Roof top cargo and aftermarket racks

[tucsontom]

Great looking set up!

Clean! What type of rack is that? Kind of looks like a Baja rack but it's not. Also what type of rock sliders are you running. I like the look and the functionality. Well thought out. Security, water proof. Modular. I do the same - pack a bunch of light, space hogging stuff up top so it does not raise the center of gravity much and keep the heavy stuff in the truck. Seriously nice job!
My LR4 does not arrive for 2 months but I want to set it up for what looks like the same goals you have.

 

[jwest]

The number 1 requirement for me was to not have a permanent rack so my approach is different than a lot of the folks on this forum. I also have a storage lift mounted to my garage rafters that I use to support and store the basket when it is not on the truck. This also makes it easier to pack and to mount once it is packed.

Mine is sort of a blend in that I use 3 bars (6 mount points to roof) and the Hannibal just sits on those secured with 6 bolts top down through the yakima bars. I can do all of the rack solo:

1-place bars with the towers already in place on the bar from last removal into tower "foot" left in factory rail. This is obviously simple and takes about 4 minutes including grabbing them from garage.

2-lift rack and walk over to side with vehicle on lowest low setting. It helps to have LLAMS tool to drop an additional 20mm and NOT to have silly "rods" which leave the roof an unuseful 2" higher. Hannibal rack is not too heavy to lift with nothing mounted on it but I lift it with the rear awning attached as it's kind of a pain to re-install the awning. Doing this lifting keeps you strong

3-slide rack into place, drop the bolts through by hand, start threads by hand, finish with 13mm, done in about 20 minutes.

4-creatively move the ARB RTT to beside the vehicle, without any insides or the heavy cover....gather your wits, find perfectly balanced hand holds with back to the vehicle, lift with legs not back, lean against, find top edge of RTT to rack edge, start to transition weight to rack, pause, move hands, now rack is your helper holding 1/3 the weight and more as you lift up and then slide further on.

5- bolt RTT down to the conveniently spaced slat cross structure. This takes bout as long as the whole process up to this point as there are 4 mount points but each has 2 sliders with a drop bolt and you screw on the nuts from below, sometimes while the waffleboards are already in your way

6-add RTT insides/bedding and zip on the cover.

7-optionally add the 2.5 meter side awning and plug in the rack mounted lighting wiring loom to vehicle via 7 pin trailer plug.

 

[mbw]

Clean! What type of rack is that? Kind of looks like a Baja rack but it's not. Also what type of rock sliders are you running. I like the look and the functionality. Well thought out. Security, water proof. Modular. I do the same - pack a bunch of light, space hogging stuff up top so it does not raise the center of gravity much and keep the heavy stuff in the truck. Seriously nice job!
My LR4 does not arrive for 2 months but I want to set it up for what looks like the same goals you have.

Voyager Off Road, sliders, ladder, low-profile full rack. I also have the fiberglass fairing from voyager, but I fabricated my own mounts for it and used stainless zip ties to attach instead of glueing it on.

I normally just have Farmtek polymax coop flooring on my rack.

I plan to put that back but cut out holes for the EO2 mounts.

Edit:

I do want a permanent rack, The voyager attaches with 8 bolts directly into the roof. this thing is crazy strong. Must weigh near 100lb, but I can stand on it 200+ lb person can easily stand on the thing without it bending. For how I use it, I like that I don't have to worry about it bending or worry about the factory rails, etc.

I like some of the other racks, frontrunner, etc, they have nice mount systems built in. The voyager is steel 1" bar, so its not hard to mount anything to it, but you do have to design your own mounts. Most generic rack bar mounting kits work on 1" bar. U bolts work, zip ties, you can even add other metal bars, use generic hardware to change the bar configuration.

 

[danrhiggins]

That looks very sharp, mow. And functional, too. Were I to go with a permanent rack some day a setup like this looks perfect. How do you like your Voyager sliders? I'm heading to Overland Expo this week and one of the things I want to check out are sliders.

 

[mbw]

That looks very sharp, mow. And functional, too. Were I to go with a permanent rack some day a setup like this looks perfect. How do you like your Voyager sliders? I'm heading to Overland Expo this week and one of the things I want to check out are sliders.

