New BajaRack being made for my FJ

[Corey]

I took the plunge, I ordered earlier this week a BajaRack for my Maggiolina AirLand tent.
It is similar to puulboy's in this thread.
Roof tents - Toyota FJ Cruiser Forum
Ordered it through Mike at Autohome.

But it does not have the raised sides on each side up at the front section like at the URL above.
It does have a spoiler shield up front to block some of the wind which will help with handling.

This is the rack that was designed specifically for the Maggiolina and Columbus tents after we had a discussion a year back about getting a low profile rack made over on the blue forum.

You can see how high the base of my tent is here with the stock FJs rack.

It will be sitting just barely off the roof with the new rack.
It will be shipped directly to my Toyota dealership for installation.
They will remove my tent, the stock rack, put on the new BajaRack, then install the tent.
They viewed Sergio's pictures at the beginning of the week, and they said it will be very easy to do this.
I would attempt to do it if I had a home and big garage, but I do not.
Plus it is a two person job to tackle this, the tent alone weighs around 128 lb not including the bedding inside.

I do not have any pics of the Maggiolina and the rack on Sergio's rig online, but I have two here I can attach.

Right now we have been having some strong winds, and it is just to hairy driving my rig at freeway speeds with my lift and the tent up so high.
So I decided the time is right to do this, especially before camping season starts up here before to long.
This should correct the issue for me feeling like the skipper of the SS Minnow.

Coming home from work Friday we had sustained winds of 35 to 45 MPH and I was getting blown all over the place.
The wind channels through the wide opening between the bottom of the tent and the top of the FJs roof thus pushing me around quite a bit.

Nice and low 'eh?
I am getting excited

After it is installed I will update my build thread here in this section.

The Campinglab awning will go back on too with some brackets that BajaRacks makes that bolt to the rack, the tent sits on top, then the bolts stick out from the side to fit into the channels on the back of the Campinglab/ARB style of awnings.

Hopefully I will have this on by the end of the month.

 

[Mtbcoach]

Much better profile for sure. I didn't look but, do they have sides that can be slid/mounted to the rack? I use my rack for other stuff at times and it would be great to have one that could convert to that flat profile.

In any event, looks like a great solution to get the RTT's low...

 

[Corey]

Jerry, it looks like it would be pretty easy for Sergio to come up with a full side that clamps on when the tent is not on the rack.
I think it could be done for those that might want to pull the tent off and use the rack for other purposes.

Yes, the tent sits just way to high now for any wind when driving.
Pretty sure it is caused from the airflow going under and lifting the rig some.

If I put wings on the side I could perhaps get airborne

 

[VoltsAndBolts]

That's sharp! Will it stay on full time or will you put it on the rack just when you need it?

 

[Corey]

Thanks.
I live in an apartment, so the tent sits on full time.
It has been up there since March of 2008.

I could possibly store it inside, but it really would be a major PITA to take it off.
Many with a garage use a hoist/pulley setup to take the tents on and off and store the tent up high in a garage.
Harken Ceiling Lift

 

[Corey]

Here are some pics from BajaRack of the mounting brackets.
Brackets go on first, then the tent goes on top.

Bolts on the brackets line up with the two channels on the Campinglab/ARB style of awnings, then nuts tighten against the channel surface, much like my present mounts for the Yakima bars.

 

[HJ-45CrewCab]

Corey, glad to see you making a change. I never liked your current setup for the reasons you have already discussed. This looks WAY better and hopefully, performs better. It's fortunate to have dialog with a vendor who can accomodate the customer's needs. Checked out other FJCs this weekend and found the ARB rack too big and RTTs to be too high. You may be on to the best setup. Keep us posted.

I am looking at the Bajarack options also as I just won a 25% discount certificate at the raffle for FJNortheasters event this weekend.

 

[Corey]

Will do, plenty of pics to come in the near future.

I will also get measurements of how high the base of the tent is now off of the roofs surface, and also the new measurements when it is lowered.

