home made roof racks? (1 Viewer)

[marius]

Mine,hope pics load up

 

[marius]

Everything I use, you can get from home depot But it is cheaper to buy at other places

 

[Land Shark]

Mine,hope pics load up

I have been in the process of gathering, cutting, measuring, filing, painting, and mocking up almost exactly what you have here. Can you give more detail on how you tied the unistrut in at the ends?

Thanks

 

[marius]

The middle seport is welded in.The outer two bolted on and the two end caps is riveted in with spot welds.Love that one can bolt anything to it

 

[crushers]

a roof rack shoudl do what YOU want it to do.
remember, COG is important. 500 lbs on a roof can drastically change the handling characteristics of a vehicle, especially if lifted.

this one was designed for a long distance expedition rig. it has bridging stored inside for safe keeping and easy of removal in case of need.
i like extending the racking past the ends of the roof to allow for the lights to be mounted under the rack instead of on top. this design does not alter the viewing from inside at all.

 

[crushers]

and the rear has a cover that traps the bridging tight inside.
there we added signal and brake lights so that if the lower lights are covered with dust or snow the uppers will alert following vehicles to slow.
the second one is for a work cruiser we are building.
very light, very strong and lights will be added underneath the rack front and rear for work lights and driving lights as well as back up lighting.

you need to figure out what it will be used for and build it accordingly.
advice, build it light, build it strong ... it is better to put out the extra hundreds up front and be happy with the result than scrimp during construction and live with a heavy unit that is a PITA to install and remove and doesn't do what YOU NEED IT TO DO.

cheers

 

[Land Shark]

The middle seport is welded in.The outer two bolted on and the two end caps is riveted in with spot welds.Love that one can bolt anything to it

Yep, that is exactly what I need to wrap this up

Thanks

 

[marius]

There waa a few trucks at gsmtr with $1300-$1500 roofracks ..wtf!!!!!!

 

[Devilmans Hand]

^there was a lot of money at gsmtr as well.

I was going to go the HD hardware route as well using the hanger rails for a flat rack. Glad to see that someone else had the same idea.

I also picked up a hitch carrier for pretty cheap that i plan on using as a small basket for the roof as well.

 

[Aaron17]

Mine is home made. Along with everything else. Worked good at gsmtr for a bark buster.

 

[justbecause]

Home made, just not by me.

posted with my thumbs.

 

[whitaker451]

1/2 inch EMT, 2 inch strap, a foot of channel, a foot of pipe, a weekend. Take that INTI! Except theirs are "square" and all the cross tubes are "parallel" and their welds are "pretty". So what, mine cost me $70 including paint and a $30 conduit bender.

 

[justbecause]

Tent in place.

posted with my thumbs.

 

[asutherland]

What kind of paint did you guys use for your steel racks? I was thinking a rock guard spray of some sort... the rubberier the better...

PS. Picked up my raw tubing last weekend. 1 1/4 inch outer bars, 1 inch inner bars, all fairly thin wall to stay lightweight.

 

[Bogo]

I would think it would be better to have a paint that allows ropes, straps, etc. to slide over it easily. A rubbery paint would get rubbed off when a strap is tightened down.

Something to note, many paints remain relatively soft for a few weeks unless cured with heat or whatever they were designed to be cured with. So paint it up, then let it cure for a few weeks before use.

This is what I use for repainting implements on the farm.
Tractor & Implement Enamel | Valspar Agricultural Finishes
Pretty good hard surface after a couple weeks curing time.

 

[asutherland]

I would think it would be better to have a paint that allows ropes, straps, etc. to slide over it easily. A rubbery paint would get rubbed off when a strap is tightened down.

Something to note, many paints remain relatively soft for a few weeks unless cured with heat or whatever they were designed to be cured with. So paint it up, then let it cure for a few weeks before use.

This is what I use for repainting implements on the farm.
Tractor & Implement Enamel | Valspar Agricultural Finishes
Pretty good hard surface after a couple weeks curing time.

Thanks, and I hear ya. I ended up with some plain black gloss paint. We'll see how that works.

 

[marius]

Put these on mine and most stuff I build

 

[Workingclass]

Need to finish weld and powder coat but other than that it's good to go and just what I had pictured in my head. Oh and need to add the lights, they're on the way.

 

[itsstellerbluepearl]

Put these on mine and most stuff I build

In what order?

 

[marius]

In what order?

Like they standing.first converter then galvanizing ,last black epoxi.Covered the underside of my truck also and holding up great but I did clean it with Metal Blast from Rust Bullet first