Roof Rack Build on a 96--Pics and Taco and My New Ride

Well I finally got around to snapping a few pics of my roof rack. I think I am going to still tweak it a little. The plans are to take it off and mount a bracket that will be permanent. I would like to be able to take it on and off with a simple trailer plug for the electical and 6 wing nuts or lock nuts for the rack itself.

some of the specs:

1" tubing
expanded metal bottom
4 8" procomp lights
2 5" back up lights

I was going to originally go with 4 6" lights, but we only had 8" in stock. the plan was to mount 2 8" looking forward and 2 8" looking to the sides. If I did it again, I would move the center lights more towards the midline. I think it would look a little more balanced. Overall I am very happy. I have loaded it full of stuff when I went to the deer lease. So far its had 11 gallons of gas, 2 gallons of coolant, and a large plastic tote with a bunch of goodies! The lights made a huge difference at night also!

I am also going to mount the winch inside of the front bumper, it kills my approach angle and I want to protect it more!

I also listed my dodge ram on here, I ended up trading it in on a used truck.

It is a 2001 HMCO (4 door open top) Hummer H1. Had 25,000 miles on it. So far I have added a brushguard and interior rack along with brand new 37" Super Swamper TSL's

I work part time at an off road shop north of tomball tx and we specialize in hummer accessories and service so it is one of our brushgaurds that we build in house!

brett

Taco







Hummer

 

why does that bumper look so big on the taco especially from the view looking directly from the front?

 

Bad ass rides their man...Hey you also ain't that far from me.

 

The H1 is pure baller

 

its 6" channel. the winch makes it look bad in my opinion. once i set the winch in the bumper, it should look better. I bought it off craigslist for 200. couldnt beat that deal. Its very stout tho. been debating wether or not to add tubing to it and provide more protection for the hood and front end. I think the bumper comes out about 10" from the truck. If you were talking about it being wide, its the angle. its flush with the sides

brett

 

are you going to try and make it up to alto in april?

brett

 

yeah that dudes one badass

 

where did those pics come from?

brett

 

I used to valet park at the woodlands mall, the hummer was worth the pics!

 

nice looking rides man!

 

thanks. i really thought there would be more interest in the roof rack though. they are not very common for the early first gens

brett

 

how did you mount it to the roof. me like pics please!!!!

 

man ur truck looks like mine cept mine 97 5 lug 4 cly..


i wish lifts were avaliable for mine .. i would make mine look like urs heheh

 

You say you got that bumper off CL? Do you know who made it? Looks like a pretty stout fixture!

 

it looks homemade to me. the welds arent the best (In ascetics not structural) and certainly wouldnt be acceptable for work from a shop. it is very solid and stout but needs some things to be cleaned up a bit. the truck it came off of had a body lift, so i had to remove the mounting brackets and cut them down.

when i remove it from the truck i am going to beef it up when building the winch cradle. at one time it had what looks like a piece of pipe going across the front, but someone had already cut and ground it off.

like i said, i couldnt pass it up for $200. the materials alone would have been pretty high if i was going to have to build one

brett

 

Well, it looks pretty good from where I'm sitting. I also like your roof cargo rack. Nice job. Going to market them?

 

ill try ans take some close ups tomorrow if i remember. basically we rolled some flat iron to match the lines of the roof. then tacked them to the 1" tube supports. I pulled the headliner down and had to search where would be the strongest place since the roof is very flimsy. Ended up drilling thru the supports where the roof starts to form. it is very sturdy and i can stand up there without any concerns. I weight over 200 so its a pretty good load.

brett

 

we were talking about it. believe it or not, it took quite a while to get this once built. between the two of us we have over 24 hours on it. If there was enough interest, we would probably sell them for $400. buyer would have to do own install to include drilling through the bracket when they have decided where exactly they wanted it to fit.

some changes would be made. im in the process of making it easily removable with a permanent mounting plate and trailer connector for the electrical. The back up lights are worth their weight in gold for sure tho!

also, some smaller lights would probably be better. we were just trying to figure it out as we went along. i did this at one of my part time jobs.

www.hummeraccessories.cc

we make all kinds of stuff

brett

 

Roof rack looks pretty badass! Makes the truck look pretty rugged! Nice build!

 

You know, what I'm really looking for is a full cargo rack for my Tacoma. One that will work for carrying lumber, ladders, etc, and for trek/camp gear, that will also serve as a sort of roll protection. Strong, light, decent looking. Haven't found what I'm looking for yet. I may try building one. I have been trying to figure out how to design one that would allow a shell under it and still look decent without the shell.