Anyway, it worked great and was a lot of fun and I haven't taken it off yet. My wife parks in a low garage every day and this setup fits fine. The tent would probably not fit though; I think it is about 6'8" the way I had it mounted but I could save maybe 1.5" by taking the tent rails off as mentioned above.
I made it as wide as the tent to allow mounting an awning at some point and maybe a shower tank on the other side. The side rails are 1/2x3. The cross bars are 3/4x3. The basket is 3/4x1 bar stock. All 6061-T6, welded with 4943 filler on DCEN with 100% He. Ugly, but effective; penetration is not really an issue as it raises the arc voltage to 17 from 14.3 or whatever so even at 175 you can weld pretty much any piece of aluminum - rockets or whatever. On AC this would take 250+ amps, which means a bigger welder (read more expensive).
Now, someone will take me to task for not using tube extrusions rather than bar stock. I will say that for this purpose, I would do it again just like this. Building with bar you can tap into it anywhere for whatever accessories you need and not worry about whether the wall thickness will support your new accessory. It is bomb proof. I have another cross bar for the extra set of rack holes, but ended up leaving it off. I was able to lift this thing up there without much drama and bolt it on. I don't really care what happens to it down the line; maybe someone else can use it. All told it is about $500 in materials including the feet, so not super cheap, but go ahead and try to buy something like it. Prinsu charged me over a grand for some steel thing that didn't even fit. I'm sure their stuff is fine, but I was pretty depressed when I figured out that rack wasn't going to fit. And this thing is super versatile. My wife gets stopped on the road sometimes to ask where she got it, which I take as a compliment.
The bads: 1) basket in front meant an extra crossbar right at the top of the windshield. This is where the front of the tent lands also. It might be possible to deflect the wind up and over the whole mess, but I didn't have time to sort that out, so there was some humming from that crossbar at speed. We ignored it. I did end up putting the camp table and folding chairs up there as planned, so it served its purpose. I might use a slightly different design for the crossbar next time. One could also just cut the front off with a skill saw and recycle it. But the usual stuff can go up there water, sand ramps, yada yada.
That's about it. To conclude, if you are doing a DIY rack for a GX460:
1. Buy the Gamivity feet. Four if using hefty bar or thick wall extrusion. Six if you want to go overboard. We had two adults and two kids and a couple hundred pounds of tent on four of them and it worked fine.
2. Use bar stock if you want future attachment flexibility
3. Avoid unfaired crossbars at the top of the windshield
4. Weld as much on the table as you can. The basket took way more time than the cross bars for this reason. If welding on vehicle, cover the car with something that doesn't burn, like leather or a fireproof wool blanket, including the windshield to protect from sparks and molten metal
5. You could bolt it together, but that is a lot of drilling and marking for unclear benefit. It is probably going to live on your truck, so just weld it. Steel could be welded more easily, but it needs paint and would be harder to drill into and harder to cut than aluminum.
That's about it. Anybody near LA who wants this rack or this truck in about a year let me know as the wife may want something newer by that point.
I made it as wide as the tent to allow mounting an awning at some point and maybe a shower tank on the other side. The side rails are 1/2x3. The cross bars are 3/4x3. The basket is 3/4x1 bar stock. All 6061-T6, welded with 4943 filler on DCEN with 100% He. Ugly, but effective; penetration is not really an issue as it raises the arc voltage to 17 from 14.3 or whatever so even at 175 you can weld pretty much any piece of aluminum - rockets or whatever. On AC this would take 250+ amps, which means a bigger welder (read more expensive).
Now, someone will take me to task for not using tube extrusions rather than bar stock. I will say that for this purpose, I would do it again just like this. Building with bar you can tap into it anywhere for whatever accessories you need and not worry about whether the wall thickness will support your new accessory. It is bomb proof. I have another cross bar for the extra set of rack holes, but ended up leaving it off. I was able to lift this thing up there without much drama and bolt it on. I don't really care what happens to it down the line; maybe someone else can use it. All told it is about $500 in materials including the feet, so not super cheap, but go ahead and try to buy something like it. Prinsu charged me over a grand for some steel thing that didn't even fit. I'm sure their stuff is fine, but I was pretty depressed when I figured out that rack wasn't going to fit. And this thing is super versatile. My wife gets stopped on the road sometimes to ask where she got it, which I take as a compliment.
The bads: 1) basket in front meant an extra crossbar right at the top of the windshield. This is where the front of the tent lands also. It might be possible to deflect the wind up and over the whole mess, but I didn't have time to sort that out, so there was some humming from that crossbar at speed. We ignored it. I did end up putting the camp table and folding chairs up there as planned, so it served its purpose. I might use a slightly different design for the crossbar next time. One could also just cut the front off with a skill saw and recycle it. But the usual stuff can go up there water, sand ramps, yada yada.
That's about it. To conclude, if you are doing a DIY rack for a GX460:
1. Buy the Gamivity feet. Four if using hefty bar or thick wall extrusion. Six if you want to go overboard. We had two adults and two kids and a couple hundred pounds of tent on four of them and it worked fine.
2. Use bar stock if you want future attachment flexibility
3. Avoid unfaired crossbars at the top of the windshield
4. Weld as much on the table as you can. The basket took way more time than the cross bars for this reason. If welding on vehicle, cover the car with something that doesn't burn, like leather or a fireproof wool blanket, including the windshield to protect from sparks and molten metal
5. You could bolt it together, but that is a lot of drilling and marking for unclear benefit. It is probably going to live on your truck, so just weld it. Steel could be welded more easily, but it needs paint and would be harder to drill into and harder to cut than aluminum.
That's about it. Anybody near LA who wants this rack or this truck in about a year let me know as the wife may want something newer by that point.
