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Home built roof rack weight?

GroversXJ

NAXJA Forum User
I have finished welding up my new roof rack and it felt pretty heavy to me so I put it on a scale and it weighed 40 lbs. I was a little surprised as I expected it to weigh at least 50 lbs, but that has gotten me currious, so how much does your home built, roof rack weigh?
For a comparason if you purchased a rack and put it on a scale post it up for a comparison.
Include the rack, the mounts, and any cross support poles, if applicable, but no equipment attached when weighing. This may give the "your raising the center of gravity of you rig" crowd more ammo, or a reason to shut their mouth (I don't notice the added 40 lbs on the roof until I add the spare and hi lift).
Thanks. :wave:
 
What are your roof rack dimensions and what are they constructed from?
I am in the process of building a 70x49x5 rack out of 1" round and 3/4" square w/ expanded metal floor. Right now I have the base built and I am at 48 lbs. w/ the expanded metal floor. It is going to mount onto the factory roof rail mounting points sitting on 2" wide 1/8" thick flat steel.
It will only be used to haul camping gear and luggage on our trips, so it will be empty when wheeling. The spare will stay inside the back as well as my C02 bottle, jack, and other goods. I'm expecting it to weigh in the 60-65 lb. range when it is all done.
 
My roof rack is 48 by 60 by 8 and it weighs about 35-40 lbs. I used 1" .065 wall square stock tubing and then expanded metal on the bottom. I came out great and it has kept me from rolling completly over twice!!! It has suffered some bends and dents but never came off the roof.
 
i have a surco roof rack i am not sure of the dimensions but its at leat 30 to 40 lbs w/ the cross bars and mounts on.
 
My rack is 48" x 60" and is 5" tall. I made the bottom out of 1" square .060 wall tubeing and the "floor" and upper rails out of .5" square .060 wall tubeing. I don't have an expanded metal floor but may install some .030 thick sheet metal on the back third of the rack for smaller objects that cant bridge the gaps between rails securely. It mounts to the gutters also with mounts I made.
How much does Farmer Matts rack weigh in at, or other popular retail racks like olympic, or cargomaster? I would imagine that Kevins would be up there just from photos even though it is good lookin. Anyone else? :)
 
I never weighed mine ,but I put it on the roof by myself so it can't weigh much.

I did have help taking it off with the Hi-Lift and spare on it though.

Here is a pic.

69128851.jpg
 
That looks like it would be fairly light because there is no sides and its reasonably small. Are those gutter mounts (they look like yackima) but I can't see where it wraps around the bottom of the gutter to clamp it on.

I'd really like to know how much Farmer Matts rack weighs even though it does have extra weight of the rub rails most other rack don't have. There aren't many trees out in the desert so I have very little need for rub rails or I would have coppied his idea too.
 
GroversXJ said:
That looks like it would be fairly light because there is no sides and its reasonably small. Are those gutter mounts (they look like yackima) but I can't see where it wraps around the bottom of the gutter to clamp it on.

I'd really like to know how much Farmer Matts rack weighs even though it does have extra weight of the rub rails most other rack don't have. There aren't many trees out in the desert so I have very little need for rub rails or I would have coppied his idea too.


Actually they are Thule Gutter Feet. They snap into the gutter, instead of wrapping around. I wouldn't use them again. They like to catch on trees, which we have plenty of here in the Midwest.
 
jjmat3 said:
Just finished cutting and notching 20 pieces of 3/4" square tubing to connect the upper halo to the lower. Lotsa welding coming up.

Is that 1" round tubing for the bottom halo? How thick wall is it? It looks really good and should be plenty strong.

I kind of find it hard to believe that there are only a couple of us who have weighed our roof racks before putting them up top. Is this really the case?
 
Mine is 48" by 72" - square 1" steel with gutter mounts. Turned out real nice. Weighs about 50lbs. I've only tore it off once. I was wheelin' in some mesquite trees that have some dang tough branches. Peeled it right off. My wife thought it was funny as he11. Had to use rachet straps to put it back on till I got home to fix it. It sat at an angle all the way home and I got some funny looks from folks. They probably thought I mounted it that way permanantly.
 
http://community.webshots.com/photo/71396094/71396781CIfdig

My rack is about 60" x 48" made from .120 wall 1" square aluminum tubing.

I used Kargomaster gutter mounts. The entire rack with mounts weighs about 25-30 lbs.

I keep a spare 35" tire up there most of the time but like was mentioned above I found I can feel the weight of the tire on the centre of gravity of the rig so I try to keep it off the roof for wheeling trips where I'll be doing a lot of climbing or off-camber stuff.
 
GroversXJ said:
Is that 1" round tubing for the bottom halo? How thick wall is it? It looks really good and should be plenty strong.

All the tubing is .060 wall, using round for halos and square for the uprights and bottom cross pieces. Still not sure what the mounting pieces will be made from, round or square. The round tubing causes a lot more work w/ all the notching.
 
Well, mine is 74"x52" or so, with expanded metal floor and .065 wall 3/4" square with 4 Yak 1A mounts per side.

I can pick it up my self to move it, but cant get it onto the Jeep without some help.

Fergie
 
I'd guess my rack wieghs in around 60lbs or so - enough that I can't lift it high enough to get on my Jeep by myself, but me and my gf can lift it up there without too many problems (unloaded). As far as capacity goes, I'd guess I've had 200+ pounds of gear on it with no real problems (kayak, 2 mtn bikes, spare 31", camping gear, 5 gal h2o, 20lb propane, etc). Rain gutters seem AOK after 5 years of lots of hauling (5 2000+ mile vacations hauling all my toys, many weekends camping in the mountains, lots of PNW washboard forest roads). I used 2 Yakima gutter-mounts with few problems except I had to replace the crossbars after a few years because they bent so bad the rack was scraping the roof. Looking back, I'd use 3 cross-braces instead of 2.
 
GroversXJ said:
That looks like it would be fairly light because there is no sides and its reasonably small. Are those gutter mounts (they look like yackima) but I can't see where it wraps around the bottom of the gutter to clamp it on.

I'd really like to know how much Farmer Matts rack weighs even though it does have extra weight of the rub rails most other rack don't have. There aren't many trees out in the desert so I have very little need for rub rails or I would have coppied his idea too.

Sorry for the delayed response. This thread was just brought to my attention...
Our racks have a shipping weight of 60lbs. The rub rails & cross bars are 90 wall to withstand a beating & the rest of the tubing is 60 wall.

FBD_Rack_008.jpg
 
wow 600$ for that thats ALOT. it don't even have floor!. Olympic 4x4 makes what they call the top hat, the same kind of rack for 250$ and its got a floor

906aa.jpg
 
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