Baja Roof Rack Write up (pics and info)

I would only add that if you want to remove the mounts from the roof as well, there are two issues.

1. You will have holes in the rubber rain drip rails and nothing inside the pre-drilled roof holes, so there is the potential of getting water inside the cab.

2. The threads in the pre-drilled roof holes are fine machine thread. I striped two of them out in my install/ removal/ install, so extreme care must be taken to prevent the striping of the threads.

If you really want a put on for short duration and take off for every day driving and you do not plan on adding lighting, look at the pre-runner version.

 

I've not seen it mentioned by any BajaRack owner, but when drilling the holes in the rubber drip rail, care must be taken so that the holes allign with the correct side of the drip rail. The reason for this is, it appears that there is a metal band that is embeded inside the drip rail and presumably runs the entire lengh of the drip rail. It is in the center, and because of this, the holes must either align to one side or the other. Obviously looking at the mount the holes should go to the inside of the truck (towards the center of the roof). I had to redrill a set of holes because my first set of holes were on the outside of the metal band. Looking carefully at the mount, it's clear that the holes are not dead center in the mount. Here is a picture to illustrate. Notice how the bolts are not dead center but are to the right of center, this is to avoid that metal band.

My advice is when drilling make sure the drill bit ever so slightly veers to the inside of the drip rail. I've confirmed the metal band with another member via PM's and I've notified BajaRack of my experience so hopefully others can benefit from my experience.

 

Lots of good points to consider

After looking at the great pictures I think that Iwill take the rack off and just leave the mounts on for day to day driving.Should not look to bad and it will do exactly what I want.

Thanks for all your great info guys and hopefully I will have pictures upwith my BAJA rack soon

 

what size are the bolts that go into the factory mounting locations?

 

I think they are 10mm machine thread but I will see if I can find the direction sheet when I get home. you may get your answer quicker if you call Baja Racks directly, they are great people to to talk to.

 

roger that, ill try the 10 mm tomorrow, you wouldn't happen to have a length as well? to mount them the same as the baja ones

 

The instructions does not specify the thread or how long the bolts were. If I recall, I think they were 2" long. Hope this helps.

 

Going to bring this one back from the dead.

Got my rack yesterday. Great quality, just not sold on the rtv on the bolt heads.

Has anyone ever put a stud ( cut the heads off the bolts that came with the rack ) in the roof and locked it down with a thin nut , and maybe a rubber washer? Then used rtv or similar to completely seal the stud to the roof. That way there is zero chance of water getting in and the roof rack would be easily removable many times with out stripping the poorly designed oem captured nuts in the roof.

Let me know your thoughts on this. I like the option of it being completely sealed, not just maybe kinda sorta with some rtv on the threads and the ability to pull it off easily by just removing 8 nuts.

The studs would be easily removed if you sold the rack.

Chris

 

Subd for when i get mine in the future.

 

I don't know if that would work... it might.

If you apply the RTV to the threads of the bolt it will form a good seal and not leak. I can also tell you that if you remove the bolts for any reason, you will need to remove any of the dried RTV from the threads (and as much from the bolt holes as possible) if you have any hope of reusing them. I had to do this twice for all brackets due to a fabrication issue (design error) from the factory. That was a f***ing pain in the ass. I ended up using new hardware because cleaning the bolt threads was taking too long.

That being said, it's easy to remove the BajaRack from the mounting brackets if you need to pull the rack for some reason. My mounting brackets stay on the truck permanently.

 

Crom is correct, i would only add that I have had zero leakage and I am not really sure that water could make it into the cab past the machine fine threads but I slapped the RTV on my mounting hardware like the instructions suggested just to be sure.

 

Subbed for future...

Question anyone know how much a spare would weigh? 18" kmc rockstars with 35's nitto extreme grapplers....I'm looking to place it on the baja roof rack...Would it be ok?

 

Yes, check the website but I believe static load is 400 lbs. Some people have put RRTs on them.

 

ok, Thanks. Will do

 

In my instructions that came with it. It says 300lbs max.

 

interesting.

 

My factory TRD wheel and Duratrac weigh 65 lbs. if I remember right. I put it on the rack and it worked just fine. Max load I had up there was about 140 lbs. Truck worked great did not even know it was up there.

 

Is it easier to pull the ceiling liner down or pull off the weather stripping and put back on?

Thinking about if it would be easier to pull the ceiling liner, push something sharp or a small drill bit through the whole and then make bigger from the top, without obviously going down through the roof.

 

ordered mine from trdparts4u.com. hopefully the rack comes with the new mounts.

 

rack comes with specialty bolts that are pointed that your screw into the roof holes, place weather stripping back down and tap it with a rubber malet to show you where to drill when u take the stripping off.