Roofrack Basket (design pic)

Whatup er'body! For the past couple of weeks I've been designing a gear basket to mount to my roof. A big thanks goes out to TW member Kasey for the inspiration and help. I think I've got everything pretty much nailed down on it and I'll be starting on the fabrication next week sometime. I do however, have a few issues I need to clear up before I start the build.

My design is one that will easily mount to the OEM roofrack's crossbars. Thus I could take the basket off quickly if need be. One thing about this is that the OEM racks aren't cheap, and have a silly low load capacity. My other thought was to just make some legs and feet welded to the basket to directly bolt into the channel and nuts that are in the roof already. That way, I would not have to worry about the load on the flimsy crossbars. I'm working on drawing up this last minute thought now.

Until I can get the measurements of the holes and channel in the roof, I'm still going to design for mounting on the OEM rack. So here's where I could use a little help from you guys that already have the rack.
-I need to know the horizontal distance between the top of the windsheild and the center of the forward crossbar.
-Also, I need the horizontal distance between the center of the two crossbars
-And lastly, I need the horizontal distance between the center of the rearward crossbar and the back of the cab (double cab).

These are the last dimensions I need to finish up the design process.
Here's a few views of the basket in it's current design stage:


Let me know what you guys think!

 

neato

 

Pretty cool!

 

nice design. thats the way i would do it.

 

gainesville huh? thats 15 mins down the road... nice to see some more locals most are from jville or down south.... oh and nice rack

 

Nice...

If made from steel, it may be getting on the heavy side... You could probably loose a few supports and gussetts... trim some fat to make it lighter...

If made from aluminum, it would probably be light enough as is...

just my $.02

 

I like it, looks like a cool design.

 

Thanks for the compliments guys!

The supports are such becuase I plan on making the basket out of 3/4" EMT Conduit. I have spoken to several people and they have assured me that the conduit will be strong enough with plenty of supports. Another reason to use the conduit is because the cost is in par with my budget. The bars across the bottom of the basket will be mild steel. I might have to change some design aspects once I get to fabbing it up and getting an idea of the overall weight. Because you are right, I don't want it to be too heavy.

 

Cool... I was just thinking of all mild steel construction would get heavy...

The thin-wall conduit should be pretty light...

Maybe get an idea of what you would actually want to put up there, and then work from that...

And, may be a few long-ways pieces across the bottom to create more of a "floor" in the basket...

 

maybe use some steel grate on the floor to hold stuff in better
http://www.istockphoto.com/file_thu...7/2/istockphoto_6164037-brown-steel-grate.jpg

 

Thanks for lookin out on the weight though! And that's a good idea about covering more space on the bottom. I thought about trying to find some heavy duty mesh and securing that to the crossbraces so that little items wouldn't fall through. But if I can't find that somewhere I will definitely consider laying some more bars down.

 

You beat me to the punch! That's exactly what I'm thinking of. Thanks for posting it up! Know a good place to buy it?

 

Bump...I'd greatly appreciate some help on these measurements guys!

 

looks like he copied my bros rack!

 

sick though