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roof rack max weight?

siminsez01

NAXJA Forum User
thinking about buying a sunfish sailboat for my sister. total weight is 130 lbs. will i be able to put this on my 97xj's factory roofracks without them crapping out? what are they rated for?
 
I think it's only around 50-100 pounds for my '98 but I can't remember for sure. We've had alot more on Dad's '88 and '90, bt haven't tried any on my sister's '92. I think they changed the designed after '90 since the '92 and '98 have two different designs from even the '90
 
I have a '98 spec sheet that I download off the web a while ago - it says 150 pounds, however I'm not sure what model that is for. I have an '01 Sport and my rack doesn't extend the length of the roof like other models.
 
lol....me and my girlfriend lay on top of the jeep at night sometimes when we go fishing. i'm a good 240 and she's a fair 115. that's 355 laying up on top of the jeep. nothing has happened to the roof. my brother always joked at me saying the windows would bust with my weight. now that i read your question....you're asking if the horizontal rails can hold it.... :-\ ....that i don't know.....
 
May not help,but I hauled a 16ft aluminum garage door home on my stock roof rack.You might be able to add another horizontal bar to distrubute the weight a little more evenly...
 
If you had a Yakima or Thule raingutter mounted system, they can spread more weight across a stronger surface since they are mounted where the roof and raingutter are seamed. The factory rack is just sheetmetal screws in the roof. You decide....
 
My raingutter rack (Olympic Top Hat) easily holds 300#. It's all about distribution.
 
I use to stand on my old Jeep (97) roof all the time. I weigh 185. I used it like a ladder. I haul 3 fiberglass ladders also. and those jokers are heavy.
 
Short version: 130 lbs will be absolutely fine on the factory bars.

Long version: I have an '01 Sport that I'm driving cross-country. After a couple of false starts I have a modified Yakima LoadWarrior setup that carries 300 lbs, though if I was doing it over I would probably go with Con-Ferr or the like -- I'd rather have three mounting points per side.

As far as the factory bars, for the '97-'01 model years they're officially rated for 150 pounds. I originally tried putting 260 pounds on them (well, I eyeballed it and it didn't *look* like more than 150 :)), and astonishingly that got me from northern California to Texas. It might never have failed at all had I stayed on pavement, but after a couple of good trail bumps in Big Bend the rear bar finally buckled and I got myself two dimples in the roof.

My next step was to get the rain gutter towers and cross-bars from Yakima. That worked for a little while, except (a) the entire basket kept sliding over to the right side of the roof, no matter how hard I cinched down the plastic mounts, (b) the rear bar bent severely over time (mostly on the road) and the brackets were almost touching the roof again, and (c) the towers wouldn't hold the bars securely enough -- I had to keep tightening them. I think it was the black plastic coating that their bars come with.

At this point I went to a metal supply house and got two lengths of 1-1/8" pipe with 1/4" walls -- beefy stuff. The 1-1/8" pipe turns out to be exactly what the Yakima bars were, so I didn't have to do anything to the towers. I got the pipes galvanized to prevent rust and give them a little more grip, and topped it off by gluing slices of 1/8"-thick rubber mat to the top and bottom mount clips on the basket.

It's been about a month since I did all that -- so far no problems. I've also added some 20-30 lbs and the heavier pipes add ~15 lbs as well. I haven't done any heavy wheeling yet (I will this week, will update), but I did a bit of dune-hopping and it didn't seem to complain. If I look closely along the rain gutters I can see just a shade of deformation right around where the towers come in, but IMO not enough to be concerned about (and the metal actually bends slightly UPwards, not down).

I'll post pics when I have a chance. HTH...
 
I went out to a junkyard and grabbed an extra pair of crossbars for like $10 for both to more evenly distribute the load and have more attachment points for tie-downs when carrying lumber on my '00. Works quite well
 
It should carry the weight but I would be worred about the wind lifting it off. The factory rack is held on with rubber nuts. Make sure you strap it down to the gutters and front and rear bumper also.
 
semisynth said:
I went out to a junkyard and grabbed an extra pair of crossbars for like $10 for both to more evenly distribute the load and have more attachment points for tie-downs when carrying lumber on my '00. Works quite well

Holy crap, why didn't I think of that. When I garb a replacement mirror, I'll grab a couple of bars too.
 
siminsez01 said:
thinking about buying a sunfish sailboat for my sister. total weight is 130 lbs. will i be able to put this on my 97xj's factory roofracks without them crapping out? what are they rated for?

If you haven't sailed, the sunfish is a great boat to learn on. With a little experience you can tackle some great water and have a ton of fun. I have "surfed" a sunfish on the beaches in the Caribbean and the great lakes. The formula for fast sunfish sailing = broad reach + 15 knot wind + surf.

I now own a Thistle. Check out www.thistleclass.com.
 
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