what about fabbing up a metal shield to place infront of the rack? just letting the branches slide over the rack

 

haha damn dude dont get your panties in a bunch. just my .02.


act like youre gonna have a heart attack over somethin said over the internet.

 

I've also been thinking about putting a roof rack on. Thule has a fitment guide on their website that will tell you what mounting options you have. The kit for my truck (99) is $230 not including basket. It includes the aero foot pack, load bars, and fit kit for a no drill setup. As for ripping it off the best bet is to put a shield in front of it for smaller branches.

 

Here is the gutter kit from KC lights that Christian was talking about.

It makes a gutter when you dont have one. for KC's light bar, you could use like 6 of these and instead of putting the screws take the headliner off and put stainless bolts all the way through for more support. this is how it looks with the KC bar.

 

Those things are pretty pimp!

 

Ya and there only like $15 too. i think if you use atleast 6 of them and bolt them down instead of screwing it "should" work.

 

what i would do is build a roofrack like mine, and ahve the mounts fit into the same spots as those kc mounts do... instead of drilling in the roof...

those kc mounts are absolutely not heavy duty enough for a roofrack...

 

see, i could have had the mounts come out further and then bolt to a solid bar running along the doorlines of teh roof, if i had 4 doors...

it would be very strong and wouldn't hurt anything...

 

Hey Christian is there a nut and washer on the inside above the headliner or is that just a self tapping lag screw? The reason I am asking is
I am going to make something similar to yours for my explorer .

 

self tapping with silicone around it...

 

christian, does u're headliner ever leak?

 

no. never had any leaking or anything...

 

awesome....i like how they look....they just seem very off-road-prepared looking....

 

So would he have to peel back the weatherstrip in order to install the brackets, similar to the KC Lightbar setup, but more durable (as suggested)?

 

yeah... that is what i would do.. i would build two heaveier duty kc-like brackets to be screwed in behind the weather stripping, then i would run a piece of steel from one bracket to the other(probably would use small tubing) and would have that welded to the brackets, creting something like a luggage rack bar... from there, i would attach the rack onto that bar... on each side...

the bar would help to distribute the weight of the rack more, and would make the whole system easy to take off and on, with no risk of leaking...

 

aha sounds like a plan. i was thinking of using bars that run along the top of the doorline, also, to help distribute the weight.

 

Wow! I remeber when I built the roofrack for that guy! He picked it up this summer and still hasnt put it on his truck?

Look if you are worried abotu branches? All you need to do isput guide wires on there like you see on land rovers.

basicly you have two mounting points on your front brushguard at the ends (ie drivers side corner adn passengers side corner) tehn a point on the respective spots on teh roof rack, then tie wire to each point.

So one wire from the roofrack pass side to brushguard pass side. And one wire from driv side roofrack to driv side brushguard.

This provides a guide for the branches to slide up and over adn not get hung up. IT also protects your windshield from limbs.

I would jsut use self tapping eyelet screws, you know the ones with a loop at the end. Also use some heavy duty wire and install tenson screws so teh wires dont get slack.

Mount that rack to the roof and be done with it, he spent too much money for it to sit on the ground!

 

oh yeah i realized he doesnt ahve a brushgurad, so jsut mout the screws at the corners of the fenders, above the corner lights. IF you are worried about holes in your truck you are in the wrong sport, offroading is about function not always pretty trucks

 

here is a little photoshop thing i made of that, back when i first got my rack...

i won't do it on this truck, as i don't offroad enough, but the next truck will get em..

i wanna be like the discovery guys...

 

^ with a rack and lights like that, though, it would sever no purpose... it would just guid the tree limbs into my lights, lol...

you'd have to do a totally different design, i would want the lights to be inside the rack and protected by bars...

 

Heh... i had no idea this post was going on... anywho, its my truck that is being discussed... Here is the problem i have run into... The rack design is flawed... my fault, I didnt think of the exact mounting points to attach it when i drew it up from scratch. Here is the trouble... IF i were to bolt my rack to my roof like Christian's, it wouldnt have the support due to the mounting point location on the roof. They are on the flatspots and they dont extend out far enough. WHen i thought of this all i should have thought about attachment then built from there... instead it was built and then i thought about the problems i would run into if i just bolted it on. I DO have a 4 door however, i dont see the difference in gutter settups. I will snap some pics of the rack itself so you guys get an idea.

 

Drama. :)

 

I thought that was your truck. What you guys been up to up in the great white north. This is way off-topic, buts whats up with the Splash, ever get the engine in? Last I had heard, it was raffled off, but it wasn't a creadable source, so who knows any more.

 

err... the trucks in my garage... no idea where you heard that it would be raffled off from but ya gotta love the rumors!