100 series roof rack

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Another way to go. I wanted to be able to carry full sheets of plywood, tree tools, and my cataraft frame (not all at the same time!) up top in a manner that I felt was secure.

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Nice @changingground! If you look closely he used some 30x60 size extrusion for added strength (#30-3060). These are a little more than twice the cost of regular 30x30 extrusions. Black anodized is another twice the cost above that, but looks great. 👍
 
For everyone curious about details- my racknis constructed with the 1" x 2" ribbed pieces with 2- 1" angle brackets at each joint. Cross bars are also 1x2 ribbed, 48.5" long. Side rails are as long as I could fit and still have room for the fairing in front and so that the wing in back doesn't hit. I'm not exactly sure of the length, but it might be 80". They're plenty strong, but if you're worried there's a chart with yield values on the T-nutz site. The fairing is 1/8" alum treadplate. I bent up brackets from same and pop-riveted them on. Roof curve is not right (my error) but I don't have any wind noise anymore, either. As with most projects, if I did v.2 it would be more refined, but this gets the job done well enough.
 
If you are worried about the strength of these extrusions they can handle alot of weight. You can see on their website all the different uses customers have come up with. I use them at work to design machines that laser mark cable and pills.

I wouldn't hesitate to put whatever you need to transport on this 8020. You could always add more bars too if needed.

Nice! How's the wind noise?
 
Another way to go. I wanted to be able to carry full sheets of plywood, tree tools, and my cataraft frame (not all at the same time!) up top in a manner that I felt was secure.

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I'm considering something exactly like this. How did you attach the towers to the extrusions?
 
The towers have bolt holes that face up, allowing you to use TNutz fasteners (a cap headed machine screw and a slot nut) to attach them. I don’t have any on hand,
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But these are screen grabs from their website. It’s quite simple. Getting everything tight and lined up properly is a bit fiddley, and I found lubricating the machine screw threads helped a lot.

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The towers have bolt holes that face up, allowing you to use TNutz fasteners (a cap headed machine screw and a slot nut) to attach them. I don’t have any on hand,
View attachment 2276215 But these are screen grabs from their website. It’s quite simple. Getting everything tight and lined up properly is a bit fiddley, and I found lubricating the machine screw threads helped a lot.

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Awesome, thanks!! So one could make the rack wider than the factory mount holes.
 
To further hotdiggitydamn's comments, I read that anything adding height to our roofs will further decrease our already sucky mpgs. Also, if you don't use the rack a lot then you will have to take it on and off. So if you leave it on and don't use it you are killing mpgs. I created a lowrise roof rack using our existing rack rails and using some 80/20 extrusion and angle brackets. They have them in black anodized products also, but it's 3x the cost. I should have made them 1/2" longer but I got the materials free from work. The front extrusion is a special piece that I used to create some aerodynamics and covered it with a strip of carbon fiber tape.

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Do you recall which t-slot nuts you used in the stock roofrack rails? Just curious, i've thought about doing the exact same thing to my truck. Stock side rails are plenty strong enough, getting the bars a little lower with a fairing in front would be awesome.
 
Nice @changingground! If you look closely he used some 30x60 size extrusion for added strength (#30-3060). These are a little more than twice the cost of regular 30x30 extrusions. Black anodized is another twice the cost above that, but looks great. 👍

Those only add minimal added strength (bending resistance) in the vertical plane. They have the basically the same MOI in the vertical plane when oriented like that as the regular 3030 section. They have much more strength in the horizontal (fore/ aft) plane though. You'd have to orient the 3060 rotated 90 deg from where it is right now if you want more vertical bending resistance. Or use the 6060 section.
 
Do you recall which t-slot nuts you used in the stock roofrack rails? Just curious, i've thought about doing the exact same thing to my truck. Stock side rails are plenty strong enough, getting the bars a little lower with a fairing in front would be awesome.

Yep, you cannot even see the rack on top unless you pay close attention (even less noticable if you have the black anodized extrusions) Use the 30 series t-nuts for securing the bracket to the extrusion, but you can use 45 series t-nut for the bracket to the stock roofrack rails as the opening is bigger. It won't hurt to use the 30 series all around, but you can go bigger and be more secure with the 45 series t-nuts to the rails. These style of t-nuts have a step in them so you know they are perpendicular to the extrusion when you tighten them and grip to secure. These are the best so we use these style of t-nuts to assemble machines as work. If you are using stainless steel hardware go with 30 series SS t-nuts & 45 series SS t-nuts (cost is $2.00 each vs $.74 for steel).
 
Those only add minimal added strength (bending resistance) in the vertical plane. They have the basically the same MOI in the vertical plane when oriented like that as the regular 3030 section. They have much more strength in the horizontal (fore/ aft) plane though. You'd have to orient the 3060 rotated 90 deg from where it is right now if you want more vertical bending resistance. Or use the 6060 section.

I agree with you that the horizontal strength is much much more vs. the vertical. However, the vertical strength of the 30x60 is still 2x as much as the regular 30x30 extrusion as it's like putting two 30x30 extrusions side by side. The MOI in the vertical plane is 5.4 vs 2.7 on their website.
 
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To further hotdiggitydamn's comments, I read that anything adding height to our roofs will further decrease our already sucky mpgs. Also, if you don't use the rack a lot then you will have to take it on and off. So if you leave it on and don't use it you are killing mpgs. I created a lowrise roof rack using our existing rack rails and using some 80/20 extrusion and angle brackets. They have them in black anodized products also, but it's 3x the cost. I should have made them 1/2" longer but I got the materials free from work. The front extrusion is a special piece that I used to create some aerodynamics and covered it with a strip of carbon fiber tape.

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I really like your rack idea. What length are the extrustions? Is this on a 100 series cruiser? Do you know if the standard extrusions can be painted black with no issues? Thanks for your help.
 
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I really like your rack idea. What length are the extrustions? Is this on a 100 series cruiser? Do you know if the standard extrusions can be painted black with no issues? Thanks for your help.

Yes this is on a 100 series, this is the forum for this right lol. Between stock rails is 45", so go 44.75". You could paint them but it will scratch off when you load and unload stuff on the extrusions. If you are going black do the black anodize coating or else I wouldn't advise painting them. The regular silver extrusions are already clear anodized, so it is already abrasion and corosion resistant.
 
Nvm. Saw the info later.
 

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