Roof Rack mods and rain gutter mounts

[TallCanDan]

Some time ago I bought a Confer Roof Rack off a fellow 'Mudder.
It was too narrow for the wagon, and I didn't have any mounts for it.

I decided it needed to be widened by 12" and since Reevesci's rain gutter mounts looked easy enough, I would totally copy those

I made two cuts on each end of the rack, one on either side of the vertical support. I would add 6" to either side of this. The holes for the plug welds can be seen.


At the Steel Supply I found some DOM tubing that slid into the 3/4" square tube of the rack, and it was quite snug. I would use these as slugs.


I drilled holes on only one face of the square tube in a total of 16 locations, which would be 8 per end of the rack.


To be continued, as I have not figured out how to post more than three pics at a time. What's the secret?

 

[robustbambi]

To be continued, as I have not figured out how to post more than three pics at a time. What's the secret?

NOOOOOB!!! It lets me post like 1000000 pics. i think?
Nice rack, I'm interested in seeing you make it work.

 

[SteamerF18]

What are you going to use to extend the horizontal parts of the rack?

 

[TallCanDan]

Here are the slugs installed, ready to be slid together.


Here it is all slid together. The hollow void created by the round versus square tubes would prove challenging when the time came to weld it up. I kept burning through the square tubing at these hollow voids, but got through it ok. Slowly learning to weld as I go here...


Got it all welded up.


By now it is evident there is a 12" gap down the middle of the runners on the floor of the rack. I took a 3" piece to a fabricator, and he made me 4 pieces out 18 gauge that were 3 feet long. I told him what I was doing, and that I would be stacking his pieces under the pieces on the rack, and man did they come out badass! Followed the profile perfectly. All for $50.00, well worth it. I kept the pieces at 3 foot so that they would overlap the runners on the rack by roughly a foot and a half. There were holes already on the runners, so I used these for plug welds into the fabbed pieces, as well as welding all four ends (2 ends on the fabbed runner, 1 on each end of the racks' runner). Didn't get any pics of this stage though...

 

[TallCanDan]

NOOOOOB!!! It lets me post like 1000000 pics. i think?
Nice rack, I'm interested in seeing you make it work.

Yeah I thought I had it figured out by uploading 3, then removing em, uploading another 3, etc. But the only pics available were the last ones that I uploaded...

OH, I see... I have a nice rack and you have a nice wood haha!

 

[TallCanDan]

What are you going to use to extend the horizontal parts of the rack?

Check out the bottom of post 4.

 

[shinsain]

Host them externally and then use the

tags to insert the URLs into the post. You can post a bajillion of them if you'd like after that.

 

[TallCanDan]

On to the mounts. I had some 2"x 1/8" thick steel strap that I had acquired ( amongst other random bits). I took a piece of rod that I had and made a rough template by basically holding it up to the wagon and eyeballing it. I wasn't concerned with angle, as I felt it wasn't really pertinent. I just eyeballed it; "yeah, that looks good."


To make the strap easier to bend, I cut grooves about half way through the thickness with a thin cutoff wheel in my grinder. I could bend them by hand without too much trouble.


As stated I wasn't concerned with the angle. I felt the only important aspect was that the vertical and horizontal legs were at a 90 degree angle, easily confirmed with a speed square. Once the first one was done, it was easy duplicate.

 

[SteamerF18]

Check out the bottom of post 4.

I think I posted the question as you were posting the next round of pics, I need to work on that patience thing. Nice work, with a nice rack!

 

[TRAIL TAILOR]

On to the mounts. I had some 2"x 1/8" thick steel strap that I had acquired ( amongst other random bits). I took a piece of rod that I had and made a rough template by basically holding it up to the wagon and eyeballing it. I wasn't concerned with angle, as I felt it wasn't really pertinent. I just eyeballed it; "yeah, that looks good."
View attachment 711944

To make the strap easier to bend, I cut grooves about half way through the thickness with a thin cutoff wheel in my grinder. I could bend them by hand without too much trouble.
View attachment 711945

As stated I wasn't concerned with the angle. I felt the only important aspect was that the vertical and horizontal legs were at a 90 degree angle, easily confirmed with a speed square. Once the first one was done, it was easy duplicate.
View attachment 711946

Danny,

If you haven't already, probably have though...With that being 1/8" material I would definitely weld the back of those, where you used the zip disc. Not much strength left in the thinner material. Any flex could cause it to crack through, IMO

Looks good so far..

