• NAXJA is having its 18th annual March Membership Drive!!!
    Everyone who joins or renews during March will be entered into a drawing!
    More Information - Join/Renew
  • Welcome to the new NAXJA Forum! If your password does not work, please use "Forgot your password?" link on the log-in page. Please feel free to reach out to [email protected] if we can provide any assistance.

Roof rack build thread

anthrax323

NAXJA Forum User
Location
San Antonio, TX
This weekend, I finally started building the roof rack I've been envisioning... But thus far, only the mounting system is done. Basically 1.5" x 0.125" steel strap with 1/4-20 weld nuts internally, and an identical strap on the roof that will serve as the base of the rack.

This rack will incorporate tree sliders (1.25" 11ga DOM), so I'm also considering tying the rack into the two centermost "ribs" on the roof via similar means directly over/straddling the stamped roof crossmembers inside the vehicle. Once in place, I'd strip the crossmember at a couple points (fore/aft edges) and punch it up against the strap, and then spot weld it for good measure. Again, still not 100% on this, but it has definitely come up in my brains.

Anyway, pics:

rack_01.jpg


rack_02.jpg


rack_03.jpg


rack_04.jpg


rack_05.jpg


rack_06.jpg


rack_07.jpg


I'll post more pics as progress is made, but the current task is practicing welding the 1" x 2" x 0.125" box tube (foot/standoff material) to the strap using my little Lincoln Weldpak 100 HD... Penetration isn't *quite* what I want yet, but I should have that worked out by this evening.
 
Oh yeah, and a few pics of my best practice weld just before heading to bed (welding the mitered piece above to a 1/8" strap scrap):

weld_01.jpg


weld_02.jpg


weld_03.jpg


Penetration is about 85% of what I want it to be, so I'm going to play with beveling and pre-heating the pieces with a torch tonight. That was the final weld before going to bed last night, after a barbecue and nearly a 12-pack, so I think I'm finally getting the hang of this crappy little Lincoln Weldpak 100 HD.
 
I tack welded all of my rack in place. It will warp on you when you weld it up off the jeep and unbolted. A donor roof would have been nice for this project.
 
I tack welded all of my rack in place. It will warp on you when you weld it up off the jeep and unbolted. A donor roof would have been nice for this project.
Oh without a doubt. The weld above was on some scrap. I'm going to get the main feet and halo welded together on the vehicle itself (core structure), then all the 3/4" pieces (fence, floor, etc) off the vehicle.
 
Halo 50% welded and feet tacked on, mocked up on top of the XJ for tweaking:

rack_09.jpg


My dumb ass didn't think about distortion from heat, so upon welding the inner/outer seams on all of them (1/8" welded to 14ga), I ended up with about 6mm of deflection from the roof on the inner two feet. Goddammit.

The plan at this point is to ratchet the thing down for tacking, and go ahead build the sliders. Once tacked on, I'll weld the fore/aft seams first (like I did before) to keep the whole thing true, then focus on welding the feet to the roof strips (again, fore/aft welds first). I was hoping to avoid an upper fence for a while and see how I like a completely flat rack, but I'm beginning to think it'd be wise as it'd help keep the thing true. On this rack, it'll only be ~2/3 fenced (open front) in the end.

And xjtrailrider - I underestimated your warning. Everything was going swimmingly til I did the long beads on the feet. Got any pointers on how to progress through the welds on them with as little distortion as possible? I'm thinking about just doing the middle ~1/3 of each seam, working around the whole rack (after the fore/aft welds are done), then finishing them off in a similar fashion.
 
Last edited:
Bahahaha, good call man. I should clarify.

I'd been having so much luck with it not warping when I did the first 50% of the welds (2 sides out of 4 at each union) that I thought I was just a badass. I threw caution to the wind, and got burned.
 
No major updates (busy couple of weeks), but progress was made today:

rack_10.jpg


rack_11.jpg


Hoping to have the driver side rail cleaned up and tacked on this evening as well. As a bonus, I'd like to start the upper fence, but I don't think I've made up my mind regarding what I want.
 
