my buddy got this roof rack for his truck and it has a bar for his spot lights incorporated into it along with the spare tire.

thing is, he does a lot of off-roading where there are low-lying trees and tight paths. we are worried that if the roof rack were bolted to the roof, it would shear part of the roof if the roof-rack were to get caught on a tree or something.

so, we are looking at alternative ideas that are similar to that of a ski-rack. With straps that would break before the roof were made into a permanent sun-roof, ya know?

here is a pic of the truck:

 

FLRERUNNER on Gen Edge had a roof rack mounted to the roof of his truck, but it leaked and rattled a lot, so he custom built a roll bar and attached the rack to it.

heres a pic


heres his cardomain
http://www.cardomain.com/memberpage/603347/4

 

hmm, i would think if a strap was strong enough to hold a rack on on the highway, its strong enough to seriously damage some sheet metal if he hits something with it. bottom line is, if hes going to hit something with it, he doesnt need it. there is hardly any safe way to mount it that wouldnt cause any damage if he ran it into something that didnt move

 

The rack my friend has basically looks like the rack FLRERUNNER had without the rollbar attached. But that is a good idea, having the roof rack attached to the rollbar and it may seem, the way that my friend off-roads, that he would make good use of a rollbar. I will suggest it to him.

And you are correct about the straps idea.. personally I wouldn't attach anything to the roof of my truck that has the potential of snagging something and killing the roof. The rollbar idea is a good one, though.. kill the bed and not the cab!

 

Bolt it to the tonneau cover? I mean, instead of drilling holes into the cab roof, why not do it to the tonneau. It'll sit low, and will hurt rear view visibility, but you might be able to rig up a quick release mechanism, or better yet, just stick the spare tire into the bed.

 

Ahhh I forgot about the hard tonneau he has... I don't think the rollbar idea will work, now.

Ok does anyone have any ideas on how to mount the roof rack without drilling into the roof? I had an idea of using bent brackets that fit into the channels right above the doors and a ratcheting strap setup that would tighten it down.. kind of like the bike rack for my mum's car.

 

im going out on a limb here but is there a way you could fabricate a slider to put the rack on with ethier a lock or a study pin to hold it in place when your drving on the street then some sort or tab that will allow the rack to slide off when enough pressure is applied to it. this way its in sturdy on the road and can detach if you hit something. the tabs would have to be desently strong tho so that the rack wont fall off if he goes up a hill.

the only other problem i see with this tho is what kind of damage will be caused by the rack falling. just an idea i was thinking of

 

why not get a WAAG bar or something siliar for his lights....i'm sure that it'll still light up the trail infront of him just as good...

the roof rack thing seems too much trouble...unlessu can just get something that what the stock nissan frontiers have that sits rather low and has that black shield thing on it...u could put lights on that and it's not too tall...

 

The idea was to look similar to this person's truck on the left:

 

hmmmm.....to each his own...i like them and all...they do have a sporty look...but i wouldnt put one on my truck

tell u're friend just to stop goin under low places!

 

if you go off road into the woods a lot the roof rack is going to present a problem
we had to leave Lefty behind a few weeks ago because of his rack, but it is a beautiful piece
I do believe his rack is drilled into the roof

 

yakima makes something that will clip inside of the door and its a quick reliese type thing... the rack they make has lots of options like shovel, light, and tire mounts... a bit pricey tho

 

i say just throw the spare in the bed and just get a light bar or like tippin said mount a bunch on the front bumper

 

if you have a 4 door ranger, you can build it to have it bolt into the gutters, like the kc lightbar...

if my next truck is a ranger, and is 4door, i will do another roofrack and have it bolt into the gutters...

but mine, for now, is drilled into the roof...

 

oh yeah... carl(buckgnarly) i think his roofrack was clipped on somehow..

 

well since he has a hard tonneu cover he could try to reinforce the the underside of the top and mount it to the top and does he have a website and he should get on the site too

 

quite honestly, why would you want a roof rack??? dont have enough room in the bed??



I think they look silly and it would look like you are trying to hard. in any situation, bumper light and MAYBE a light bar would suffice like no other.

 

Carl (buckgnarly) didn't have his on at our meet in Whaton a few weeks ago. I don't recall why he took it off.

 

if i have a 4wheeler filling up the bed of the truck i don't have anywhere to put my bags of duck decoys... if the bed of my truck is full of deer feeders or feed bags, i may not have room for other stuff... it's just an extra place for me to put things. also, when i carry pipe or tubing, i don't want it laying against my roof scartching up the paint, so i lean it on the roofrack and tie it on with bungies.... also, i have reverse lights to mount on the rack... and i have used the rack as a rest for my gun when hog hunting from the bed of my truck..

i use my roofrack all the time.

next time i really use it, i will snap a few pics and you will understand why it comes in handy so often..

 

thats cool christia, but honestly couldnt you do without the roof rack?? there wasnt enough room for your decoys in your supercab? and there wasnt enough room in your truck on your suction cup gun racks?


I dont know, maybe its just me but roof racks arent my thing. In which case maybe I shouldnt have even posted in this thread

 

my supercab has a 15" subwoofer box and amp filling it up... what does my gun rack have to do with any of that? i meant i used the rack as a place for me to lean on while shooting, instead of leaning on the roof... not to carry a gun... i would never have a gun up there while driving around, that would mess it up and would be stupid...

decoy bags wouldn't fit in the truck even if there was nothing in the bed.. you must not know how many decoys one takes hunting... decoy bags are almost too large for the roofrack.. and once the decoys have been in the water, they are soaking wet... i like my interior dry and smelling nice..

i like my roofrack, i use my roofrack... it's my truck...

 

quite honestly, i don't remember asking your opinion on roof racks!

i merely asked for suggestions for mounting the thing to the roof...

i am going to check out yakima.

yes, it is a 4-door. i dunno what the rain gutters are, but if i am thinking correctly - i think that's where i was suggesting that the clips go.

 

thats cool, i wouldnt use a roofrack. and most people wont is all im sayin.

 

oh damn.. most people won't? sh*t because i really was worried what everyone thought about the roofrack.. thanks for the heads up!

i checked out the www.yakima.com and it seems like they've got a good idea with the rain gutter setup. but, i looked at the pic of my friend's truck and it doesn't look like his 4-door has the rain gutters on it.

also, as previously stated by ranger02_4x4, they are too expensive because i know they would break on the trail. i'm gonna ask him if he has rain gutters, however... and perhaps make something similar to the Yakima setup.

mounting it to the tonneau seems like a plausable idea as well. it would kinda look like those prerunner spare tire/cage setups i see on the rangers. cool!

edit: err.. but it is supposed to double as a light bar and i still think those two black trucks look wicked badass with the roof racks!

 

This man speaks the truth....God forbid you are hunting Canadian Geese. Maybe a bag of Quail decoys would fit inside the cab....