Roof rack advice

Crossbars are aluminum with the Rhino Vortex rubber inserts on the top. Thule makes an identical rubber strip too. They're pretty rigid and have a diagonal pattern that virtually eliminates wind noise.



I Mount my canoes with the gunwales right on the bars. For my kayak, I have the foam cradle type thing that wraps around the bars as the hull is down.

 

Perfect.
Now if only they were affordable! lol

 

Buy once cry once.

 

Pro Tip.

When I'm off road and hauling a canoe, I use short strips (6") of that foam pipe insulation and wrap it around the gunwale where it contacts the rack. Provides a little cushion.

 

OP

I have the RCI roof rack. Got it when it first came out. No detectable wind noise. No water leaks. As for it affecting gas mileage, so does everything else I've done.
When I use it I'm glad I have it.

Tim, next weekend you can take a close look at my setup.

 

Sorry, didnt mean to dampen your enthusiasm for accessorizing your truck, or upset the perceived value of your truck. Have fun, its your money to burn.

Some day youll buy or sell a 2nd vehicle and have other opinions.

 

Genius! I'm going to have to give that a try.

 

Popped one on last summer and i hae a love hate relationship with it. Put 2 Pelican v800's on it to hold recovery gear and the other is tools. It's great because it freed up my bed space and not having a bed rack still allows the bed to be fully usable still. Accessing everything uptop isn't bad off the door sills will be much easier once sliders go on. Lastly it holds a light bar in a clean manner the lightbar only mounts are kinda fugly.
Now the downsides noise and wind resistance, noise was fine with it just being the rack but once the boxes went on its noticeable. Fuel economy took a hit but it suffers way more now when fighting a head wind.
If I had to daily the truck I would be re thinking the choice of having it on there. As a weekend truck it's fully worth it.

 

There just isn't a good selection of racks on the market that go over the Softopper, let alone in aluminum.

When I designed and built mine, I sort of future proofed it for possible changes in activities that I may use it for.

Pre Covid my truck was stock height, tires etc and also the last good amount of kayaking I did. (Getting geared up again to get back out this year).









Then came the lift, tires and desire to travel around the Oregon desert for three weeks. So, I added two 100w solar panels to keep my Jackaasery 1000 happy while parked out there for days at a time. Light weight and easy to remove and stow in the garage. You can see I have ditch channels on the cab roof with the Rhino Rack stays in place still.







Then we discovered a need to buy some new MTBs to ride trails with. At first I put together a hitch rack to haul the bikes on, but knew this was going to be short lived as I wanted to be able to tow my off road trailer and take bikes camping.

Got out my fabricobbling gear and made some great bike mounts on either side of the bed rack. These bikes don't move one bit even on pothole gravel roads.








As I mentioned above, I am gearing up for kayak fishing again this year and plan to camp either in my awning screen room, or in the bed of the truck. I have a BamBed kit ready to go for that option.

Most likely going solo this year as my son is now in his 20's and has moved out of state and working on building his life.

So with that, I scrounged Craigslist this winter and scored a used Thule roof box on the cheap, as well as another set of (new in box) six year old Rhino Aero bars like I already use for $75.

This box allows me to stow all my wet ocean kayak gear in the roof box, to keep the bed clean and dry for sleeping. The kayak will go on the drivers side with plenty of room with the roof box up there.









This aluminum bed rack is the best upgrade I made for this truck hands down.

A roof rack wasn't really ever in the cards. Kayak cross bar on the cab is sufficient.

 

Very nice! Did you save the plans?

 

I have the Rhino ditch tracks modded for my AC and have had several hundred pounds of lumber, beams, etc supported by Thule square bars. I can mount them on the cap, the cab, or both depending on length needed since there are also tracks on the cap. Your side curtain air bags are up there along the edge of the roof so whatever you do be extremely diligent in your execution. I pulled the headliner and loosened the clamps that hold those seriously major components in place so I could avoid any risk and properly seal everything. With the tracks in place any future choices are all external only mods whether it’s bars, a tray, solar panel, whatever, anything goes. The picture in post 28 shows the tracks. The link in my sig(post #5) shows the whole roof as well as what’s at risk when you drill. It was well worth it for me but it’s up to you whether you go with a permanent rack or something else. The oem rack looks neat but has a much lower weight rating than Prinsu or what I have. You could put “stuff” up there but never any real weight.
If you don’t know what you’ll use it for then the ditch tracks make a good start since anything including Prinsu can mount to them.

 

The plans derived from visually holding 2x4 lumber up against my Softopper to get angles and lengths figured out.

Then those were all jotted down on some scrap paper. A buddy of mine took a picture of my scribbles and punched it into CAD at his work. This was then translated to a flat sheet of 1/8" aluminum. Then sent to a huge CNC lazer cutting unit.

Popped the parts out, sent through the brake to create all the bends and angles.

It snapped together like LEGOs.

I have no idea where that piece of scribbled paper went, that was several years ago.

 

You like the look, it's for looks only, good price, why not? Everything is fitting the bill. I bought the OEM rack for the looks and didn't care about anyone's opinion. I like it, my truck and I do what I want, it's as simple as that. Now go get you the rack!

 

I mean there are lots of things you can put up there to be more organized and stored in a more effectively stored.

IE, I have a 13g flat water tank mounted that I can use as a gravity shower or with a 12v pump, as well as a case full of recovery gear that I don’t have space for inside my truck nor an effective way to secure them in the bed with the rest of my camping gear.

It also aids in light mounting, tie down points, a way to mount a kayak/canoe, etc.

 

No




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It's your money at the end of the day and this topic is subjective to each type of owner. There are pros and cons to it, however it depends on what you use your truck for. (grocery getter, daily, "truck meet overlander", wheeler) Base your decision on practicality and what you actually envision using it for.

 

On that same note, if you don’t use your truck off road, just get street tires, keep the stock rims, if you’re going to lift it just use blocks. Also no reason for a bed cover if you don’t keep things in it, etc.

 

Don't forget the most important reason for mods/upgrades.. because it looks cool. The entire 4x4 and mod industry would fail overnight if it wasn't for us mall crawlers/gravel road "off-roaders" making 90% of the purchases that fund the industry.

 

Do you have the cool cad plan? I have a friend with a nicely equipped metal shop. He even has a laser!