J

 

[maat]

looking good

 

[TallCanDan]

I think I posted the question as you were posting the next round of pics, I need to work on that patience thing. Nice work, with a nice rack!

Danny,

If you haven't already, probably have though...With that being 1/8" material I would definitely weld the back of those, where you used the zip disc. Not much strength left in the thinner material. Any flex could cause it to crack through, IMO

Looks good so far..

J

Yes sir, I ended up welding the inside of the mounts at both cuts. Aside from my welding, I like how they came out with the outside bends not needing any welding/ grinding/ etc...

For the part of the mount that is under the gutter, I had some 2" angle (I think is 3/16 to 1/4" at its thickest). I took some threaded rod and surface applied and welded it up both sides. I had to cut one leg of the angle where it buts up to the body, but they all came out a little short, so the mount tended to twist when I tightened them up. But the angle has full contact with the gutter, so it should be fine, considering I will be able to live with some slight crookedness.
I didn't get any progress pics of these either, sheesh.

The finished product:

 

[TallCanDan]

I think I posted the question as you were posting the next round of pics, I need to work on that patience thing. Nice work, with a nice rack!

No worries, I'm guilty of this myself!

 

[Spook50]

Nice work. You mentioned you were learning to weld as you went. Is this your first fab project?

 

[TRAIL TAILOR]

Looks good man. Cut down the all thread and get some rubber caps at the auto parts store to keep the threads from rusting up and you'll be set.

J

 

[TRAIL TAILOR]

Nice work. You mentioned you were learning to weld as you went. Is this your first fab project?

If so, he did great!!

J

 

[SteamerF18]

Concur on the nice welds for someone who is learning, well done sir. What setup do you have for a welder?

 

[TallCanDan]

Nice work. You mentioned you were learning to weld as you went. Is this your first fab project?

Thanks Spook. Yes, my first real fab project, although I have welded only a couple of things. Pretty much my neighbor across the street let me borrow his landscaping type trailer, and I needed more tie down locations. So I bought some hooks from Dixieline and attempted to weld em on. Yeah, didn't turn out so well, but I was confident as to the fastening since I left the bolt holes exposed and filled em with grade 8 bolts, nuts, lock washers, a prayer, etc... Hauled my sh!t without incident, none the less!

 

[TallCanDan]

If so, he did great!!

J

Thanks J, obviously the pictures are hiding all of them No actually I could tell when I was getting penetration, kind of by looking at the welds as I went, as well as looking at the other side of the material to see the heat that had (and sometimes hadn't) come through the other side. That and I made sure to have "the sound of sizzling bacon" when I hit the trigger. It's the "look of stacked dimes" I am trying to perfect. I am far from perfection, only time will tell when weight is placed up there. So if you see me with only a shovel and hi- lift mounted, well...

***To all experienced welders and CWI's, it is not my intention to discredit any trained, experienced, taught, self taught, all- of- my life- career type people! I have been given simple instructions growing up, and the words "keep practicing on any type of steel scrap you can. Oh, and grab me a beer." -My Pops, circa 1991.

Concur on the nice welds for someone who is learning, well done sir. What setup do you have for a welder?

I have a Lincoln "buzz box", as I have heard it called. Pops gave it to me when he closed down his shop. A 110V Pro-Mig 135, .030 wire, with a bottle of "SteelMix, as sold from Airgas, the local welding supply. Regulator set at 20 psi, due to the San Diego breeze. 4 different heat settings (A,B,C,D) with wire speed 1 to 10. I pretty much left the heat setting at D, then adjusted wire speed accordingly. I found that 4 to 4.5 worked good. This is a true talent, let me tell ya!
Pertaining to the mounts, I might take some flat plate and brace the 90 degree angle on the portion above the rain gutters. If I grab the rack and shake it back and forth, the whole wagon will rock, with only some flex in the mounts. I made a total of 8 mounts, but currently only have 4 attaching it to the wagon. maybe it will stiffen up with all 8 on there.

Thanks for the encouraging comments guys!

Danny

 

[tag3]

Using nylock nuts on the mounts instead of double nuts myself.