Just got hold of my first rack! Few questions…

[cook]

All the bad jokes from my childhood have been flooding back! Feel free to add your own.

Got the expedition mule rack, can be seen here - http://www.muleequipped.com/. The gutter mounts are beefy, leading to two areas where I have some questions:
First, is it advisable to place something between the gutter mounts and the gutter? If so, what?
Second, I am using six gutter mounts. I put the rack on using the same height adjustment for each gutter mount, but it looks like there is a curve to the gutter. I’m thinking that the middle gutter needs to be adjusted lower than the front and rear mounts. Has anyone else noticed this when installing gutter mounts?
Thanks,
Pete

 

[a.mus.ed]

pics or gtfo.

 

[azTony]

If it were me, I would mount 4 mounts (2 per side, front and back), mount the rack to the 4 and adjust and mount the center support mounts as required.

 

[FJ40LVR]

Bolt it straight through

 

[murf]

Nice pick up Cook. There are several guys in CSC that have racks that may be able to give you answers based of their experiences.

Wow your rig will be unrecognizable next time I see it! Are you going to look into a rooftop tent to complete it? Whats a few more bucks?! I talked to Flycast the other morning and he just bought a roof tent (I forget the brand) recently for his rig.

Youse guys need to post up pictures of this stuff!

 

[cook]

Pics

Eric,
Probably going to bring the cruiser in without the rack so I can have the roof worked on. So, here are some low resolution cell phone pics.
The new rear ladder now has somewhere to go! Pretty cool, but I'm probably going to have to put a solid floor on the rack to keep the kids off of the roof.
The front view, just because.
The side view with the gutter mounts. The gutter mounts are what got my attention with this rack. Several posts from people buying them for diy racks. On this rack, the top and bottom rails are actually the same. I may cut this think is half some day to allow for an rtt.


Pete

 

[flycast]

I just finished building loadbars today and you are correct in the middle mounts need to be set shorter than the rest. I set my clamps directly in the gutter for now. I may put something in there to spread out the contact patch on the gutter sealant if I notice it sinking or ripping. Your rack looks nice.