Mounting a roof rack on a camper shell?

Hello, I’ve got an 02 Tacoma extracab with a 6ft bed/camper shell. It’s not a boat top (I wish it was) but I have a Curt rack that I want to mount on top of it. My friend that will be installing it wants to mount it like he did his - straight to the shell without crossbars. I was looking at this thread

https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/camper-shell-roof-racks.332749/

And wanted to know what you would recommend, should I mount the rack straight to the shell with no cross bars or should I install crossbars first, then put the rack on it?

 

On my old Tacoma I put quick rails on the side of my canopy which are a 6” gutter attachment and then used smittybuilt gutter clamps to get it up a few inches, then ran some 1” square tubing as crossbars and mounted my rack to those. I like having the rack up above the canopy about 4 inches so you can reach under it to clean it and also for strapping things into the rack. If you go really high it looks stupid though. Seems like mounting straight to the canopy would be easier and cheaper though. My 4runner rack was down closer to the top of the cab and it was hard to strap stuff up there.

Now I just have a high rise canopy on my truck and the extra head room is nice!

 

Where did you find that hi rise camper? I have a shell that is flush with the cab but want a hi rise like yours instead.

 

It was on it when I bought it. The tag on the canopy is from a local place here in Spokane.

 

I bolted mine directly through the shell. Used some foam on top and aluminum plates underneath to spread the weight out better