80 Series - New Aluminum Roof Rack (1 Viewer)

[PeterTheBeater]

Hello forum,

Recently became interested in replacing my con-ferr roof rack on my 80 series. I like the racks available, especially the bowfin cruisers, but do not have $1k to spend on it. So I decided to design my own roof rack, the design is similar to any gutter rail roof rack out there.

Has tie down on the front and rear, I estimate for it sit about 1” above roof. Will come with 4 2” aluminum cross bars but can be expanded to 9. Aluminum side is from 1/4” with 4(four!) gutter clamps. Once I get the prototype verified, will design a front wind screen.

My goal is to not make money off this, but to provide a budget great roof rack to those available. Honorable mention goes to awesome roof racks like bowfin cruises, delta and others. However, I’m aiming to have this around 600$.

Wanted to share this here and track the progress and interest, I might consider a production run.

Thanks!

 

[efjayatee]

I would be intetested

 

[PeterTheBeater]

Progress update 3/4/24

Modified the revision a bit, increased the height and revised the clamping hooks. So far coming up with off the shelf hardware for clamping hooks is the biggest challenge.

Here’s a masonrite template for fitment. Looks like the rear is too long, I don’t have a factory spoiler installed but those who do, might run into issues.

 

[efjayatee]

Progress update 3/4/24

Modified the revision a bit, increased the height and revised the clamping hooks. So far coming up with off the shelf hardware for clamping hooks is the biggest challenge.

Here’s a masonrite template for fitment. Looks like the rear is too long, I don’t have a factory spoiler installed but those who do, might run into issues.
View attachment 3574169
View attachment 3574171

Reason height is increased? I'd prefer low and tight to fit into my garage with 37/38s......thats just me.

 

[PeterTheBeater]

Reason height is increased? I'd prefer low and tight to fit into my garage with 37/38s......thats just me.

Yeah I’m in the same boat. I thought I would need more height for the gutter clamps but that’s no longer the case. I’m going to take about 1/2-3/4 off the total height.

Do happen to have the rear spoiler on your rear hatch?

 

[efjayatee]

Yeah I’m in the same boat. I thought I would need more height for the gutter clamps but that’s no longer the case. I’m going to take about 1/2-3/4 off the total height.

Do happen to have the rear spoiler on your rear hatch?

No rear spoiler on rear hatch

 

[PrydeFall]

This is super cool, I've been thinking of making my own as well (prices are crazy), can't wait to see how it comes along.

 

[PeterTheBeater]

Still working on the rack. The hardest part is the attachment to the railing system. I’ve polished out the side rail, can come in 3 lengths,

Half rack
Full tack
Extended rack (will not fit with hatch spoiler)

This is what I’m doing for the gutter mounts, basically a modified con-ferr design. Keeping it simple.

 

[PeterTheBeater]

Modified the design a bit to avoid welding, as that add expensive labor hours.
Sending another design to fabricator this week. If everything goes smoothly, going to get a full aluminum prototype next month. One thing that I have to change is that front of the roof starts to slope away, which spreads apart the roof rack. I will need to change how far down it goes on the front.

The width we’re looking at is about 51.5”

 

[PeterTheBeater]

Largest frustration on the project is finding a fabrication shop which charges reasonable prices and has a reasonable turn around. Finding a shop which wants to accept small work is very difficult as well, out of 10 shops I was able to find one. I've been waiting 8 weeks for them to cut me a new side rail with my new revisions. Out of that, makes me look into other options such as send-cut-send. However, they cannot accommodate anything longer than 44", which means I need to split the rack into 4 pieces. It doesn't look as good but the shipping to end user will be WAY cheaper. Standard configuration (5 1x2 cross bars, up from 4 originally. You can mount up to 9. ) are also mounted at the split, compressing the top/bottom in addition to the backing plates.

On top of that, fully mounted cross bars actually sit slightly under the side rails, this will allow to install an expanded metal floor on top of the rack, which is what i think is missing on a lot of racks.

These racks will be sold under my brand which I started

I've also added additional features to the rack, like various holes for whatever you need to them for.

Currently, I've got the side rails at 3/16th out of 6061 T6 aluminum,

Backing plates for joints are 1/8 of 6061-T6

Brackets are 1/8 of 5052-H32

Heres an easy 2.5" 30 degree drop down light bracket for the roof rail as well

 

[PeterTheBeater]

Here’s the “general” idea, except the top bracket has its on perforation and doesn't use the cross bar perforation.

 

[PeterTheBeater]

Finally got some new templates. I really dig them. Next template is going to be aluminum for real trials!

 

[PeterTheBeater]

Ran new aluminum side rails for a week in San Juan mountains. Few discoveries:

The front is too short, definitely need to make it 5” longer, otherwise it looks kind of funny.
It also appears you cannot have a straight line from front to rear on the gutter rail, unless you have a bend in front and back. That appears to be because the roof/body is actually convex horizontal as well as vertically.

The curvature can be improved a bit, I will relief some areas on the front and rear of the rack to make it “hover”.

The roof rack is 52” wide, I had to shim by 51” 8020 hehe.

The 1/8th 5052 gutter brackets worked fine, but I think I will I’ll upgrade them to 10G stainless to make sure they don’t bend. The 3/16 90* brackets are plenty strong. I do want the roof rack to give before you bend the body of the truck by wrenching on it too hard.

3/16 6061 profile is plenty strong, but the number of standard cross rails will increase. It feels a bit too flexy when walking on it.

 

[jeffro109]

Can we get a further out side view? I think the shorter front looks good in these pictures. Great work!

 

[PeterTheBeater]