Looking for a rack for the roof that can hold a canoe. The other half wanted kayak but we have dogs and stuff and not trying to do all that. The ones for the FJ55s are priced at a point that its unreasonable for someone who doesnt care about concourse. What racks/mountings can be used with little to no modifications? Most the info I am finding is from old websites and suppliers that no longer sell the items.
retrofit a roof rack?
- Thread starter BoomerUZ
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I like ones that clamp on the rain rail not drilled into the roof. Got any welding friends - build one.
Build one. You don't really even need to be able to weld. My first roof rack was built in my front yard on a Saturday for my pig, almost 30 years ago out of 1 inch square tube. 5 foot by 8 foot by 6 inches deep. All bolted together. Served great for years and is still sitting around hoping to find a new life someday.
Mark...
Mark...
- Thread starter
- #4
have you got any pictures of how it looks and what you did?
It looks like a basic functional roof rack built for a rig that got used hard. Not ugly, but about as basic as they come.
There are several pics of the rig and rack from back in the day *IF* you happen to have any of the Toyota Trails issues from the '90s.
All of my pics from then are either hard copy in shoe boxes or a few digital files lurking in hard drives in the back of the closet.I do need to step out into the storage yard later today to check on something or other than someone was asking about. (gotta remember what!) I'll try to snap a pic or two showing how it was put together.
Basically every corner was a junction of two horizontal sections and one vertical. This let me overlap in all three planes so that through bolts created a stiff and solid connection.
Welded construction with capped ends would have been stronger. But it was cheap, and handled a LOT of gear. One trip back up the Alcan saw a big ass hopechest... (3x3x4 or longer) loaded on top of the truck for the 2500 miles or so trip through Canada. The weak link were the mounts and they just barely survived. If I was to do it again, I would use the clones of the confer mounts that are out there. I would use them for any rack actually.
Mark...
Home build those rain gutter clamps with scrap 1/4" alu flat and 2x4 , work great for canoe and more
Mark @65swb45 probably have some nice clamps for sale , you can make the cross bars with metal tubing , i like wood because you can srew things on it
Only a dozen or so, and then I’m done; chalk it up to the economy.
- Thread starter
- #9
I just took a peek and $50 is one clamp? Id need 6 so that would be PRICEY for me lol my LC budget is LOWWWOnly a dozen or so, and then I’m done; chalk it up to the economy.
- Thread starter
- #11
TWO? now we are talking. I was worried I was going to have to upsize to a regular boat but where I live we cant have motorized vessels in our 15 lakes except for like 2. Are you tilting them on their sides?
Mounted upside down and flat. FJ60 with a pair of canoes mounted on the Yakima bars. Would work the same on a FJ40. Look on Facebook Marketplace, Craiglist, eBay for used Yakima stuff.