Roof Rack

I have a 2000 XJ Sport.

I am in the market for a roof rack, and wanted to know some pros and cons to getting a rack that will fit on top of the factory roof rack compared to one that has its own brackets.

I was thinking about putting my spare on the roof rack and having my trail jack there, instead of hauling it around in my back seat anymore. Dunno if I need to look for a special roof rack with mounts for those or not, anything I have seen hasn't mentioned anything on that.

i was wondering some good places to look, been looking around like on whitney, 4wheels, etc.



thanks for any help

illini2000XJ said:

I have a 2000 XJ Sport.

I am in the market for a roof rack, and wanted to know some pros and cons to getting a rack that will fit on top of the factory roof rack compared to one that has its own brackets.

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I had Surco's Safari Rack on my 2000 a few years back and really liked it. Mine used the roof rail rather than gutter mounts; the reasoning behind this was that I had seen XJs with the gutter mounts tearing from years of rack use, but never one with roof issues from the same. The exception to this would be if the rack had impacted something, but then you've got problems regardless of which mounting style you've chosen.

I was thinking about putting my spare on the roof rack and having my trail jack there, instead of hauling it around in my back seat anymore. Dunno if I need to look for a special roof rack with mounts for those or not, anything I have seen hasn't mentioned anything on that.

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If you do decide to go the Surco route, you'll want to include the following items:

- Axe & Shovel mounts
- Hi-Lift carrier (and get a handle hugger for the jack)
- Tyre carrier
- Extra flooring kit

It's all modular, so you can add stuff over time as budget permits. This is what I did, FWIW.

Lightly Loctite the rack during assembly. It helps greatly with it not loosening up over time.

Also, take a trip to your local police department and ask them for some Project Childsafe gun locks. If you can, get ones from the same batch so that the keys match. They're free and great for keeping your stuff secured to your rack.

The downside to keeping stuff on a roof rack: kiss goodbye to fuel economy. This was actually why I sold mine before doing my cross-country move - it wasn't so much that I wanted to get rid of the rack (I actually did *not* want to have to do that) as I didn't want more side & frontal area and drag on the XJ over a 3000 mile drive.

I never even got to kiss fuel economy hello!

good tip on the child locks.

The stock roof rack bows are rated at 150 lbs. Take away whatever your roof rack weighs (I think mine was around 25) and that's how much junk you can put up there.

Original_MudButt said:

The stock roof rack bows are rated at 150 lbs. Take away whatever your roof rack weighs (I think mine was around 25) and that's how much junk you can put up there.

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Just for reference: I've carried a 31" spare tyre, 10 gallons of gas, rather a lot of firewood, and an axe, shovel, and Hi-Lift simultaneously on the Surco rack over the course of a few weekends' wheeling in the desert. I don't know the exact gross weight of the rack in that situation, but I'd have to estimate it at 250-275lbs. YMMV, but the roof rails held up just fine.

My gut feeling is that the 150lbs. number is specific to the bows, but that's really just speculation on my behalf.

I kept my spare on the factory rails (doubled up on the bows) with a Yakima load or mega warrior ( can't remember which one-- the longer, narrow one) for a couple years. I never saw any problem with the bows (doubled) giving out, but the factory nut-serts started pulling out of the roof in the rear. I would probably use the gutter mounts if I were doing it to something I intended to keep clean and dry inside, but I just anchored everything through the roof on the beater.



horrible pic, but the plastic mounts that hold the rack to the bows are extended downward through the roof and attached to a strip of angle iron to distribute the pulling load across a much larger section.

edit: oops, this is pre-modification-- I'll have to take something newer one of these days.....

Original_MudButt said:

The stock roof rack bows are rated at 150 lbs. Take away whatever your roof rack weighs (I think mine was around 25) and that's how much junk you can put up there.

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i got my fat arse on the top of my roof rack that is bolted to my stock rails they didnt even start to cave in, i wonder if that 150 is per cross bar?

EDIT:i weigh 240lbs



the gutter mount racks would be a lot stronger though IMO

REWSTER said:

....i wonder if that 150 is per cross bar?

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I will double check at lunch....

I dont bother with a rack ... As I dont carry little items up there .... Its just extra weight IMHO

Since the gear needs strapping to the rack ... It may as well just get strapped to the cross rails.

Carry two wheels, jackall, shovel, bedrolls ...... on 4, sometimes 6, cross rails at times ..... and none of it has come off - even during the braking test conducted at the yearly rego test.

More cross rails = better weight distribution.

The nutserts are probably getting a bit flogged about by now .... so as in the post above ... I intend fitting new mount bolts and an angle section reinforcing bar on the inside.

The factory slide rails are quite strong due to the shape of the aluminium extrusion which provides some rigidity to the roof ... compared to the flat rola type slide rails.

The factory mounting leaves a bit to be desired tho .... for useful weight carrying.

casm said:

Just for reference: I've carried a 31" spare tyre, 10 gallons of gas, rather a lot of firewood, and an axe, shovel, and Hi-Lift simultaneously on the Surco rack over the course of a few weekends' wheeling in the desert. I don't know the exact gross weight of the rack in that situation, but I'd have to estimate it at 250-275lbs. YMMV, but the roof rails held up just fine.

My gut feeling is that the 150lbs. number is specific to the bows, but that's really just speculation on my behalf.

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Agreed... I've carried what some would consider "spooky" loads of lumber and camping gear on my SURCO rack, and it and the roof rails held up fine. I would also agree with Casm on using roof rail mounting brackets instead of gutter mounts. Just about every XJ I've seen with gutter mounts, tends to develop nasty rust spots on the gutter rails, from the wear the gutter mounts create. Since I live on the coast, the last thing I need to deal with are more potential rust issues from local salt water intrusion.

It seems like later model XJ's seem to have a better mounted roof rail set up's, than the older XJ's do...

My 90 Owner's Manual lists the weight for the OEM roof rack and runners at 150 lbs--that would mean you should reduce that amount by the weight of any "basket" you stick up there.

Strangely, Surco doesn't give any weight specification for their Safari rack on an XJ application.