Tim is in the process of fabricating the rack, but I had a few questions for the group:
- 3 vs 4 towers. I assume when you take off the rubber strip on the roof there's an extra hidden set of mounting holes? How much weight can the rack (and roof) support with 3 vs 4 towers?
- Any recommendations on LED lights? Gamiviti has a 29.5" light bar though ideally I'd go wider (or run 4 spots)
- How much noise do you guys notice without a fairing? Does the light bar help or hurt the amount of noise?
- For those of you with rack-mounted lights, how do you run the wiring? Can it be run inside the rack and neatly fished into the interior somewhere?
Still debating whether I'm going to run it basket up or basket down. I like the look of running with the basket up, and I suspect it's easier to secure a roof load, but the lower profile of going basket down is better when I have to park in a city garage plus would eventually be necessary with an RTT.
hey Geoff will do my best to answer...
3 vs. 4: yes there's a little rubber strip, with the other brackets unbolted the strips literally lift up, nothing else holding it. Underneath is your extra set.
weight capacity: standard answer is "more than you should put on the roof." consider your COG in a tippy situation, or worse, panic highway move.. you don't want 1000 pounds up there. But 3 or 4, each is certainly adequate for your particular combination of a RTT, tire, jack, fuel, shovel, chairs, etc. 3 is fine, 4 is more, either one is going to do you well.
Led's: the lights I stock are nothing special. Other than they are guaranteed to work, fit, and are available. I get these from a pretty high quality shop in China- so they are stiff, they don't bend, but they are by no means Rigid.
. I do however guarantee them for at least a year, and haven't had a failure yet. Alternatively I can take pretty much any light bar and make it work for you though, which is a pretty common occurrence these days.
wind noise: worse with nothing, better with a light bar, and even better with the fairing. Actually not really that bad at all with just the light bar, but yes quieter with the fairing.
wiring: on the 100's we run loom out the hood, up the side of the windshield to the light bar. there is a little channel there that you can cram loom into perfectly. do 200's have this? If not I'd probably go up the back..
in back, my preference is keep the wiring under the truck, between the frame rails, then run it up between the body and rear bumper, along the inside of the tailgate opening, and on up behind the attachments for the hatch stop and hatch strut. This keeps the wires completely outside the gasket at all times, and of course no drilling, etc. It's also easy to remove.
to hold down the wires, I have been using basic split loom, and lots of zip ties. Be sure to keep the stuff off of the "top plane" of the rack, so you can freely slide your loads on top of it.
up or down: no need to choose, you can do both! But they tend to look better down, IMO, and I use the grab handle a lot more than I'd use a basket- pretty easy to secure a load on the main flat rack. but up is also an option.. just remember if you add a bunch of lights, make them dis connectable if you want to flip the rack around. The fairing is also going to be a complexity if you want to run the basket up, as in most applications the downward facing Expo bar supports the fairing in front. But anything is possible here.
I should have a new rack for my 100 in a week or two, will post it up so you can get a look at options. From that, we're going to design your 200 rack. really looking forward to this, appreciate the opportunity and thanks again Romer for being the local test animal here.
Closest thing I could think of
