home made roof racks? (3 Viewers)

[LCDiesel60]

gcorduan--nicely done! Like the smooth look with mesh floor and extra full size length for a big balanced low-profile load!

A guy is welding mine up now and will see it saturday--was cheaper to have custom built then buy it plus I don't have the extra tools (bender and such) to do myself at this point..

Great rack and black is nice contrast with white LC and black tires!!
LCDiesel60

 

[wierdbeard]

for those of you using aluminum in your racks, what it the thickness? I'm designing mine and am looking at what gauge to use.

 

[gcorduan]

Thanks LCDiesel60. The money I spent to have the tubes bent was well worth it. I built it low because I knew I wouldn't want to put anything heavy up top and I wanted to still fit in the garage. Good luck with yours.

 

[Bogo]

for those of you using aluminum in your racks, what it the thickness? I'm designing mine and am looking at what gauge to use.

You also need to ask what type of AL too. Some AL alloys are over twice as strong as others and have other varying properties too. Some are weldable and others aren't. All AL looses allot of strength when welded and needs proper heat treatment after welding to be able to use the minimal amount possible.

The other problem with AL is cost.

 

[Mace]

All AL looses allot of strength when welded and needs proper heat treatment after welding to be able to use the minimal amount possible.

huh???

 

[brian]

huh???

X2.
the crack pipe is a bad thing.

 

[brian]

for those of you using aluminum in your racks, what it the thickness? I'm designing mine and am looking at what gauge to use.

i used .125....ish".

 

[RufusTheDufus]

The 1" tubing in my rack earlier in this topic is .050 inches thick.

 

[toojayzee]

I got this wicked roof rack with 8 sets of piaa 520's on it in trade for some shocks off a truck I was parting out to get the engine to build my 80. The rack was homebuilt with 3/4"x3/4" box tube and a bender. Its bolt together and modular so I can shorten or lengthen it if wanted.

It sat in the garage rotting till a few weeks ago. Im going to go back and revise the brackets and make them wider, but otherwise it turned out sweet.

 

[Mace]

NRS has some fairly good deals on roof rack gutter mounts.

$60ish for 4

Aluminum

 

[Rastaforte]

I made mine from 1 1/2" & 1 1/4" tube & mounted it thru the roof. I'll add some false bases made from sheet metal & large rubber grommets to seal the roof later on in the build ;p

... do I see a couple of rocket launchers running down the middle?

 

[captincruiser]

There sure are alot of good ideas , and picts !

 

[gcorduan]

It sure seems easier to trade for a roof rack than build one. Nicely done.

 

[tpham32]

The correct dies for the Hossfeld bender finally showed up and I put them to use.

The goal of the 2nd version of this rack is to build a rack that looks good, works even better, and still remains fairly light weight for the 4Runner.

I ordered some thiner wall tubing for this rack. The .083 wall thickness tubing on the first version is super strong, but it ended up being a little heavy for a small truck. This design also uses bent corners rather than the formed plates.

This rack uses a mix of .065 wall thickness and .083 in high stress areas.

The rack will hold four lights up front, two wide beam and two pencil beam.

Another view. I was just mocking up a few things to check the design lines before I stared cutting up more metal.

More to come...

Cheers,

tp

where did you get those lights from?

 

[mano002]

I have always wanted to fibreglass wood to the FRP top out to the gutter to stiffen and strengthen the FRP top. I have ripped off so many gutter mounts, and destroyed my gutters. There has to be a way to do this on. 40, as you can't bolt to the FRP top.

 

[slowLC]

I went the ATV-ramp route and it turned out very nice. I was worried about flex in the center of the rack so instead of just attaching legs to the rack I ran yakima crossbars underneath.

I like that. How much weight can those Yakima mounts hold though?

 

[Finnyfam60]

I didn't make the main basket, just the attachment points....

 

[2sun62]

I made this rack a few yrs back.
I used Thule gutter mounts, 3/4 tubeing, ran the wires for the lights thru the tube & dwn the rear gutter mount.
I also mount my Hi Lift jack to it.

 

[2sun62]

more pics...

 

[rickyjunker]

What is the purpose of the little cables going from the roof rack to the front bumper? I see them often but can't think of a reason to have them.