Roof rack DIY

How did you mount the c channel? Just bolt a piece of angle in there? That’s what I was wondering

 

I had to cut everything to size and then drill one hole on one part and then mark the other part and drill a matching hole

Everything is bolted together. Roughly 55 bolts are holding the entire rack together.

 

My advice is take your time and don't expect to finish in a day

 

Oh, I get that. Welder/Fabricator by trade. I appreciate your efforts

 

Congrats Harley. You've accomplished something only 1% of the owners have, and that's build it not buy it. I'm making everything myself also and it's not easy at my age, but fun as hell. These deep wallet guys will run out of money long before I run out of steel. LMAO.
Zim

Edit; I'm very lucky to be able to do this and don't mean any disrespect to those who can't. I actually believe everyone can build things with a little guidance and help.
Z

 

If you want pictures of mounting brackets and what not, let me know.
I believe I will be making some type of platform in the near future, as well as welding the majority of the roof rack together, to eliminate weak points created by using so many bolts. Also, powder coating will be a must later this year after welding.

 

really appreciate the comment. I've got a full roof rack and bed rack that I made myself all for under $300, saving myself roughly $1600, due to crazy shipping prices to hawaii. Its a very fulfilling feeling, being able to create things for myself.

 

Sub'd for the win. Nice build. I'm in process of building mine from aluminum of similar outline. This is so inspiring that you did it in 3 days. It's taken me 3 months to cobble together parts and the side channels the way I want them, and still have to cut holes for bungees and hand holds. I went with extrusion from 80/20 because it's pretty strong, and you can mount accessories to it easily. It's just expensive as hell, but buy once cry once. Have to do bushing swap and finish my suspension lift today, then on to the rack.
Great job again, so awesome.

PS - on the wind fairing, did you cut straight across and find it was noisy, and then do the cutouts like prisnu, or did you mimic their fairing for other reasons?

 

Thanks for the comment. Good luck with your build(s). Damn I thought taking 3 days was slow, but I appreciate the support. Haha

As far as the fairing, I know I didn't like the victory 4x4 and caliraised style, where there was just one long curve across the entire thing because I thought it looked strange. So I opted for the side angled cuts right from the beginning. I did have to adjust my center to clear the roof as well as I had to use a small piece of angle iron that I bolted to the back for rigidity.

 

I’ll be doing the same with the 80/20 and aluminum. How wide of a piece did you use to cut out your sides?

 

You can color me impressed. Nice work!

 

3/16", with the angles that will be welded to them being 1/4" x 1. I took it to a local fab shop with a cardboard blank, and had them plasma cut it for me, for some unknown reason. Came back all jacked up, so I had about an hour of grinding with angle grinder to get the shape perfect to the roof line of the truck. On the second side, I just bought the piece of rectangular 3/16 and cut it myself in about 25 mins with a jigsaw and metal blades. Spent the last week or so installing new suspension setup, little bit everyday. Will get to the rack next week.

 

That’s my plan is to jog saw it. I was just curious how wide your sides are could you have cut them out of 4” plate or did you do 6”.

 

This looks sweet! One question- how did you mount the cross bars to the side plates?

 

Very nice!

 

Damn fine work. Beautiful scenery too

 

I fabricated brackets from the c-channel for mounting the side rails to the roof and the cross bars and wind fairing to the rails

 

Thanks! That's what it looked like in the picture with the paint. Looks like only 1 bolt connecting the cross bar to the bracket you made?

I'll probably be making something similar this week

 

That turned out really nice!

 

Yes the cross bar to bracket connection is plenty strong enough with a single bolt. I used two bolts to mount the cross bar brackets to the side rail so that it would not be able to rotate