80/20 Crossbars not on factory rack (1 Viewer)

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate
links, including eBay, Amazon, Skimlinks, and others.

Joined
Jan 20, 2013
Threads
65
Messages
666
Location
Missouri
Has anyone had any experience with 80/20 crossbars on aftermarket towers, such as gamiviti or trail tailor? I like the idea of being able to change the bars depending on how wide I need them. I would assume functionally there would be no issue, however I am concerned about wind noise. Any help is appreciated.
 
Check out Sherpa Equipment Company. Their racks are 10 series 8020 based, and you can buy just the feet. I am running their feet and generic length 8020 crossbars on my 100 and wifes gx.

 
Has anyone had any experience with 80/20 crossbars on aftermarket towers, such as gamiviti or trail tailor? I like the idea of being able to change the bars depending on how wide I need them. I would assume functionally there would be no issue, however I am concerned about wind noise. Any help is appreciated.

I've done it. I started with 80/20 in the factory rails, and bc I didn't want to throw away $800 of aluminum and hardware and swap out for a prinsu or whatever so I kept going with what I had and bought towers, rails, and more cross members. Also made my own wind fairing. yeah it's great that I can completely customize everything about it and it's strong af (series 15) but it was easily over double the cost of a prinsu and took some fiddling to get everything to work due to the curvature of the roof line.
 
My rack is all 8020 with Gamiviti towers. Took some fiddling, but I’m happy with where I ended up.

9CB94115-E08D-4A7B-A317-84BA5715A77A.jpeg


1BC92169-2299-474C-9301-B4701C648FFF.jpeg


820D1EDD-4841-4882-BF11-7CC3A8D771A1.jpeg


4BAC8794-2E01-4673-AF83-CD6489D04C3E.jpeg
 
I built a rack and also built the towers. Unlike seemingly everybody else, I hated 8020. It costs too much, it's too fiddly and it needs a ton of fasteners. It's all fun and games until you find out you have to add a fastener in the middle of it and take everything apart to insert it.

IMG_4364.jpeg


IMG_4346.jpeg


If you can get regular aluminum welded it will come up much, much cheaper and easier. The only good thing about 8020 is that you can assemble it in your yard with no welding.
 
I built a rack and also built the towers. Unlike seemingly everybody else, I hated 8020. It costs too much, it's too fiddly and it needs a ton of fasteners. It's all fun and games until you find out you have to add a fastener in the middle of it and take everything apart to insert it.

View attachment 3011640

View attachment 3011641

If you can get regular aluminum welded it will come up much, much cheaper and easier. The only good thing about 8020 is that you can assemble it in your yard with no welding.

Just one correction, you don't need to take it apart to add new nuts if you just use drop in T-nuts.

Amazon product ASIN B008MQ9PGE
 
I'll be the dissenting voice that says it. Gamiviti towers don't make alot of sense design wise, to me (I've argued with other engineers about this so dyor). Why would you ever mix slots and holes in a vertical load situation. It should be all holes. If you don't torque the slots high enough (and good luck doing that), guess where all that vertical load will end up? On that tiny little 1/4"? bolt. It's probably fine because we're not putting a ton of weight up there, but it's not great.

1652877794849.png


They had it right with this older design, but for some reason they went to slots for the two larger bolts. Probably thought they were making them more adjustable.


1652877674354.png
 
Last edited:
I added 8020 to the factory rack, and when I need it wider (for hauling 2 canoes up top) I have 2 additional lengths of 8020 that are extra wide. They lay on top of the factory-width rails. posted pics here
 
This works, but they have exceptionally small contact area and aluminium is soft, so I would not trust them for anything load bearing.

We're probably splitting hairs here but they are much beefier and have more much more contact area than the "standard" t nuts that some people are using to mount things on their 80/20 racks. Have made many successful trips using both types, nothing has slid around or come loose.

1652896784856.png
 
Check out Sherpa Equipment Company. Their racks are 10 series 8020 based, and you can buy just the feet. I am running their feet and generic length 8020 crossbars on my 100 and wifes gx.

Do you have a wind noise issue? Looks like some who go this route opt to buy or make a fairing.
 
Rhino backbone rails work well with 8020. The Terrrapod RTT comes with 3 8020ish slotted aluminum extrusions. I pulled my tent off for the summer and left the load bars on.
 
Rhino backbone rails work well with 8020. The Terrrapod RTT comes with 3 8020ish slotted aluminum extrusions. I pulled my tent off for the summer and left the load bars on.
What are your thoughts on the wind noise?
 
Do you have a wind noise issue? Looks like some who go this route opt to buy or make a fairing.
On my 100 I had no real extra wind noise, on my wife’s gx460 there was but I taped the front of the bar to cover the front 8020 channel and that helped a lot
 
On my 100 I had no real extra wind noise, on my wife’s gx460 there was but I taped the front of the bar to cover the front 8020 channel and that helped a lot
Thanks. I know some prefer to wrap some small cord, rope or bungee to help with noise. But I can see covering the front channel making a difference.
 
What are your thoughts on the wind noise?
It’s weird, sometimes I get some, sometimes not. I suspect the noise happens from some specific angle of relative wind but not others. I was thinking about replacing the bars with a set that come with end caps. All the openings on the bar ends seem like a likely culprit but if don’t really know.

The bars that I’m talking about only have a channel on the bottom, not on any other sides. They are .75 x 3.0.
 
It’s weird, sometimes I get some, sometimes not. I suspect the noise happens from some specific angle of relative wind but not others. I was thinking about replacing the bars with a set that come with end caps. All the openings on the bar ends seem like a likely culprit but if don’t really know.

The bars that I’m talking about only have a channel on the bottom, not on any other sides. They are .75 x 3.0.
Interesting. Thank you much
 

Users who are viewing this thread

Back
Top Bottom