Land Rover Joe
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- Joined
- Apr 10, 2011
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Greetings custom Roof Rack fans,
I am posting pictures of my Rover Racks LR4 Roof Rack Modifications—recently done for long-distance off-road driving in Africa. Seek the following FLIKR site:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/59137225@N07/
Here is an outline of my modifications to the Rover Rack Voyager Rack for the LR3/LR4:
1) I put plywood flooring in, and then stained and varnished it to improve the appearance and make it more dust/water resistant. The flooring addition includes a fairly (at least to me) innovative solution for mounting four fuel cans above the driver’s compartment (sun roof). The flooring is bolted to the rack where your accessory light mounting points are located, and then overlaps against the tubular steel in the rear. Because this flooring assembly is going to support the weight of four jerry cans, I reinforced it with 1.5mm steel (local fabrication) to prevent braking under load, minimizing warping, and reduce vibration under stress. It is bolted throughout and all bolting (like the four mounted for the fuel can holders) are tack-welded for ease of use (so I don’t keep dropping nuts on the glass roof when I remove things). The jerry cans are the new steel Wedco variety and the holders are the low-profile model available from expedition exchange.
2) I also had dual use jack-stand / HiLift-Jack feet fabricated out of plywood to match the flooring and mounted on the roof rack. These feet bolt directly onto the flooring from above with long-bolts and can be easily removed from the flooring due to the steel plate underneath with the usual nuts tack welded for ease of use. My shovel is fixed to the rack flooring using the hardware from Rover Racks, and the sand ladders are fixed using a combination of roof rack mounts available from OK OFF Road and my custom fabrication to bolt the whole assembly for ease of use (same deal: tack welded nuts). I am missing the hi-lift jack carrier because I am waiting for the black plastic hard case (available from jackguard) which will bolt on to the passenger side of the flooring.
3) The big innovation we fabricated were the movable/removable bolt-on assemblies I had faced with matching wood. I consider this a Rover Rack “improvement.” My overall design philosophy is for flexibility and mulit-use, with an eye for aesthetics. The original idea actually came from Rover Racks detachable bolt-on light guard assembly (what a great idea!). I did not like the prefabricated jack and shovel mounts for the side of the roof rack because I didn’t like the way they looked (I prefer cleaner lines on the roof rack rails); this along with the fact that I distrust side-mounted gear, is why I didn’t have them as part of my rack when I purchased a year ago. Yet, I really like the flexibility to either hang shovels or use the rails for tie down points if needed. The purpose of the assemblies is to provide removable locations for such uses which can be modified/changed as required (they can be fixed anywhere along the length of the roof rails or horizontal tubular steel as the shape allows it to conform to the varying height of the upper roof rack rail). I have protected the powder coat with the application of some industrial electrical tape. I would like to eventually rubberize the inside of the assembly so that it will not mar or scratch the steel tubing. Still thinking about the best way to go about that and for now the electrical tape should do the trick. There are a total of 10 pairs of assemblies: two oversize with wood facing which mount in the front portion of the roof rack (drivers compartment), four large with wood facing which mount along the second half of the roof rack, and then another four small with no facing which also mount along the second half of the roof rack. I don’t have the smaller but heavier mounts shown on the pictures, but they were used to put the shovel and hi-lift jack on the demonstration when it was ground-mounted on the bench.
Hope folks find my latest project interesting and am open to critiques/criticism,
Land Rover Joe
I am posting pictures of my Rover Racks LR4 Roof Rack Modifications—recently done for long-distance off-road driving in Africa. Seek the following FLIKR site:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/59137225@N07/
Here is an outline of my modifications to the Rover Rack Voyager Rack for the LR3/LR4:
1) I put plywood flooring in, and then stained and varnished it to improve the appearance and make it more dust/water resistant. The flooring addition includes a fairly (at least to me) innovative solution for mounting four fuel cans above the driver’s compartment (sun roof). The flooring is bolted to the rack where your accessory light mounting points are located, and then overlaps against the tubular steel in the rear. Because this flooring assembly is going to support the weight of four jerry cans, I reinforced it with 1.5mm steel (local fabrication) to prevent braking under load, minimizing warping, and reduce vibration under stress. It is bolted throughout and all bolting (like the four mounted for the fuel can holders) are tack-welded for ease of use (so I don’t keep dropping nuts on the glass roof when I remove things). The jerry cans are the new steel Wedco variety and the holders are the low-profile model available from expedition exchange.
2) I also had dual use jack-stand / HiLift-Jack feet fabricated out of plywood to match the flooring and mounted on the roof rack. These feet bolt directly onto the flooring from above with long-bolts and can be easily removed from the flooring due to the steel plate underneath with the usual nuts tack welded for ease of use. My shovel is fixed to the rack flooring using the hardware from Rover Racks, and the sand ladders are fixed using a combination of roof rack mounts available from OK OFF Road and my custom fabrication to bolt the whole assembly for ease of use (same deal: tack welded nuts). I am missing the hi-lift jack carrier because I am waiting for the black plastic hard case (available from jackguard) which will bolt on to the passenger side of the flooring.
3) The big innovation we fabricated were the movable/removable bolt-on assemblies I had faced with matching wood. I consider this a Rover Rack “improvement.” My overall design philosophy is for flexibility and mulit-use, with an eye for aesthetics. The original idea actually came from Rover Racks detachable bolt-on light guard assembly (what a great idea!). I did not like the prefabricated jack and shovel mounts for the side of the roof rack because I didn’t like the way they looked (I prefer cleaner lines on the roof rack rails); this along with the fact that I distrust side-mounted gear, is why I didn’t have them as part of my rack when I purchased a year ago. Yet, I really like the flexibility to either hang shovels or use the rails for tie down points if needed. The purpose of the assemblies is to provide removable locations for such uses which can be modified/changed as required (they can be fixed anywhere along the length of the roof rails or horizontal tubular steel as the shape allows it to conform to the varying height of the upper roof rack rail). I have protected the powder coat with the application of some industrial electrical tape. I would like to eventually rubberize the inside of the assembly so that it will not mar or scratch the steel tubing. Still thinking about the best way to go about that and for now the electrical tape should do the trick. There are a total of 10 pairs of assemblies: two oversize with wood facing which mount in the front portion of the roof rack (drivers compartment), four large with wood facing which mount along the second half of the roof rack, and then another four small with no facing which also mount along the second half of the roof rack. I don’t have the smaller but heavier mounts shown on the pictures, but they were used to put the shovel and hi-lift jack on the demonstration when it was ground-mounted on the bench.
Hope folks find my latest project interesting and am open to critiques/criticism,
Land Rover Joe
