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roof rack mounts

CJJ_98_XJ

NAXJA Forum User
Location
Salt Lake City
Yes, I have searched and found nothing on the pros/cons of this idea. Only found it mentioned once, and no replies to it either.

I am going to be building a custom roof rack here in the near future. I had the idea of removing the stock roof bars and track and laying a piece of flat bar in the stock track location and bolting it to the stock track mounts. My question is, would this be as strong/stronger/weaker than the traditional gutter mounts? Sure would be a lot easier to fab a mount like that than building your own gutter mounts. You could just put a small flat bar up there, bolt it down, tack right to it, remove for final welding/grinding/painting, then reinstall.

FWIW, I did notice where on of the vendors was doing something similar for a roof slider, only he drilled out the mounts and put in larger nutserts.

Thoughts/opinions on this kind of mount for a rack only mount? I'm wanting something that can hold possibly 250 pounds or so. My current rack design would utilize (5) of the stock holes per side, for a total of (10) bolting locations.
 
Yes, I have searched and found nothing on the pros/cons of this idea. Only found it mentioned once, and no replies to it either.

I am going to be building a custom roof rack here in the near future. I had the idea of removing the stock roof bars and track and laying a piece of flat bar in the stock track location and bolting it to the stock track mounts. My question is, would this be as strong/stronger/weaker than the traditional gutter mounts? Sure would be a lot easier to fab a mount like that than building your own gutter mounts. You could just put a small flat bar up there, bolt it down, tack right to it, remove for final welding/grinding/painting, then reinstall.

FWIW, I did notice where on of the vendors was doing something similar for a roof slider, only he drilled out the mounts and put in larger nutserts.

Thoughts/opinions on this kind of mount for a rack only mount? I'm wanting something that can hold possibly 250 pounds or so. My current rack design would utilize (5) of the stock holes per side, for a total of (10) bolting locations.

I'm not sure if it would be stronger than the gutter mounts or not. I would say you'd need to pull down the headliner and do some bracing there. If you had an internal cage you could tie it into that.
 
Even tho I have heard the rain gutter mounted racks mount more securely than the stock track mounts.
I would be careful with the rain gutter mounts if you choose that method with the weight you are planning to put up there.
I had a roof rack with 2 mounts per side.
I only had a 32X12.50X15 spare, a hi-lit jack and a shovel on the roof rack.
About a month ago 1 of the mounts broke my rain gutter.
Ripped off about a 4" piece of the rain gutter!!
Now I am a desert racing go-fast type of person so maybe too many trips to Baja to chase for racers had something to do with it.
But if you do choose the rain gutter mounting rack I would suggest at least 4 mounts per side.
JM2C
 
Good point. I've heard that if you don't put a few mounts on the raingutter, you'll eventually have that problem. I was thinking I'd have (4) legs down to the flat bar. That should spread out my load quite a bit as well. 250/8 = 31# per leg. Most times I don't think I'll see much over 100# up there. Just want to design it for stronger, so if in an emergency I needed to, I could.
 
Here is a bootyfab rack that I made out of conduit. it's pretty dam strong, I have hauled large air compressors on top with no problems, plus all my family junk when we drive out to colorado springs twice a year. it's been up there for about 4 years.

pay no attention to the spray can camoe, i did it 3 yrs ago , took about 40 minutes, with no prep at all. :D used to be red.. as you can tell by the roof.

DSCF0001-1.jpg


here is how i attached it. I used rivet nut inserts straight into the roof. no leaks. no rips . no tears.
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I used cedar planks for the bottom of it.
DSCF0003.jpg
 
that's a big rack! I'll probably be a bit wider, but not quite as long or tall. I'm thinking low profile. Probably 4" tall overall, 44" wide, and 54" long. floor will likely be bars on 4" centers. A slight redesign now has (6) support legs per side to the flat bar that will be bolted to the stock holes. Not that it really needs (6) per side, but it makes it all symmetrical and I'm weird like that. I may end up adding a few nutserts here and there if I feel it's needed after I start going on it.

How'd you connect the side verts to the top and bottom hoops? doesn't look like any weld around there. And how did you radius the conduit in the corners?
 
that's a big rack! I'll probably be a bit wider, but not quite as long or tall. I'm thinking low profile. Probably 4" tall overall, 44" wide, and 54" long. floor will likely be bars on 4" centers. A slight redesign now has (6) support legs per side to the flat bar that will be bolted to the stock holes. Not that it really needs (6) per side, but it makes it all symmetrical and I'm weird like that. I may end up adding a few nutserts here and there if I feel it's needed after I start going on it.

How'd you connect the side verts to the top and bottom hoops? doesn't look like any weld around there. And how did you radius the conduit in the corners?

no welds..you cant tell but the verts are rivited to the hoop. the hoop is in two halves.

my father machined a jig to bend the pipes.. filled the conduit with sand so it would stay round while bending.

my roof connections are not symmetrical because in the summer, i put the back of the rack to the front and it overhangs the windshield for shade.:D
 
On mounting my Rack, i put flat bar on the inside. I found some that would fit perfectly up into the channels directly under the stock track. I then bolted the track & rack to it, keeping the stock tracks on top.

I have no idea if it's stronger than the gutter mount. I would ASSume so... I have broken pretty big limbs, leaned into canyon walls and drug it, and it shows no sign of any problems.

I have stood on it without issue. I try NOT to put too much weight up there, as I don't like having weight that high...

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I would use angle stock of some sort. Form it to fit the contour of the roof. The weight would then be spread throughout the whole length of the roof instead of isolated points. Flat stock would have to be fairly thick or have multiple contact points with the rack to have the same weight distributing effect.

I was working on a very low profile rack in alum about five years ago before moving away from fab job/shop/specialty tools etc. IMHO the pinch seam has always been a subpar mounting option. It just happens to be universal for mass production. "Custom" deserves more ingenuity.
 
I want to do the same with my rack, here are a couple of examples posted earlier here on NAXJA. contact 1996cc his is the one in the first pic, he said that the threads were quite strong, combined they can disperse the load pretty well

DSC04689.jpg


same idea different approach
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