Surco roof racks

I think I might order a Surco roof rack from Summit Racing. Who all is running one of these racks? Are you happy with it? I don't want it to sit too high off the roof, so should I gutter mount or doesn't it matter? I want to put a spare on top and maybe some Hella 550's (rectangular) on the front.

Anyone suggest another rack instead of the Surco? I was also considering the Yakima Load Warrior...

I have a Surco. I am happy with it. However, when I bought it, I knew I didn't have plans to put a tire or anything very heavy up there, just some light gear.

I'm not sure if I'd becomfortable putting very heavy stuff up there, or a tire. It's not the strongest rack on the market.

But it does just fine for why I need it.

I have one and I'm happy with it. Its held everything I thought it would. I keep a full size 35" spare and my spare front shafts and drive shafts up there w/ know problems. For the money I dont think you can go wrong.

I got one. I keep a full size spare on it. 30 9.50. My only regret is that I settled for a smaller one. I bought it used and now I wish I bought the 50x60. I can fill mine up pretty fast with the tire up there. I do alot of camping with the kids. I load it to the gills and put a bungee carge net over everything. Should have got the bigger one though

i have one on my jeep and i put a full size spare up there and it didn't seem to bother it. You can't beat the price either!

Chris

about how high off the roof does it sit? I'd like the rack to sit relatively low to the roof. Is there a preferred mounting method to acheive this? Are these stupid questions? Am I too picky?

If you have a factory roof rack it mounts over that. If you think that is too high i'm not sure if you can take that off to make it lower. But the factory roof rack seems to help it's strength so i would leave it on there.

Chris

I think the gutter mount style sits a little lower. The main rails of the rack are longer than the factory roof rails are wide. The gutter mounts are outside the factory roof rails. With the rail mount, the mounting brackets are between the factory roof rails and the main rails of the rack. It put mine about 1 1-1/2 inches higher than the gutter mount style. the top of the rack sit about 6-6 1/2 inches from the top of the roof. When/if I go to the bigger rack I will use the gutter mount style. I think you can get 3 mounting brackets per side, whereas the factory rail mount they only give you 2

philsxj said:

I think the gutter mount style sits a little lower. The main rails of the rack are longer than the factory roof rails are wide. The gutter mounts are outside the factory roof rails. With the rail mount, the mounting brackets are between the factory roof rails and the main rails of the rack. It put mine about 1 1-1/2 inches higher than the gutter mount style. the top of the rack sit about 6-6 1/2 inches from the top of the roof. When/if I go to the bigger rack I will use the gutter mount style. I think you can get 3 mounting brackets per side, whereas the factory rail mount they only give you 2

Click to expand...

Thanks philsxj....I'll probably gutter mount with 3 brackets per side...

Go for the gutter mounts! They are the most reliable. Mine was mounted to the gutters until I decided to introduce the rack to a tree...they didn't get along! Tree won, and took out the gutter mounts on one side along with the bars that they mount to.
For a quick solution I pulled out my old Yakima bike rack bars and rail mounts. It works, but the factory roof rails are only held on by some rubber bushings...they keep popping out on me, and thats with nothing attached to the rack (no tire).
Good luck. BTW I got mine at Performance Parts for the cheapest, but that was a few years ago.
-Mike

I left for a network job this morning and had 9 cases of 1,000ft Cat 6 cable up there along with two 12ft fiberglass ladders and some other assorted stuff like 8ft sections of plugmould surface mount conduit. Headed for philly 90miles away and cranked her up to 75 once I got on the pa northeast extension turnpike for the run south. This is pretty normal and at other times I've had stuffed full duffle bags and vacation stuff up there for two week family vacations, we like to keep the inside empty for the dog and the assorted munchies we carry. I have also had multipe deer up there, one trip there were 4 good sized bucks we got during season a couple of years ago that bled all over my roof but they tasted good later on. It was a good investment but like philsxj I wish I had gotten the bigger one that covers almost the whole roof, that one also has 3 cross bars for added strength and the 97 and 98XJ's all had full length mounting rails that run almost the whole length of the roof. Mine is mounted to the factory roof rails but mine is also a 98 which uses metal nutcerts vs the older ones that use rubber ones.
Turbo city has a very low rack but it's pricey at around $600 or so, neat rack though.

I have the Surco and am happy with it. I got the "medium" sized rack from Summit and did not get the install kit. I simply used stainless u-bolts from Home Depot and bolted it to the factory cross-bars. I have lights bolted to it and a driving light on the back for a back-up light.

does anyone have any online instructions on how to install this rack. I have the gutter mounts. I bought the rack used and it came with no instructions. Thanks

I've got one, too. Like everyone says, they're lightweight, but quite sturdy.

A word of caution, though, about putting the spare on the roof. (Yes, I know it's been beaten to death already, and sorry to threadjack, but...)

My rig felt very unstable with the tire on the roof, worse even than running with the front swaybar disco'd. Everybody screams how dangerous it is to run without the swaybar, but the rooftop spare (with the swaybar connected) was noticably worse.

My rig only, your mileage may vary, sorry to abuse the deceased stallion...

Robert

It's best to use gutter mounts and not the factory rack. I have a Yakima Megawarrior with extension and over time with every bump in the road the factory rack has started to become detached.

i also have a surco rack (for about three years) and am very happy with it....only thing i didnt like was it had no floor but i built a full floor out of expanded metal and it made the rack so much better for carrying anything, not to mention stronger.

about how high it sits.....mine did sit really pretty high (with the gutter mounts) when i bought it so i simply drilled another hole through the gutter mount and through the rack where it attaches and it made it lower. easy fix for height....

IMHO the rack is definately great for the money.

I've got the 45x60 surco sittin on a 98 with the full length factory rails and I love it. As for the strength, lets just say that i'm every bit of 190 lbs and i get up there and sit and watch baseball games all the time. I have yet to have a problem with anything other than the gas mileage going down, but I made a windsheild for it and it solved the problem...

Overall it gets an "A" for overall price and durability

it does whats asked of it...

Does anyone know where I can get some mounting brackets for a surco rack? I got one free from a guy in my club and it doesn't have the correct brackets for my 98 XJ.

I have a 45x60, it works great.

I use 2 per side gutter mounts. I drilled another hole in em to get them lower. Now, they sit low enough I had to take arch out of factory cross bars to get the bars under the rack... even now it is TIGHT.

I have my spare plus highlift up there. Plus camping gear every once in awhile.

I like it. Go big though! atleast 60 long. E-mail this chick for the best price in the USA [email protected]

Here are some jeep pics with it on top. http://share.shutterfly.com/osi.jsp?i=EeBMmLJy4atXig

Good luck,
Jason