Sherpa Grand Teton roof rack owners

Clearly it did not happen that weekend. A couple sunny days - enough time to clean off the truck from a winter's worth of rain and duff and then it was time to drill holes in the cab. I was NOT looking forward to this process. I dislike taking the headliner out so much... hopefully this is the last time.

Ready to battle the cab roof:


This is the main problem... I really didn't want to take the camper off but drilling for that back hole was making me feel nauseous.


A friend turned me on to these cool deep-hole marking pens!


Not the recommended approach for center punching...


This drill kicked this problems ass! Fit just barely and I was able to drill a pilot hole from the outside no problem! PHEW.


I drilled the holes bigger from the inside, assembled with nice fasteners (the folks at Sherpa were incredibly helpful but did not condone substituting the supplied rivnuts...) and then slathered the whole thing with Sikaflex. I also trimmed the gutter covers to go around the little rubber mounts.




Bolted down...


And, with the water tank mounted. I sort of out thought myself here - the bolts are right in the middle of that tube and I almost had to go find a small child to reach under the rack to get the fasteners on, but 15 minutes of swearing and fiddling and I got the thing on tight.


All assembled!

 

where's the best place to order these

and how important is it to be having this 1/4" metal higher dynamic and static load ratings
versus every other rack being 3/16" with lower load ratings

or even the new Sport, priced "cheaper" (priced what a Grand Teton was like a month ago)

Also, is there a point to lightbars?
Everyone tells me no, that they cause glare
I imagine ordering with front fairing cutout, will not solve glare

the only product I've ever seen geared towards this, is no longer made


and if you look at ARB, they've got quite a good light (it appears) to simply put on your front bull bar
which also seems to have a ton of lumens, maybe more than anyone else, and different LED shapes

 

If the light is below your eyes you will see shadows. If it’s over your head you won’t. So, nice to have it on the rack.

 

I'm also interested.
Quoted for more exposure.

 

Just got the Grand Teton sport delivered. I’m pretty excited to get it installed. Overall impressions are pretty good, it’s fairly light and came packaged well. I will say their QC kinda sucks.
I have lots of gouges and marks in the fairing and cross bar powder coating. There’s some light scratches that go through the Powdercoat on the fairing and you can clearly see some smudge mark from a finger where somebody tried to rub them out before saying eh fuck it haha but I guess I don’t care enough to complain to them, just kinda lame since they have such a good reputation.

What’s everybody’s preferred method to snip the roof drip molding? Some long wire cutters? Box cutters?

 

Thanks for the detailed photos.

When companies release the "cheaper" products, I get skeptical since most times to save cost, other things/quality goes down at the same time.

Also with these business, often times the early products are much better in quality, then they slowly degrade (not always the case, obviously, just my experience)

In any case, I think if I were to purchase, I will go for the original version - hoping that they keep the original integrity of the product.

 

Agreed! I guess I’m not TOO upset since this one was basically half the price of the full sized one.

As long as there aren’t any fitment issues (which I’ll update about) I still think $750 is somewhat reasonable

 

The line you see in the fairing is not a flaw in the powder coating, it's called "coining" and it's a tooling mark from the bending process. Very common, especially in soft aluminum, and hard to avoid without extra steps in post processing, or very expensive specialized tooling.

 

That’s certainly possible! The line isn’t straight and looks more like a squiggly line that varies in width so I figured something scraped the powder coat as it was curing or something

 

Probably due to the wear on the tooling. As the punch presses the material down into the die, the material will slide over the edge a certain amount based on the size of the punch, it's proportional size to the die, desired radius of the corner and the degree of bend. Then as tooling ages, or gets used on high volume jobs all in one section, you'll see variations of the tooling marks based on the uneven wear.

 

installed a grand Teton and got some questions

WTT flat front fairing for cut light bar one

1. is their mounting system for maxtrax the best? I imagine 13mm pins and not 40mm to avoid extra threaded rod hanging down.
Are you using a tiny lock to secure the maxtrax against theft?
I’m tired of having so many different unlabeled keys…

2. how do you figure out if a shell is reinforced and compatible to install tracks?
Anyone got a crows nest topper rack for sale by any chance?

3. What’s a good awning? Would want to avoid protruding from front.
Kind of want to put heavier things on right side to offset taco lean from driver weight and left side gas tank.
Is it better to wait until getting a topper rack so the awning is longer and extends to also attach to the shell rack?

