Interior Overhead Molle Rack

Thanks for your input, few things:

I have 4 larger fire extinguisher’s mounted in the horizontal position on my heavy duty chassis 96 international 26 ton work truck. You wanna talk vibration that bitch rattles herself apart off road all the time. Yet not a single fire extinguisher has ever popped out of its holder, I’ve found extinguisher’s with the tops rattle’d right off from the vibration but I’ve never had one missing out of its holder.

If you really think it’s an issue I can go pull an old work truck out of the grave yard screw a much larger fire extinguisher directly to the roof and make a whistlin diesel type of video and find out how much stuff I got to run into head on before it comes out of its holder..

 

Has anyone found a means to close the gap between the factory dome light insert and the MESO mount on the sunroof hexrack?

I purchased and took receipt of this hexrack recently but I don't think I'm going to install it until I can come up with a resolution. That gap does not look good to me.

 

I have never noticed the gap on mine even a single time after installing it. I don't think it's worth not installing over.

 

It’s more obvious with the stock halogen dome light because it reflects light backwards and illuminates the headliner. If you have A MESO dome it’s completely dark and you don’t really see anything behind it.

 

And the watch continues for them to be restocked!!!

 

I am eagerly awaiting the restock of the MESO v2 multi-color dome lights

 

Yes me 2!

 

I love mine. I’m waiting on the v2 map lights !

 

Got mine installed today. Great product, as usual. However that install video left a lot to be desired. Went way too fast and didn't explain things clearly. I had to go back and watch things over multiple times to try and see details not mentioned. Some questions I struggled with:

- What orientation does the install screw go into the jack nut?
- At what point to install the light housing into the rack? It was never mentioned and just shows up 2/3 into the video already installed.
- When you say small screw, you really mean the medium screw, since the small ones are used for the light housing.
- What is the correct orientation of the factory light housing?

I figured it all out, but it would have saved me a lot of frustration of those things were explained and not assumed that the person watching already knows the answers.

 

I mean... some people don't make install videos at all for their products, and you have to rely on a customer to hopefully make one, or figure it out yourself.
I found the video to be a great overall guide on how it's suppose to go, with a few things to figure out on your own, such as putting the little screws in the light mount that only seemed to fit one way that meso showed installed prior to mounting the rack.

I'm gonna go out on a limb here and assume you've never put together IKEA furniture?

 

The install bolt wasn't in a separate bag marked "install screw?"

 

I think he's upset that he used the words "small screw" in the video instead of "hex bolt" or "medium screw marked with INSTALL SCREW in big letters that is the only screw that doesn't match all the other screws used for mounting the rack or light assembly"

 

Yeah. I dunno. The bolt and jack nut will only work in the tool one way as well.

 

Actually IKEA furniture is great, and it gets a bad rap. But IKEA furniture comes with written paper directions. I don't need a video, but my telekinesis skills are a little sub par I suppose.

Which screw to use wasn't where I was confused. It could have gone into the jack nut from either direction. Simply showing the camera which direction to thread the screw into wouldn't have hurt.

Again, I'm not dogging on the product, MESO makes great stuff. But an install like this is a little too complicated to rely on people to figure out on their own.

 

I brought the non sun roof over head molle rack and the oem grab handle retainer kit. I am trying to switch out the screws for black screws. Have any body switched it out? If so what size and type of screw should I be looking for? Thanks.

 

Okay! I took the dive and installed the sunroof hexrack despite my concerns about the gap between the factory dome insert and the dome light itself.

I'm blown away by the thought and attention @MESO put into this thing. I agree that the full picture will be pulled together with a meso v2 dome light, so again, I'm greatly anticipating the restock. The gap does exist but it does not pull the eye as much as I was concerned it might. The hexrack itself hugs the roof's shaped molding uniformly and adds a really nice aesthetic. It's also sturdy as can be. I just took the truck down a dirt road, with significant washboard, at speed and the rack appears entirely un-effected. Another win, Stu. Thanks for the work you do!

 

thx Me-so! my wife is happy she got more room 2 hang more sh!t

 

A few photos to show how I converted the Sunroof panel to fit my Access Cab. I know the photos are huge. Wish they weren't, but I'm lucky that I got some attached at all, so I dare not try to reduce them.

Rear anchors line up perfectly (the hat hooks) so nothing different there.
The front comes up too short to plug into the overhead light bolt holes.
However, I reversed the plastic light adapter (MESO made) in the “u” shape cut-out of the panel. That did allow the through bolts to line up with the installed jacknuts in the ceiling.

Now the issue was the two small screws on either side of the light fixture. I had to elongate the holes in the aluminum panel for alignment, a mere fraction of an inch. Maybe someday, MESO will re-work that plastic light adapter a few millimeters to perfectly center it, then it will work forward or rearward. Of course this will allow it to be installed wrong by someone with the sunroof model at some point (Murphy’s Law), but it would sure simplify adapting this panel to the Access Cab market.

At this point:

• The plastic light housing/adapter mounts to the ceiling using the long bolts. (I used larger diameter washers here because of the oblong holes in the plastic and wanted to have metal to add strength. They show in the photo.)
• The plastic light housing/adapter mounts to the panel in the “u” shape cutout using the short bolts.
• The panel mounts to the rear bulkhead using the medium bolts and spacers.
• Because the light housing/adapter is now mounted backwards, a large portion of the ceiling recess (for orig factory light) is visible. And ugly! But... I am quite deaf (from my time of turbines & M2 .50 cals.) and require an additional speaker for my comms. That speaker filled the void I created perfectly and is now right close to my “good” ear. (One photo will show the red/white speaker wire I ran prior to mounting.)

The worst issue about reversing the light adapter is that the panel is relying on the plastic light housing/adapter alone for structural strength. Not good!
To enhance the strength I installed two metal braces (1 x 1/4 alu strips) from the ceiling jacknuts to the originally designed mount holes in the panel. They attach to the panel without the light adapter betwixt them.

Because the light itself has depth, it required spaces for those bolts (from strips to panel). (Note that the photo of these bolts show two different types. I actually used a third type not in any photo. The photo also shows a two piece spacer; I changed to a one piece. More on all of that in a bit.)

• Now the panel is supported from the ceiling, just at a bit longer moment (arm); which could compromise weight load. But I’m not keen on too much weight up there anyway due to crash-worthiness!
• The light adapter is in place and functioning.
• The rear mounts are secured in the rear bulkhead as designed.
• I now have a functioning, centrally located, auxiliary speaker for my ham and CB radios.

And it all is in my ’17 Access Cab!

The photo of my alu braces (strips) shows them in design stage. Final product has the bends in the proper locations, the proper size holes, and are painted black.
The proper size holes were about more than just allowing the bolt to pass through. My 3rd iteration of bolt type ended up being a carriage bolt, with the square nut (under the flat head) wedged / fitted into the alu strip. No good photos of it though, dang it. That locked-in carriage bolt also allowed me to simply tighten the nut at the panel (no back-up wrench up against the head liner needed).

The speaker was mounted using aircraft grade nutplates. But the MESO jacknuts would work just fine. I did have to drill the holes to get perfect centering alignment of the speaker. That wasn't a problem, because just as the jacknuts don’t go through the outside of the roof, I was able to just drill into the same structural doubler which is dropped down off the roof skin.

My photos are crappy and far too few. I was more interested in getting it all to work than I was in taking photos to share. My bad.
Can only hope it all makes sense.

 

Baseball hat slip/hook prototype. Slip the bill through the larger slit. I haven't printed it yet, but I will post pictures of the progression.