I know that the stock rack has a real weak mount to the roof. Would you strap down the spare to the stock rack (33" tire on steel wheel). Anyone beef up the stock mounting system?
After having these guys convince me to pull my rack and look for rust, I have to say, the factory rack is nothing but aesthetic. It is not of any use. If you want to attach a sticker to it, that is about all it would safely "carry".
After looking around at all the "SUVs" (a.k.a. jacked up station wagons) that are out there, you will notice that Americans like the look of a rack on the roof of something, whether it does anything or not. I think Toyota's marketing department realized this and made something to slap up there knowing full well that no one was really going to use it for anything. And that is what we have, a rack on the roof, but not a real roof rack.
Sort of the same as 20 to 30 years ago when folks put "roll bars" in the back of pick ups that do nothing but hold up KC lights.
I know the roof rack is not super strong and I would not put my small coleman crawdad fishing vessel up there, or my wheel, but, I have used it under real world conditions ranging from high speed highway to rough off road ( not real rock wheeling yet ) with the hi-lift jack up there and Slee's roof rack adaptor for the hi-lift. It worked super well, nothing loosened up and nothing dented down. I'm not saying give it hell, I'm just saying that it is indeed strong enough to support the hi-lift, just as another data point. HTH.
I put a 112# 305/70R16 Swamper on my roof rack. Built a steel mount that weighed about 15# to mount the tire to and then that mounted to the stock rack. It was shaped like a big H and reinforced the entire length of the rack. Made no changes to how the rack mounted to the roof. The fat 305 sitting on top of the cruiser made it look like an AWAC (sp?). I ran it that way for about 6months before I got a TJM rear bumper. The factory rates it at 100#, I'm sure there is a significant safety factor as well. I think the weak link isn't how the rack is attached to the roof but rather how the ends are attached to the side rails. I have since removed the rack entirely. There was no damage to the nut zerts or the screws that attach the rack.
After looking around at all the "SUVs" (a.k.a. jacked up station wagons) that are out there, you will notice that Americans like the look of a rack on the roof of something, whether it does anything or not. I think Toyota's marketing department realized this and made something to slap up there knowing full well that no one was really going to use it for anything. And that is what we have, a rack on the roof, but not a real roof rack. .
Before I removed my rack completely, I used yakima adapters to mount bikes to the factory system. You could see the rack flex a good bit at highway speeds and in a strong wind. Thank goodness nothing ever came loose. This was with just 2 bikes up top and sub 22 pound XC weenie bikes at that. I agree ski/snowboard would be ok but thats about it. From what I've seen on other trucks, gutter mounted systems seem to be the way to go.
but I would still say no dice.
