JD's Slow Homemade Roof/Light Rack

Been toying with the idea of making my own rack. I have never made anything of this sort before. I haven't even welded a tack weld in my life. Yet I want to try this and see what happens. Stepdad has a welder and conduit bender so that's what I will be using. Only other tools will be a grinder, drill, hand tool, whatever else I may need. I do construction so I have a good amount of stuff. Just nothing specifically for this stuff.

I plan to make it out of 3/4" EMT conduit. I just found out that I need to grind where I will be welding since it is galvanized. Ill be wearing a mask so I don't breath the stuff in. I plan to start in a week or two. This will take me at least a month to make since I will only get time here and there to work on it. Hardest part for me I think will be getting all 6 mounts to line up.

I want to make the light rack detachable so that I can have just the basket or the basket and light rack as well. When the light rack is not on I plan to put wind plate/shield on the front. Thinking about making the basket 4-5" deep. Haven't decided on a floor yet or what material. Maybe some type of mesh. Still need to decide how many lights I want but that's not a big decision. Thinking 3 or 4. I want the lights to run into a plug so I can easily disconnect them when I take the light rack off. As far as running to wires to the battery I have no idea the best way. I'm hoping to get feedback from everyone to help me out. Especially if you have made one before.

I will get a sketch up of what I have in mind. Still need to fugure out how I'm going to mount it to the stck locations. I have eyeballed all the builds on here and have a lot of ideas.

Here are some pictures. I want to incorporate a little bit of each of these.







Looking forward to your imput and thanks in advance.

 

I think go for it! More power to you for wanting to build your stuff yourself! Thats how I started doing all the fab work I do now.

 

SUB'D!!! this is gonna be awesome...good luck Jonathan!

 

I built one like the one on the red truck above its a lot of work but its worth it so sweet looking and useful.....I have 4 lightforce 9inchers on my rack....

Im thinking of attatching it to my bed cage if i decided to go that route for my long travel......with a roll bar type thing...

 

Thanks man. I do look up to you. haha. If I had a 4x4 I would have already bought a plate bumper from you. lol. My next tacoma when I pay this off will be a 4x4 and I will be sure to hit you up. I just want to try something new and see how well I can get the hang of it.

Thanks bud! I'm excited too. Be patient with me because it may take a while!!!

That's another thing. I don't know what size lights I want. How is the noise on the freeway?

 

Messed around with the cheap welder I have. Tried about 7 or 8 welds. This conduit is really hard to weld with. Doesn't make it better given this was my first time welding. After talking to Roland (yoytoda), he suggested in regular steel tubing instead but a little thinner walled to reduce weight. I really liked this stuff due to the fact it's about half the weight of regular steel. But I may just do the regular. Thoughts? Given it's my first welding project and this thing doesn't have to be super strong I could get by with it. Here is my weld.

 

pretty cool looking

 

It's really hard. I'm hoping regular steel will be easier.

 

thats pretty sweet man. nice job!

 

Thanks Joey. Can't wait to be finished. I gotta start first though. lol

 

Awesome.... Good luck Deegan

 

Thank you Brian. Better not sell your truck!

 

Conduit is cheap! Perfect for Roof racks

 

Agreed! It's light too. Just sucks to weld as I found out today. lol

 

what wall thickness conduit are you using?

 

That's funny. Usually I'm in your position with the popcorn. Now I'm on the other side. Kind of scary.

 

Haha yeah but if you pull it off it will be awesome.

 

.172" I guess. Here is the link:
http://www.homedepot.com/Electrical...splay?langId=-1&storeId=10051&catalogId=10053

 

Yea. I was actually thinking of just making a light rack. Would be easier. I guess if I can do this I will make a seperate light rack.