Lots of good options for sliders. Voyagers are heavy duty, great step shape. Some on here dont like them because they dont go as far under the vehicle as the other options. For me, I rarely actually need that much armor on my rig and if I did rub, I dont see much that I could bust between my sliders and the rails. From the factory these things handle average off roading just fine. I don't ever plan to really rock crawl or do anything extreme anyway.

So for me, its a weight tradeoff. Better protection exists, but 99.99% of the time its not needed and I dont want anything that will make noise or make the compressor louder. The voyagers fit and finish is perfect and they never make noise.

full disclosure, i did have a rust issue on them but voyager took them back and totally stripped them down, re coated them, re powdered them... sent them back. They survived this last winter in Iowa and I haven't seen rust. But they are steel.. so beware.

old photo..

 

[smorris]

I just received the 18" extension for the basket and the lights and light mounting brackets yesterday. I'll be putting it all together this weekend and when it's done I'll share pics.

Dan,

It is probably too late now, but I haven't peeked in for a while. When assembling the extension, put some sort of sealant around the male tube sections and the bolts. This keeps water out, and stops rust inside from running down the side of the vehicle.

I don't have a suggestion for sealant, as I used clear bathroom silicon. It works OK as a sealant, but some of it must have melted when the rails got hot in the sun. So instead of rust dripping, I had sealant dripping...

If too late, just do it when you take it off at the end of the season. I'm painting mine with chassis epoxy paint, assembled, bolts and all, after five years on the roof.

Steve

 

[tucsontom]

"mbw" - Farmtek coop flooring - that is awesome. Keeps all the loose cords and straps from finding a way to tap away on the roof while driving. No matter how I pack - that seems to eventually happen. Most of my travels are in the desert so I usually throw lots of bags etc. on the roof and then use a bungy net and snug it all down. The grated flooring is a great idea for a number of reasons.

Question. Looks like you bought the non-overlapping flooring. Are those the "stainless zip ties" that you mentioned prior that you used to attach the coop flooring?

Stainless zip ties - never heard of them -but I can see how it could be a part of the above system and having extras in the vehicle would be good - where do you get them? I have 36" long regular zip ties (used for flex duct in construction) and have found that those can solve the occasional odd problem encountered during travel,camping for me or others.

Is that how you attached the coop flooring - the zip ties? Hard to tell in photo - but it looks clean. if not - can you share that in more detail? Thanks - and again - nice clean thoughtful details.

 

[mbw]

I have put it on a few different ways. You can overlap it, or just put a tiny gap between them to cover more of the back. You don't really even need to notch them to fit.

I use plastic zip ties for the flooring. Stainless for the more permanent wind fairing.

The flooring is great. I can walk around on it and it bends a little but wont break. I can put a camp chair up there and just hang out.

 

[mbw]

Figured I should post about the wind fairing mounts and the stainless zip ties.

Wood blocks, painted, drilled some holes. Used A silicone adhesive (marine stuff I had laying around from my boat) to glue the block to the fiberglass. Then just zip tied to the rack.

 

[danrhiggins]

Dan,

It is probably too late now, but I haven't peeked in for a while. When assembling the extension, put some sort of sealant around the male tube sections and the bolts. This keeps water out, and stops rust inside from running down the side of the vehicle.

I don't have a suggestion for sealant, as I used clear bathroom silicon. It works OK as a sealant, but some of it must have melted when the rails got hot in the sun. So instead of rust dripping, I had sealant dripping...

If too late, just do it when you take it off at the end of the season. I'm painting mine with chassis epoxy paint, assembled, bolts and all, after five years on the roof.

Steve

Not too late as it is easy enough to pull apart later. It has been getting its first workout as I loaded it up for my drive to Overland Expo this week. It has been great though I did adjust the spacing of the crossbars to better position them under the middle of the two end sections. I had them spaced pretty far apart. Now all is good. Plenty of clearance for the ladder when the gate is up. Plenty of clearance to open the sun roof all the way. (The basket actually sits above it.)

Now I just need to ... wait ... that should be a different thread. ;-)