Definitive roof rack thread?

[manoftaste]

You can run those same wheels with a 1.25" spacer.

Yes indeed, but if I could, would love to avoid spacers.

 

[manoftaste]

Also, for rims I personally prefer concave design over the convex. Concave gives a bit aggressive look imho and it keeps the rim' metal well tugged in inside the tire' inner circumference vs protruding outward in the center or around the hub, hence keeping the rim a bit safer in certain offloading situations.

 

[djkaosone]

When I was in the market for a real roof rack, RhinoRack didn't have one at the time for full rails, Prospeed was only available in UK, and yada yada yada. Anyhow... I ended up just ditching the full rails and leaving the back half of the roof channels *****. No one can tell or knows about it, except for me. Serves no real purpose except for aesthetics, that no one can see.

My point is, just get the Prospeed roof rack. On the plus side, you can probably find someone that wants to swap your full rails and gutters with theirs with or without the half rails and make a little money. But that's niche trying to find someone that wants the full rails.

 

[I bring my camera]

I just installed a full length Front Runner rack to my LR3 that only had short rails. I had to remove the cap in the front protector channel as well as the existing short rails = that exposes the holes that would have been used by your full length rails. The Front Runner mounting system ONLY used the factory holes that were present - no drilling or trimming required. View attachment 9803

Your LR3 looks great, thanks for the info on the Front Runner, I'll definitely take a look at them. I like the flat rack style.

 

[I bring my camera]

When I was in the market for a real roof rack, RhinoRack didn't have one at the time for full rails, Prospeed was only available in UK, and yada yada yada. Anyhow... I ended up just ditching the full rails and leaving the back half of the roof channels *****. No one can tell or knows about it, except for me. Serves no real purpose except for aesthetics, that no one can see.

My point is, just get the Prospeed roof rack. On the plus side, you can probably find someone that wants to swap your full rails and gutters with theirs with or without the half rails and make a little money. But that's niche trying to find someone that wants the full rails.

Ha, ok. I don't really care about getting rid of my existing rails, though if someone wanted them I'd happily part with them. Thanks for the help!

 

[I bring my camera]

I think most full length roof racks will use those holes in the front that are currently being used by your long roof rails. Not sure if they would cover up everything you'd want them to cover up, though.

Yeah, I'm finding that out. I just want the holes filled by the rack. I'm not super picky about how everything looks as long as I'm not inviting water into the vehicle.

 

[cperez]

Yeah, I'm finding that out. I just want the holes filled by the rack. I'm not super picky about how everything looks as long as I'm not inviting water into the vehicle.

Of course leaving those channels open would also attract environmental debris like leaves, twigs, insects, other funk. Even if I never saw it I would not enjoy the thought of a botany experiment happening on my Rover's roof.

 

[dschwartzaz]

When i pulled off the short rails to install the Front Runner rack there was a lot of leaves, clumped dirt, etc beneath. Same goes for the the front strips covering the lower part of the roofline so even if you do install/make new channel covers I doubt it will keep much out. That said, as long as all of the actual threaded bolt holes are filled with either a well-fitting bolt or sealed over some how, I don't see how any water can get into the vehicle as the channel is actually molded into the metal of the roof with no visible *********** points - save for the threaded holes. Even those don't appear to go through to roof itself but rather some sort of nut welded into the shaped roof so even if left open I still don't think a *********** point for water to enter vehicle.

 

[avslash]

Don't overthink this.

Either do what Land Rover did from the factory and get a few of the "fir tree" inserts and push them into the threaded holes in the roof, or just thread a bolt into them with a rubber washer if you want to really obsess about it.

I THINK they are M6's, but don't quote me on that. It has been a while since I put my rack on the truck.

Correction via post below. They are M6

 

[AdventureTim]

Some advice from someone who's currently dealing with a sheared off bolt in the roof of their LR4:

The Front Runner rack attaches via four M6 threaded mounting points on each side. From the factory, these are plugged with those black plastic "fir tree" plugs mentioned above. When I removed mine (and the car was little more than a year old), they were filled with rust/scale. Take the time to run a tap through them to clear out the threads, and then put anti-seize on the bolts - it'll pay dividends in the future.

There are plastic rail guides that sit in the channels (they're metal-backed). You can keep them in place when you mount the Front Runner rack.