestly not all that concerned about)...