I picked myself up a roof top tent a few weeks ago, so I figured I'd get started on a roof rack setup to carry the thing around all summer long. I figured I'd start a thread in case anyone else can benefit from my ideas with their own application. The project has three goals:
Cheap: I'm not made of money, a guy like me can't afford a roof top tent and a Baja Rack, especially with the current exchange rate. Besides, I have a welder so I'd be silly to buy a rack anyways.
Low profile: As of now I can get my truck in the garage without airing down, I'd like to keep it that way. My favorite car wash in town also has 7' doors, and I'd like to keep my parkade options as open as possible.
Light weight: The tent weighs 100lbs, if I don't keep this thing as light as possible I'm going to roll my truck on a 25* incline. My goal is 60lbs, but if I can keep it under 75lbs I'll be happy. Unfortunately aluminum is not an option due to cost.
I had some spare 1.5'' mandrel U bends from when I build the headers for my 1uz, so I decided to got with a 1.5'' 16ga perimeter frame using the bends for my corners. The crossbars are going to be 1.5'' square 100 wall tube. Dimensions of the rack are 84''x52''.
So far for the steel I'm sitting around $60, $80 if you account the scrap mandrel u-bends.
I removed the factory luggage runners for a tighter clearance, but it turned out I could still use the outside two. My plan now is to cut the inside two the same width as the rack crossbars so they'll sit in between and I can utilize them.
Cheap: I'm not made of money, a guy like me can't afford a roof top tent and a Baja Rack, especially with the current exchange rate. Besides, I have a welder so I'd be silly to buy a rack anyways.
Low profile: As of now I can get my truck in the garage without airing down, I'd like to keep it that way. My favorite car wash in town also has 7' doors, and I'd like to keep my parkade options as open as possible.
Light weight: The tent weighs 100lbs, if I don't keep this thing as light as possible I'm going to roll my truck on a 25* incline. My goal is 60lbs, but if I can keep it under 75lbs I'll be happy. Unfortunately aluminum is not an option due to cost.
I had some spare 1.5'' mandrel U bends from when I build the headers for my 1uz, so I decided to got with a 1.5'' 16ga perimeter frame using the bends for my corners. The crossbars are going to be 1.5'' square 100 wall tube. Dimensions of the rack are 84''x52''.
So far for the steel I'm sitting around $60, $80 if you account the scrap mandrel u-bends.
I removed the factory luggage runners for a tighter clearance, but it turned out I could still use the outside two. My plan now is to cut the inside two the same width as the rack crossbars so they'll sit in between and I can utilize them.