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Any of you got a bright idea on how to mount a homebrew safari rack onto the stock roof rack strips along the top? I dont wanna do the gutter mounts if I dont have to, but Im outta ideas for buiding a mounting system to the stock strips. All ideas are welcome. And I guess I can post pics and all that jazz when im done. Forgot to mention the rack is made of 3/4 inch sq tubing and runs from front to back right above the factory strips.
I have a Yakima Load Warior with the optional tire mount and a Hi-Lift jack mount on the side. It clamps to the stock roof rack cross members but a more sturdy installation is to buy Control Towers and Landing Pads that attach to the car roof rack longitudinal channels. It works great.
i just purchased a safari rack from a fellow naxja member and it is connected to my yakima bars with u-bolts. weight wise tho can factory roof rails hold the rack is the question. I dont think mine could with the rack i have now and a spare tire.
i just purchased a safari rack from a fellow naxja member and it is connected to my yakima bars with u-bolts. weight wise tho can factory roof rails hold the rack is the question. I dont think mine could with the rack i have now and a spare tire.
I have some gutter mounts laying around that I fabbed up for that rack, you can have them if you would rather do the gutter mounts. Your chrome trim on the guttters wouldn't appreciate them though.
I would go with the gutter mounts, they are alot more sturdy. But if you want to mount to the factory rack Thule make a wide mouth mount that fits very nice. I have seen it used with bike racks and it should be good for lite duty. Just my .02
I picked up a used confer rack for an exploder. It was cheap and narrower than the wide XJ one. Oh, did I mention it was cheap? Yeah that too.
Anyway, I had to build a subframe to attach it to the roof. I wanted something sturdy enough to strap to when off camber. Subframe bolts into the roof nutzerts.
Your replacement for the factory rack looks great - why did you even bother with the confer? What did you do to get the contour of your rails to match the roof?
-Brian
dirtclod said:
I picked up a used confer rack for an exploder. It was cheap and narrower than the wide XJ one. Oh, did I mention it was cheap? Yeah that too.
Anyway, I had to build a subframe to attach it to the roof. I wanted something sturdy enough to strap to when off camber. Subframe bolts into the roof nutzerts.
You might want to do a search. I mounted a surco 50x60 rack onto the factory roof rack rails using Kargomaster brackets made for cherokee factory rails ($50, ouch). If you really want to go low budget, you can get 250 lb tensile strenght zip ties and tie the rack directly to the factory rack cross bars. I did this in addition to the to kargomaster brackets for extra strength and to keep the surco rack from bouncing on the cross bars. If you tie the rack with 4 of those ties (2 on front, 2 on back), they should be able to support more weight than the rack can handle. You can get them at www.cableties.com.
Don't remember where I read it, but get an extra pair of cross rails from a picknpull. Mount the rack to the four rails.
What I read, the guy fabbed his own rack using 1/8" expanded steel for the bottom, 1/4" angle for the sides and 1/4" flat bar to run across on top of the cross rails. Then bolted the flat to the rails. Photos looked good. Plan on trying it myself.
Your replacement for the factory rack looks great - why did you even bother with the confer? What did you do to get the contour of your rails to match the roof?
I would have spent more on materials than I did on the used rack. Labor to fab it aside. Just made sense.
The subframe is 2x2 square tube. The rails I custom bent on my radically new custom square tube bender (storm drain down the street and some 2x4s and my hefty load jumping up and down on it). Once I had the curve right, I drilled through for the bolts using the stock rails as a pattern, capped the ends and bolted to the roof. Then I set the cross rails on, grinding the front and rear rails a little to get the four in a flat plane (so the bottom of the rack would sit flat) and tacked it together. took it off and welded solid.
Thanks for the suggestions and ideas. Ive got a few ideas floatin around that im gonna try. Id go with the surco or yakima mounts but im too cheap for one, and am tryin to sharpen up my fabbin skills. Whole thing should be done in a few days though.
I got a PM asking for more info on how the SURCO mounts were attached to my rack so...
The rack is made out of slotted unistrut. The Surco clips simply bolt through the unistrut and a 1/4" backing plate. The red item is an aluminum spacer which is used on the first and last (of 3) clips to account for the roof bow. I made it from a piece which comes with the clips. The Surco part number is J100.