Thanks man - it's not turning out exactly how I'd like for it to, but definitely a good experience. Steel is cheap enough that I'm not too worried about it (those weld-in bungs are the most expensive parts thus far at about $7 each), as I'll probably turn around and try to sell it locally for materials cost if I really want to redo it ($100-150). The mounting system, however, will be kept.

Now I've just gotta convince myself that I'd rather go back out to the driveway than down to the bar for a drink.
 
Minor update - upper fence cut/tacked and mocked up in these pics (it has since been fully aligned and tacked on):

rack_12.jpg


rack_13.jpg


rack_14.jpg


Total weight using a bathroom scale thus far is 69.8 lbs (eek).

The only remaining things to do are lights and flooring, the latter of which I haven't decided on.

Does this seem heavy for a rack this size?
 
Nice work. I'm planning a platform rack on my ZJ mounted very similar, just minus the sides and gutter protection.

Thanks for sharing..
 
Minor update - upper fence cut/tacked and mocked up in these pics (it has since been fully aligned and tacked on):

rack_12.jpg


rack_13.jpg


rack_14.jpg


Total weight using a bathroom scale thus far is 69.8 lbs (eek).

The only remaining things to do are lights and flooring, the latter of which I haven't decided on.

Does this seem heavy for a rack this size?

Very nice work!

My roof sliders weigh in at 55# but I do not have the "rack" portion. When I need a rack I use a Yakima Basket Case attached to the last two cross runners with large zip ties. The Basket Case is limited space but it also only weighs in at less than 20#. I do nopt have any interior in the back of my jeep past the front seats so I have plenty of inside storage.
 
Very nice work!

My roof sliders weigh in at 55# but I do not have the "rack" portion. When I need a rack I use a Yakima Basket Case attached to the last two cross runners with large zip ties. The Basket Case is limited space but it also only weighs in at less than 20#. I do nopt have any interior in the back of my jeep past the front seats so I have plenty of inside storage.
Thanks man, much appreciated! I'm surprised how well it's coming together, but starting to see how I should've done things differently. This is by far the most complex thing I've ever attempted to fabricate. The weight figure makes me feel a lot better too - I had no idea what to expect in the end.

When it comes to flooring, I'm torn between installing 5 longitudinal runners in each section, or 3 runners with expanded steel on top.

Anyone have any tips on the pros/cons of each? I've never owned a roof rack like this (only OEM "racks"), so I have yet to see the practical benefits of either option. I'm thinking tube runners only for the sake of allowing odd-sized items to stick through the rack, as well as to allow things to be bungeed/strapped anywhere on the rack (instead of only on the sides).

Thoughts?
 
I never weighed the rack I built but that sounds about right. I think mine was a bit lighter but I didn't have the roof sliders.

I sold mine for just over the cost of materials on CL after about a year. Eventually I'll build another one. It was my first welding project and by the time I was done I wanted to cut the whole thing apart and start over because of all the things I figured out in the process (and the difference in my welds from start to finish). I was constantly looking at all the things I did wrong or thought of a better way to do after the fact, and wasn't really happy with it so I'm glad I sold it. Eventually I'm going to build a set of two or three, keep one for myself, and sell the others to cover costs/make a little extra.

In any case, your work looks good! I skipped on the expanded metal on mine and just made sure there weren't any holes too big for the things I planned on carrying up there. Never had a time when I wished I did it differently.
 
Thanks for the input - I realized that having lashing points throughout the whole rack would be far more beneficial than a continuous floor (the smallest item I could imagine carrying up there would be a ~30qt cooler or a 5gal water jug.

Progress pic:

rack_15.jpg


By the end of the evening, I finished all the welding and got about 15% of the cleanup work done with the flap disc. Seems like I'm gonna need to order a palette of these 36-grit bastards to finish this.

Flooring sections were offset like that to prevent too many continuous lines - I knew this thing wasn't going to be perfectly true, so I figured I'd add some flair to help absorb imperfection. Learned a hell of a lot of this build.
 
Back
Top