‘Drop in’ Expedition Style Rack

[grinchy]

Mounted a Smittybilt Defender 35605 between the OEM TLC rails.

It’s a perfect fit. 42” wide by 72” long by 4” tall. Has six light tabs and weighs about 55 lb. Mounted using basic 3/16” L brackets from Amazon (8 for $20), 3/8” carriage bolts, and 8mm rivnuts. Three of the four footpads are within the span of the rails. The rear pad requires an extension piece. The satellite antenna on the top of the car is below the floor rail plane, but inside the center rear rail- fits perfectly with no issues.

Roughly $400 all in.

 

[highfructose]

Looks good. Would you mind taking some closeups of the carriage bolt bracket mount you put together?

 

[grinchy]

Looks good. Would you mind taking some closeups of the carriage bolt bracket mount you put together?

The normal 3/8” carriage bolt slides right in. Beyond that it’s a matter of drilling a hole large enough to clear the flange on the bolt in the bracket, as the flange/square on thr bolt is wider than the slot material. I suspect that 10mm hw for rails would work perfect as well.
3/16” or 1/4” bracket material works great. Thinner will need to be spaced out or washer shimmed on the thread side to clear the bolt flange.
The rest of it is limited by your creativity and tooling.
For these brackets I used a drill, hacksaw, and rivet nut tool, self etch primer and paint.

I’ve mounted a lot of different stuff to the rails using 3/8” carriage bolts over the last four years . . .

 

[grinchy]

Got it completely straight. Was about 1/8” off back left to front right on the first install. Nothing with the rack, just needed to have the rack pad bolts loose and then center the rack on the car.

Got it up to 45 today, no noise yet. Fingers crossed.

Pics of shark fin clearance and front.

 

[grinchy]

Pics of top. Miles of space!

 

[grinchy]

Now up to 60 mph and still no noise. I’m not running stock aero or tires though, so could be masking it with the snorkel, bumper, or RTs.

 

[grinchy]

It looks right up there to me.

 

[highfructose]

It looks right up there to me.

View attachment 3149860

Those 35’s look like they should have been oem. Very nice.

 

[Stgeo]

Looks amazing.

 

[bloc]

Great idea..

Is the vinyl over the sunroof to block sun or for some other purpose?

 

[grinchy]

Great idea..

Is the vinyl over the sunroof to block sun or for some other purpose?

i've got a hole in the right front drain line. cleaning tool made it. haven't gotten around to dropping the headliner to fix. vinyl cheap and effective way to prevent further leaks. i would cut the vinyl center out next time so the moonroof wouldn't be blacked out.

 

[bloc]

i've got a hole in the right front drain line. cleaning tool made it. haven't gotten around to dropping the headliner to fix. vinyl cheap and effective way to prevent further leaks. i would cut the vinyl center out next time so the moonroof wouldn't be blacked out.

What kind of cleaning tool knocked a hole in the line? Hopefully not like the brush and coiled-wire snake thing I posted about a while back..

 

[grinchy]

Those 35’s look like they should have been oem. Very nice.

Very little effort necessary to fit a skinny 35 on the LX. +35 offset, 10.5" wide tire, and push the front wheel liner forward one hole.

 

[grinchy]

What kind of cleaning tool knocked a hole in the line? Hopefully not like the brush and coiled-wire snake thing I posted about a while back..

It was either that or a doubled over weed trimmer line. I tried both in the same cleaning session. Probably the trimmer line . . .

 

[grinchy]

could be that the entire hose is disconnected, i haven't seen the leak yet

 

[CharlieS]

i've got a hole in the right front drain line. cleaning tool made it. haven't gotten around to dropping the headliner to fix. vinyl cheap and effective way to prevent further leaks. i would cut the vinyl center out next time so the moonroof wouldn't be blacked out.

We did the same with my son's land rover disco 2, both sunroofs. Cheap, easy way to eliminate that as a source of leaks.

 

[grinchy]

There is a howl starting around 50 mph. Picked it up tonight by turning the radio down. Less than my roof box, more than the stock rack. Enough so I’m going to try to fix it.
Got up to 65 and it didn’t increase much in volume.
First step is to wrap the leading edge bars with some rope.

<edit fixed howl with small inexpensive fairing ($30) see further on in thread for link>

 

[highfructose]

There is a howl starting around 50 mph. Picked it up tonight by turning the radio down. Less than my roof box, more than the stock rack. Enough so I’m going to try to fix it.
Got up to 65 and it didn’t increase much in volume.
First step is to wrap the leading edge bars with some rope.

Is it possible to use an iPhone or decibel meter to test before and after?

 

[grinchy]

Update on rack noise / howl:
It’s not present in normal conditions up to 70 mph. Normal conditions is driving down the road in no wind.
Noise is present above 50 mph when there is a strong side or quartering wind.
What I hear is not loud in volume, but is low in pitch. Like a thrum kind of howl.
In heavy wind conditions the volume might be a touch louder, but it it sla ways less than my roof box made.
The volume is about the same as my RT tires, so it doesn’t mAke the ride overall louder, but I find the pitch to be unpleasant.

Since it’s related to round bars, it’s pretty easy to defeat with anything that disrupts the airflow. This weekend I expect to mount up some scene lights front and back. That should fix most of it.

Eventually I’ll have the shovel holder and changing room on the sides. At that point there won’t be any large sections of round bar exposed.

Another option is wrapping the bars in paracord, or putting pool noodles on them.

I don’t think a deflector would solve it, as that wouldn’t address the noise, which seems to be due to side bar, not front bar.

I’ll mess with it over the next few weeks and update as I learn more.

 

[highfructose]

A low profile easy to install low noise basket would be nice. Keep us updated.