@MuseChaser Oh yea, I ditched those lock bolts pretty early on, it was clear they were working against the whole operation.
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Ahhhhhhh HAAAAAAH!!! Yeah, they're the cause of all the difficulties, but I thought they were necessary to keep things from sliding around since everything else is slides/slots. Once you had your rack lined up and tightened all the large bolts, has it stayed completely in place without the small lock bolts when loaded up? We've got a heavy RTT (Tepui ruggedized Autana 3) that will spend a lot of time up there.
Pics coming..
Well, none of my small bolt holes line up now (I can’t even see the front or rears) so there’s no way mine would go in. I’m not sure the towers will slide once you’ve tightened up the two larger bolts, they’re pretty big. But I’m only carrying a canoe & wood....
Gotcha. Well, for now, it'll be fine to get my wife to and from work this afternoon. I'll wait and hear from Tim before putting the tent up there, though. Here's how I have all three towers setup now.. just gotta tighten them down. As it sits, I've got just under 1/2" of clearance between the front dropdown bar and the roof. I could gain maybe another 1/8" - 3/16" if I didn't rely on the lock bolt to add some security underneath the outside/upper tower half. In order, left-right-then down, repeat, you're seeing inside back, outside back, bar clearance from roof, inside front, outside front. Note in the outside front view that the lock bolt is beneath the outer plate, not through it.
Thanks again for jumping in with your help so quickly, Ayune. Much appreciated.
Thanks again for jumping in with your help so quickly, Ayune. Much appreciated.
Happy ending.. rack on truck, very solid, looks great. Thanks, Ayune, and thank you to Tim, too, for taking the time to followup more than once, including this time. Great product, great guy.
Sorry for the late reply, just logged in and saw this. @Ayune advice is solid. My rack is moved forward 1 position than yours i.e. on the flat plates yours looks setup in the middle....mine is one bolt row aft which moves the rack forward 1-1.5". That helped me gain more front clearance as that's about the point where the roofline slopes down. I have the lightbar drop which would be very similar to yours. It's close, but no rubbing even with weight on the rack.
Thanks for the reply. My pics didn't show the middle towers; they're the ones preventing the rack from moving forward any further on my LX, as right now the towers are lined up with the aft-most slots on those middle plates of the rack, and everything's slid as far forward as I can. Those plates dictated where I had to bolt the front and rear towers to the rack. How did you get yours farther forward?
Took my first drive with it today, and rack itself looks great and is very, VERY solid. I need to fiddle with the bolt-on fairing a bit.. the clamps on the bottom don't grip the bar firmly and the fairing has a slight curve to it so the tips contact the bottom bar before the center does and it's making some noise. Any suggestions?
Re: Fore-aft adjustment... I have mine pretty far back I think because I'm loading a canoe on & off and I didn't want it to hit the hatch before it hit the rack.
Re: Wind fairing... I've had to trim mine to get it to 1) match the curve of the roof better, 2) not touch and squeak against the roof while driving, and 3) not stick up above the rack so it doesn't get sheared off while sliding the canoe forward of the front rail. I laid down blue tape and it cut with a jigsaw, like the pic below. I also had to elongate the mounting holes. My fairing is a good 1/4" away from the roof all the way across, with no ill noise effects.
trdcorolla
SILVER Star
My Gamiviti should be here in a few days. I removed my factory roof rack. I used new bolts/neoprene washers to close up the holes while I wait for the rack to come in. Are neoprene washers enough to prevent water from leaking into the headliner? I want to wash/clay/wax the roof before. Also, I forgot to measure how high the stock rack was from the roof to the highest point of the rack (I have the normal 4 point B/D LX rack), does anyone have that measurement?
Even with neoprene washers, I'd still put RTV Silicone on all the bolts. That should button everything up nice and tight and prevent any chance of water intrusion. I don't know the measurements of the stock rack though.
trdcorolla
SILVER Star
Thanks, since it's just for 1 wash, I might just tape up that area with painters tape for 1 quick wash. To be extra safe, i'll wipe down these areas as they get wet.