roof rack (1 Viewer)

[thorvald]

has anyone made a roof rack for their 80 or 40?
planning on doing one for my 40 and 80 down the road, thinking of using 1x1 square tube or so.  mainly wondering what the best way to attach to the gutter would be so its solid and doesnt tear it up.  know you can buy the clamps but pricey.

 

[Photoman]

Thorvald,
I made this one with 3/4" electrical conduit and a hand bender. I did the cuts on a drill press with a hole saw so I got a nice radius to weld. Have good ventilation when welding galvanized like this conduit or gas tanks as you can get poisoning. Also, you need a special primer for the paint. Here is a link http://www.sor.com/forum/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic;f=8;t=000777;p=1 that shows a little detail of the mounts I made. The bottom is 1/8" pipe to let the water in the gutters through, welded to a piece of 1/4" flat stock. If you want more details let me know. If you use square or rectangular tubing you will either have square corners or will need to locate a bender with a special die. Hope this gives you some ideas.
Bill

 

[thorvald]

thats a nice looking rack. &nbspo you have a pic of the mount close up? I followed the link but couldnt make out your clamps real good. Is your gutter holding up to it?
would there be any real issues with a square corner other than aesthetics?

 

[Photoman]

Hope this has more detail. This is the front mount which is the hardest to make as it has a curve in it. The rest (three) can be straight. The mounts are 6 inches wide and have supported at least 1000 lbs. It has been on for at least 3 years and I have not had any problems. I have not taken it off but would imagine it is rusty under the mounts. I considered putting little pieces of rubber under them, but when I first did it I was concerned with the rubber wearing through and getting play. Other than getting caught on tree limbs etc. I don't see why you couldn't go square. Maybe something like an eight inch 45 for the corners which would be easy to do and would shed the trees better.
Bill

 

[Gumby]

I'm thinking of a rack I can lean the truck on. I was fighting all the time to keep my junk off of trees where the 40s with cages were just flopping into them and using the bars to slide along. I'm not sure conduit and gutter mounts are going to do it.
Looks really sharp though. It's amazing how much all that cargo area gets filled up with stuff. It would be nice to get some up top.

 

[thorvald]

that shot helps a lot more, thanks photo.
can you bend regular steel tubing with a hand bender?
dont have one, but if they were cheap enough could buy one.
i was thinking of making the bottom longer and connecting the top and bottom with some sort of wind deflector (is that the kind of 45 your talking about?) not sure if a wind deflector would be necessary as far as mileage or anything, but it would take care of the square corners in the front as far as trees

 

[cjmoon]

I made mounts and found the limit.... was supposed to be picking up 18-20ft sticks of old oil pipe for a fence project. When I got there they were all 23-28’. Well. The extra length hanging off the back starting to bounce put a bend in my rear gutter. 1000lbs plus. Static it was cool but dynamic harmonic driving is what got it.

 

[toadshade]

Looks like you ran into the usual problem of tie down points. Biggest thing to overlook on any rack. You were lucky to get that strap hook in there. I really like the Prinsu style. I took the design and welded one up instead of bolting it together. I put large pieces of steel on it all the time. If you are a fabricator, I would look into it as long as you can weld aluminum. I used 1-1/4" round tube welded to the sides instead of the extruded channel. It is tough as hell, low profile, easy to build and aluminum so it keeps your top weight down.

 

[Jason Gallant]

just finished mine I went back and forth on building the gutter mounts or buying Gamiviti (by far my favorite) for about $210 for 6 in hind sight buying them would have been a better choice I must have 20+ hours into building them, that said I do have the satisfaction of doing it my self

 

[98 SNAKE EATER]

Here's mine:

1" EMT pipe/elbows bolted to an alumium cross frame