Help with homemade roofrack: clearance and gutter mounts (1 Viewer)

[kazisaki]

Hey mudders!

I need some questions asked regarding this home made roof rack I had fabbed up by someone. I'm not too confident with his work but it seems functional. I'd just like to know your experienced opinions as well.

1. My clearance from the roof ridge to the bottom of roofrack is around 3/4 of an inch in the smallest area. Is this too short or it's fine if there's no flex?
I was thinking of adding rubber between the gutter mount and the rack to increase if another half inch if it's too short.

2. The gutter mounts are only made with 3mm steel. Is this strong enough to hold weight?

Thanks guys

 

[kazisaki]

 

[Trapper50cal]

I'm not trying to be rude, just honest...that thing looks woefully under engineered. Other than the amount of cross bars.

 

[kazisaki]

Yeah man I know. Terrible waste of money on my part. At least it only cost around $130 converted. I'm wishing though I just saved it towards a properly built one.

 

[JCruse]

My Diamondrax mounts are only 3.5mm thick at the clamp but its a welded box mount, much stronger. The L shaped leg that goes up from the clamp to the rack is 5.5mm. Perhaps some good mounts are all you need..?

 

[tpham32]

It all comes down to what you plan hauling up there. That's the great thing about custom projects, you can build it to how YOU want it. The rack itself doesn't look too bad. If you want the rack to ride at that level, I would suggest adding another set of gutter mounts in the middle but again, it all depends on how much weight you want to carry up there. The 80 looks good btw!

 

[gofast]

Easy fix is to buy yourself some thule bars and bolt the rack to it. Problem solved.

I personally would not use those mounts - worried they would bend.

 

[sdnative]

My rack has about 7/8" clearance at the closest spot (directly above the rear axle). The slats on my rack will flex and contact the roof if I put enough weight on it (all my 200lbs on the one slat). If I distribute weight and remember to stand on two slats it's not a problem.

https://forum.ih8mud.com/80-series-tech/793939-front-runner-roof-rack-questions-2.html

 

[60wag]

I would be surprised if those mounts don't crack after a short period of time. The mounts flex as you drive and go over bumps. Bigger bumps and more weight on the rack means more flex. More flex means metal fatigue and cracks. All mounts flex a bit, the stout ones can last a long time, the weak ones not so long.

 

[Trapper50cal]

My main issue is with the rack feet and how they are mounted to the rain gutter...all the professional rack feet I see (DiamondRax, Gamiviti, etc.) have a tightening mechanism on the vertical plane that sucks the base of the foot DOWN into the gutter surface by pulling the outer clamp UP. These feet don't have that feature...only a bolt on the horizontal plane...so it isn't tightening the rack down to the gutter...only squeezing the two plates of the rack foot together laterally. It, therefore, doesn't seem like it's a stable enough system to trust putting any amount of weight up there as it relates to driving around at 60mph and the forces imparted on it from wind resistance and bumping around.

Set of 4, powder coated, $120
http://www.gamiviti.com/html/products_roofracktowers.html

Hey, BTW....Congrats on having a diesel/manual 80 though...COOL!

 

[bcaskey08]

I personally like the rack, but as others have stated, the mounting feet do look quite sketchy. Swap them out and you'll be good to go!

 

[Timpanogos Slim]

yeah the horizontal attachment on the clamps bugs me.

there are numerous other options out there that you can literally bolt on. Various outfits make conn-fer style clamps in the $25-$30/ea range. Mark's Offroad comes highly recommended. Scroll down to the bottom of this page:

http://www.marksoffroad.net/1specials/1specials.html

Off-Road Unlimited owns the Conn-Fer intellectual property and sells "defender rack" clamps that are pretty similar:

http://www.offroadunlimited.com/orustore/PC/viewCategories.asp?idCategory=1839 <-- $165 for a set of 6.

 

[kazisaki]

Guys thank you very much for all the input!

As much as I'd like to get those awesome mounts you posted, it's prohibitively expensive to have them shipped overseas to where I am(Manila). I think I'll make do with finding a way to bolt some Thule or other reputable crossbars to the rack in lieu of these sketchy clamps hahaha.

But man I am extremely envious of how much aftermarket stuff you guys have there! So cool!

 

[Trapper50cal]

...But man I am extremely envious of how much aftermarket stuff you guys have there! So cool!

...Well, we're envious of the rigs you have access to there...so we're even

See if you can buy and ship one, then have a better fabricator emulate them there...could be a business opportunity for someone in Manila.