So I'm looking at roof racks and most, if not all are made from square tubing. But my question or curiosity has me wondering why are the inside corners rounded? I'm sure I can bend the tubing to make my own rack but it would be much easier if I just built a standard rectangle frame, with corners meeting at regular 90 degrees. I think it would also be more practical to maximize storage/loading square boxes/luggage/etc up there so that items can fit nice and tight in the corners and against both side of the rack. Is there a practical reason why corners are curved or is it more for the looks? Am I posting this in the right category?
Roof rack rounded corners vs squared? (1 Viewer)
- Thread starter Penjak
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Absolutely you can store more gear with a squared off corner. The reason people don't do it is because its generally not aesthetically pleasing. Your vehicle is round and curvy and you put this big square blob on top. The inside corners are rounded on the square tube because they have bent them in a tube bender vs cutting 45* and trying to weld everything square. In my opinion its much easier to make four bends exactly the same, then join the tube in two places, vs trying to bring four different pieces together and not warp it with the welder.
Square just looks farmatized
- Thread starter
- #4
You are right. I was trying to visualize how the squared angles would look against the roundness of my 40. I just YouTube'd " how to bend square tubing. Looks easy enough. Also saw this rack made vintageoffroad. Not round angles but not squared off ones either.. just trying to think about putting my own little touch to seperate my rack from the rest. But then again, if it was that simple, it probably would have been done by now
The other point is that square corners are more likely to grab things - such as tree branches and limbs - where a rounded corner is more likely to let things slide by.
hoser
SILVER Star
Round in the front, square in the back?
- Thread starter
- #7
that looks pretty slick,, i like it. my brother is CAD designer and gonna give him some ideas to play with. He designs lighting fixtures for hotels and such. Even some of the littlest changes he makes to his old designs make a huge difference.
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Square is just fine. My patrol in oz has had square tube at 90 degrees and has been that way since the early 80's. It has destroyed plenty of tree branches etc - never had ANY damage to the rack from branch hits etc.
Build whatever appeals to you - but a square rack allows you to put stuff right into the corners.
Pic showing the rack. There's a sheet of painted marine ply as the "floor" of the rack. Makes it nice if you want to sit up top, or if up top kneeling why mounting stuff. Also acts as extra insulation from the sun beating down from above...
The boxes I put up there 'bolt' to the floor and/or cross braces (lots of braces). 'Tis not a light rack
Example of some stuff mounted up top:
Bit of typical tracks we drive:
cheers,
george.
Build whatever appeals to you - but a square rack allows you to put stuff right into the corners.
Pic showing the rack. There's a sheet of painted marine ply as the "floor" of the rack. Makes it nice if you want to sit up top, or if up top kneeling why mounting stuff. Also acts as extra insulation from the sun beating down from above...
The boxes I put up there 'bolt' to the floor and/or cross braces (lots of braces). 'Tis not a light rack
Example of some stuff mounted up top:
Bit of typical tracks we drive:
cheers,
george.
#limbrisers!