I am guesstimating that it will be at least 10" lower.

 

[dILzNAK]

Looks good!!

 

[Corey]

I was informed today that my rack was made, and it was test fitted on Sergio's FJ, the FJ in the pics above.

The rack still has to be powdercoated, and then it will ship next Monday.
The wait is now getting shorter.

 

[dILzNAK]

Nice, are you excited??

 

[Corey]

Very
Was getting blown around on the freeway yesterday going home pretty good, and it was only a 10 MPH or less wind.
Just to much air gets in between the roof top and the tent bottom, acting like a big hand pushing me around.

The front spoiler on the new rack will also keep air from passing underneath between the roof and tent bottom.

 

[dILzNAK]

Nice!

 

[Corey]

This same info I am posting I will copy over to my buildup thread at a later date.
___________

OK, I called the dealer around 11:20 am today and they said they needed to see me, there was a "slight" complication, and they needed to talk to me before proceeding any further.

I got there and they showed me the front two latches on the tent were hitting a horizontal tube near the front of the rack which you will see in a picture below.
I called up BajaRack and company and spoke with Sergio and John, and they said we could move the tent backwards some on the rack.

The tech had gone to lunch by then so the service manager and I went to the shop and tried it, and they still hit.
Another tech who was working on a Toyota next to mine said they already tried that.
Sergio suggested I send him a picture which I did, and he saw the problem right away.
My latches were much longer than Frenchie's latches that were on the test tent they used when they mocked up the first rack.
Frenchie has the Maggiolina Extreme small version.
Same length as my Airland, but narrower.
His latches are also shorter which would not have been a problem for me if the latches were all the same.

Scott my tech who did a fantastic job installing everything suggested grinding down my latches to shorten them to clear the horizontal bar up front.
BajaRack will now be incorporating in the next racks like mine to not have the front horizontal bar.
The rack is very beefy, and one bar out will not hurt a thing.
Rack is overkill, it is well built.
The rig sure got lots of looks today from the dealership, and even Toyota corporate was there today visiting.

The latches clear completely now.
I could install new shorter ones, but that would involved popping these out and re-pop riveting in a new latch.
I think at this time I am not going to mess with it.

As you can see by the pictures, the rack sits much lower to the roof now, and the spoiler up front will block the wind from entering underneath.

If you would like to order one of these racks, give Mike a call at Welcome to AutoHomeUSA - Suppliers of Roof Top Tent Campers for SUVs, vans, trucks, or cars
There is already a page in place being worked on for the FJ rack like mine.

Links:
BajaRack
Autohome US page for the racks (coming soon)

Two cell phone pics from the Droid showing the latch before it was ground down, and shortly after Scott drove up to the waiting area with my rig.

Regular pics

 

[davegonz]

That looks slick Corey. Baja racks did a great job integrating the tent to your truck via the rack.

 

[dILzNAK]

Looks Good Bro!!!!

Congrats!

 

[Mtbcoach]

Agreed, looks much better getting it down, out of the wind. Nice upgrade for sure...

 

[holmanm]

Looks awesome. Were you able to tell any difference in handling the wind, or has it all been city driving so far?

 

[Corey]

Thanks guy's.

Mike, I will know in about one hour when I get off work.
Although my Droid shows the current wind speed is around 4 MPH, so that will not be a very good test at 60 on the way home.

The wind could pick up though, it always seems to pick up around the time we get off work.

_________________________

I would like to add one thing here.
I did not intend on anyone thinking that a newer design of the MG (Maggiolina tent style) racks would have an immediate design change to them.
I am sure if that is going to happen the folk's at BajaRacks will let you know.

I will try and get a picture of my modified latch later, and update the thread here with it.

Quite a few at work today have been eyeballing it, people I do not know by name.
They probably noticed the difference today since it is so much lower.

 

[HJ-45CrewCab]

Much better. I might be going with this rack...not for a tent but for mounting two Thule pods.