How can I mount a roof rack on my shell w/o tracks

Hey I have been wanting to add a roof rack system on my new to me snugtop shell. However, it didn't come with tracks mounted on it and I was wondering what would be the best way to mount a roof rack on it.

 

You could use/run a Yakima rack with 4 gutter mounts bolted to the top. I did this on a previous truck.

*edited* if you did want to use tracks I found that you can just unbolt the factory roof rack from a 4runner and then mount that to the shell. Then once you have the factory 4runner rack on the shell just use thule/Yakima railriders to install their crossbars. good luck with whatever route you decide to go.

 

you can add the tracks yourself, they are inexpensive.

 

Just buy some Yakima, Thule or other tracks and mount them yourself. Kind of a pain, but not hard. There have been several writeup on how to do it, a search should find them.

 

I think I'm going to try to go this route cause there's a pull your own part place not far from me and they tend to have a good deal of 4runners

 

I know thule has brackets you can bolt to the shell. Then add rails.

Found it.
https://www.thule.com/en-us/us/roof-rack/accessories/thule-artificial-raingutters-542-_-1036

I know Yakima has something, too.

 

I would add the tracks,less than$100. Get the location from Snugtop on where to mount them. This will give you more options on the racks you can use, Yakama,Thule,Prinsu,Baja,Front Runner,or make one yourself.

 

My previous vehicle was a 97 4runner so I already had the 'rail riders' for it and when I saw one at the u-pull it place I grabbed it. I think it was right around 25-$30.00 You don't need much to remove one either just a torx head and I think a Phillips for the end caps of the rails. I would also crab the 2 big cross bars and the 3-4 bars that sit on the top. May not need them but always nice to have. Good luck with your project.

 

Thanks man this was real helpful!

 

I've seen these on a few shells. They are a bit pricey though. I'm sure there's something at a hardware store that you can easily make some of these for a quarter of the price.

 

This is also what I was thinking about. I had 4 of these on my first truck a long time ago. (yakimas version)

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Yakima-Plus...262093?hash=item360fcc020d:g:EKYAAOSw5cNYad0b

I would keep my eye out on Craigslist for yakima and thule products.

 

I've got some NIB Yakima artificial gutters in storage I'd sell you cheap if I was in the US; not much help I know. Personally I'd go with the tracks if you plan to use the rack for a variety of things. For my Yakima cargo box I have to move them closer together but when carrying boats or lumber I move them out. I also like having the wider bars that give me more real estate and make it easy to hang things like Solar Showers on.

 

Would a Nissan Pathfinder track work?

 

Any photos of what this looks like mounted up?


Edit: Found this one searching. Looks good to me. The Yakima tracks are $130 vs $40 for a Toyota factory track.

https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/roof-rack-installation-for-a-r-e-toppers.452411/#post-13407894

 

Good find I didn't mount the rails on my old shell prior to selling it. I'm still at a toss up if I will do it on my '17 for it'll void the Leer warranty but then again not much can go wrong with a campershell. For my use I had planned to leave the 'factory' cross bars off and just use the railriders with round Yakima bars.

 

Noted. That's what I plan on doing too. I just wanted the factory rails since they are cheaper than the Yakima ones by about $100. Then mount my Yakima mounts to them.

 

I'm gonna try to use 93 jeep Cherokee tracks. I got them for 25 and found a set of ez sliders that might fit for 40 on Craigslist I'm meeting the dude tomorrow to see if the work and then I'm just going to get Yakima round bars so I can adjust the width of the tracks cause right now the cross bars on it make it to wide for my shell

 

@TrailRider2002 Is there a way to pull the towers off of the crossbars so that you can trim them?

 

Not that I know of, there's a spring that allows them to be wider if needed so I don't wanna mess that up. I'm going to sell this because I found a 4Runner that had tracks, crossbars and towers and two bike racks for 150

 

Not sure if you ever thought of this, but do NOT buy one of those $50 "universal" roof racks on ebay or Amazon and try to make it work...best of luck!