4. how are you all mounting shovel and axe to the rack?
I believe I have quickfists on RCI mounts in the bed and bike locked
But the point of a rack is to get crap out of the bed.
Axe is cheap for now but shovel is Krazy Beaver and don’t want it getting jacked.

5. How necessary are harbor freight rifle cases and what do you put? So far I just have one spare CV and am hesitant to get a box and start picking apart the foam cubes just to hold a CV.
I hope their maxtrax mount works forward/back longways. Would want to put it in the center so if I get rifle cases later they can be on the outer sides and accessible

6. What are you all doing for limb risers?
I’m gonna research what can fit the rack and run to ARB bull bar likely hoop clamps or weld on ears.
I think there’s a sweet spot in the middle for something nice.
I hope Sherpa makes something. If not they should.
New Holland Overland kit is stupid expensive and requires riveting brackets under the hood to the fenders. This makes no sense. And probably interferes with hood opening. If you have a need for limb risers, have a rack, then you have a bumper with headlight hoops tube to attach front.
But the really cheap DIY solutions I’ve seen using Home Depot parts look ugly as hell.

 

I’m just about to pull the trigger on this rack. Grand Teton bare aluminum . Any experience with wind noise? How bad is it. Anyone install a solar panel on it? That’s my main purpose. Plan to keep the in cabin fridge on 24/7 . Thanks.

 

I don’t notice much on mine. Less than my old Hooke Road.

they’re adjustable. Don’t know if lightbar fairing makes more.
At the end of the day a rack may have some more wind noise than stock and is the cost to have added utility.
can always pull the headliner and put insulation which is good to put in the cab anyway.

no panel on mine just have a flexible 100w on the shell I used to use to power a battery/fridge 24/7 (200w probably better)

 

Niceeee. Thank you. Just to clarify, I can get 100w x2 eco flow panel attach it to roof rack and charge my eco flow delta2 right and it can power my fridge 27/7 ? I’m a total newb at this . What do you think.

 

Thanks for the replies. Just ordered mine right now. 2-4 weeks wait but I know it will be worth the wait.9bare aluminum/anodized full length fairing. With the discount too . Thanks again .

 

you're gonna have to research what a good panel company is. IDK as I never used solid rigid panel.
Only ever used flexible. I didn't have a roof rack at the times so I didn't really have a choice.
Rigid panel lasts long and is more efficient, and removable. So ideally I'd have rather had that.
Plus, rigid panel you may be able to double up and run 2 next to each other, or spread them out. Either way having room for other gear to make use of the rack.
Or hood solar.

 

Just noticed something pretty disappointing

at about $1000, the rail screws are Allen head
Not used in the automotive industry otherwise due to their inclination to strip
(For example, every German brand that’s refined their design for 100 years used Torx)
A T30 is a T30. No fumbling with various cheap Allen tools that fit poorly.

on top of that, given things you have mounted to the rails
Your average neighborhood crackhead with access to the dollar store (and a couple of dollars) can easily grab an Allen tool

and quickly be gone with your gear, by removing the rails they attach to
Even giving him nice fancy rails to act as carry handles has he scurries away
Or mount right up to his overland cart

if said crackhead has fellow associates (they always do), their assistance can lend him aid in disappearing with your roof top tent
that you may end up seeing later on down the road (if you live in CA) as the nicest tent in the local affordable real estate colony.

needless to say, I’m going to look for tamper proof equivalent size bolts to upgrade to, and corresponding bit that will basically act as a key (and while you’re at it, a tool that tends to strip less than Strip Bolts/Allen Bolts)

tamper proof security hardware looks kind of expensive
So maybe not every bolt needs to be upgraded
Just one or two per rail used to mount gear.

it would be pretty cool if Sherpa offered a kit of this. And locking shovel axe mount.
Even a T30 would be better. While the common crackhead may have an allen set, only the higher echelon of crackheads may be versed in Torx.



for probably over 20 years Audi roof racks use a key (that’s also automatic torquing) and they’re worth a lot less

 

Thank you for the heads up. I'll order better screws . Thanks

 

is anybody adding crossbars to theirs?

I mounted Maxtrax and it required moving some
some are not really adjustable
had me thinking it might be better to add more

trying to figure out an ideal amount, maybe 2 or 3

 

Just got my grand Teton sport in. Might be shopping for a light bar for it. Replacing an OEM roof rack