Aluminum roofrack build (1 Viewer)

[YOTAFAN]

I finally finished my Wildyoats inspired aluminum roof rack. Took me a few weekends, but all in all it wasn't too difficult of a project. I started out with a bi-fold ATV ramp from Bass Pro Shops. Purchased some aluminum from a local metal shop along with rivets, Grade 8 hardware and rattle can paint from your friendly Lowe's store. Hella's were purchased on the cheap from eBay. And the gutter mounts were purchased from Mule roof racks. (Just look up the user Mule for more info.) These things are made out of 3/16" steel and are super beefy. The shovel and axle mounts are actually Swagman bike mounts. They work perfect for this sort of application and I added locking handles to keep anyone from heisting my tools.

The rack was finished just in time for our annual summer trip to the Outer Banks. It held everything plus the kitchen sink. Wind noise was only marginally louder with the rack. I'm very pleased with the final product. The 80 did great hauling me , the wife , and our 4 kids (age 5 and under) . We averaged about 10.1 mpg fully loaded down.

 

[YOTAFAN]

Here's another shot of the rack in action. This is on some of the sand dunes in Carova Beach, NC. These are the largest sand dunes on the east coast and the neat thing is there are wild horses running around that just live on the beach. We saw quite a few during our outing.

 

[akarilo]

Nice!

 

[retrofive]

Looks great. Nice job

 

[Kaoscruizer]

Looks great! .. now how about some close ups on the mounts. I would like to see how you attached the Mule mounts to the rack itself.

 

[YOTAFAN]

Looks great! .. now how about some close ups on the mounts. I would like to see how you attached the Mule mounts to the rack itself.

The gutter mounts are double slotted for adjustability up and down and also left to right. They can accomodate 3/8" hardware. The rack itself has 2" boxed side walls. I just drilled two 3/8" holes for each mount through the ramps boxed ends and mounted it to the gutter mounts with 3" long bolts.

 

[Kaoscruizer]

Thanks for the info John .. just what I needed.

 

[spdwaver]

That rack looks very nice, good job!

 

[mxvet354]

Very, very nice - LC and rack look good. I bet the kids dig the looks of everything piled up and ready for vacation.

Nice work...

 

[4x4CPOSEADOG]

Here's another shot of the rack in action. This is on some of the sand dunes in Carova Beach, NC. These are the largest sand dunes on the east coast and the neat thing is there are wild horses running around that just live on the beach. We saw quite a few during our outing.

John,

Nice truck. You did not happen to be getting out of OBX on August 1, did you? I think I saw you on your way out from the beach at Corolla. I saw a cruiser like yours and I honked at the driver, the driver honked at me back but I cannot clearly see his face cause I was on my cell phone. If you saw three cruisers (white 60, brown 40, and cashmere beige metallic LX450, that was us (MATLCA) ) seen here https://forum.ih8mud.com/va-nc-mid-...-association/293421-summer-corolla-run-2.html

You're rig is looking nice. If you don't mind me asking, how much did it cost you for the gutter mount brackets? I would like to build one of them homemade roof rack. Good job though.

 

[zombified]

nice! My fiance and I ( along with our dog) are headed down to carova in september. I wish that i had the time to get a rack together like that before the trip.

how did you route the wiring to the lights ?

 

[slow91fj90]

Here's another shot of the rack in action. This is on some of the sand dunes in Carova Beach, NC. These are the largest sand dunes on the east coast and the neat thing is there are wild horses running around that just live on the beach. We saw quite a few during our outing.

Sweet build and nice rig also, Im going down to Corolla next mont for a week. Cant wait.

 

[matt32]

What size aluminum bar did you use and did you pop rivet to the ramps?

 

[YOTAFAN]

John,

Nice truck. You did not happen to be getting out of OBX on August 1, did you? I think I saw you on your way out from the beach at Corolla. I saw a cruiser like yours and I honked at the driver, the driver honked at me back but I cannot clearly see his face cause I was on my cell phone. If you saw three cruisers (white 60, brown 40, and cashmere beige metallic LX450, that was us (MATLCA) ) seen here https://forum.ih8mud.com/va-nc-mid-...-association/293421-summer-corolla-run-2.html

You're rig is looking nice. If you don't mind me asking, how much did it cost you for the gutter mount brackets? I would like to build one of them homemade roof rack. Good job though.

Yeah, that was me on August 1. I remember honking my horn at you guys. I believe we passed each other around the town of Duck near their fire station. It was nice to see a bunch of other Cruisers in the area.

As for the gutter mount brackets, I paid $200 plus S&H for all 8 of them. Not bad considering the quality of the mounts.

nice! My fiance and I ( along with our dog) are headed down to carova in september. I wish that i had the time to get a rack together like that before the trip.

how did you route the wiring to the lights ?

The wiring for the lights is still on my to do list.

What size aluminum bar did you use and did you pop rivet to the ramps?

I simply used 1/8" X 2" wide aluminum strips that I pop riveted to the ATV ramp to create a floor for the rack.

 

[lt1fire]

As always John, nice work

 

[Arleaux]

John,
Can you post a pic of how you mounted the lights to the rack?
Thanks!

 

[darnold87]

Very nice rack! And probably pretty light weight with all the aluminum! Nice work!

 

[98 SNAKE EATER]

Looks great!!


Any plans for rear of side lights?

 

[snatchfj80]

can you post pics of the Swagman bike mounts or which ones you used?
thanks

oh yeah, nice rack

 

[jvazquez53]

How big are the ramps and how you do the rounded ends?