Custom roof basket access cab build

Damn it man! Where were you with this advice when I was building mine? I've yet to make any sort if glare shields for the lights.

 

I used plastidip on my hood and it works great to keep the glare down. I also mounted my lights about 18" back from the top of the windshield.

 

Ive built a few structures on top of vans, a suburban and a few trailers. I can tell you that you definitely need more threads than you can cut in 22g steel on the roof. Its only a little more than 1/64" and if you get one full thread I would be surprised.
Test how. Much force you need to rip the screw out of some scrap atleast.

Consider some pieces of 1/8" steel to back those screws up under the headliner. If you dont want to take down the headliner then atleast consider threaded rivets. They work great in blind holes.
http://www.rivetsinstock.com/rivet-nuts-threaded-inserts.html

I have been less prepared before and managed to rip my rig right off of my roof.
With the plates we ripped a roof right off a trailer like a sardine can, but it was the roof or the bridge and the bridge won.

 

sorry man

unless you can keep the light completely off of the windshield, moving the rack itself back will work better than shields or a hood blackout. a lot of people see the hood light up and think that's what's catching them in the eyeballs, but most of the time, the bigger issue is light refracting off of the windshield itself.

dang, that's pretty far back. you should be sittin pretty

 

here's what mine looks like lit up, the cut off is just past the bottom of the windshield.

 

^^^ well done. looks like the cutoff is right at the wildshield sprayers

 

Thanks for looking out man, yea I am completely redesigning the brackets to be alot thicker and am going to drill thru the roof and secure with a nuton the interior side by taking the headlights off

 

here's my first one. way too far forward. pretty much lit up the entire windshield




new one has the lights even with the mounting holes, which puts the cutoff just a little closer the the base of the windshield than yours. we do have to keep in mind that light height will affect this as well.

 

Headliner* not headlights
autocorrect..

 

would hate to see a thread titled "look what happened when my roof rack flew off on the highway:

 

Damn that's perfect cutoff on the light. My wife would have my head if I derped the hood. Some women just don't understand.

 

I have no one to tell me no, sometimes it gets me in trouble.

 

I miss having that "problem". LOL

 

New plan thanks to the help of colinb17, gonna drill holes and weld in some bolts flush with the sheetmetal in the recessed rain groove on the roof so it is both strong and easy to bolt and unbolt the rack. When the rubber rainguard is in place there is literally no way to tell.
that will be the next step after the basket itself is complete

 

Just posting up the picture I sent you in case someone stumbles upon this thread later on and is trying to visualize what you're talking about....



Note: bead should go all of the way around the nut if feasable. only drawn as two tack welds for visualization purposes.

 

It's going to be hard to drill the rain rail if i recall correctly that's where the main cab supports are like a roll bar almost.

 

I drilled it to run extra wires without problems. it may be more substantial directly above the a-c pillars, but i drilled nearby to the factory roof rack holes and want to say it was just double layerd sheet steel.

 

just saying be careful especially if you have side curtain airbags.

 

this is true. i don't have have any of those goodies, but i did tell Brad in a pm to pop down the headliner before any drilling because there is stuff tucked up in there.

 

in my truck that's where the wires to the 3rd brake light run