Roof Rack Design and Fabrication Weekend 5-6 Progress ;)

A threaded foot with a rubber bumper under the center of the load bars is a possibility. About the heaviest thing I plan to throw on mine is my offload jack unless I make a bracket to hold it in the bed. The thing is unwieldy at best and I don't look forward to lugging it six feet in the air to put it back after I needed it for something that already ruined my day. LOL

We've got a finite amount of space between the load bars and the roof of the cab. Given the bow of the roof of the truck at dead center at the highest point we clear the roof by .625" MAX. This could be offset by increasing the spacer between the point where the mounting bracket contacts the luggage rack channel. If we did that, or offered them with extended spacers for guys that aren't concerned with getting the rig in the garage it MIGHT help. But the roofs on the 3rd Gen are thin. They are flimsy and it doesn't take much at all to push them in with your hand. (climb up in your bed and press on it and you'll see it). So this makes me question the ability of the roof to add the extra weight bearing that we would all probably love to have. The end all solution is heavy gauge steel load bars with rolled edges. There is just a machining nightmare and a completely different set of tooling required to do that.

It's not out of the question....but I'm not 100% that the truck is structurally sound enough to give us any assistance to the capacity of the load bars.

I bent one of the bad bars in testing almost on purpose. I climbed up on it and instead of putting my weight (185 pounds) out to the edges near the mount points I stood straight in the center of it. Then I kind of bounced on it because I would rather know before one of you guys calls me and says "dude.......big ass dent in my roof"...so what I know about extruded aluminum is that we could go to the 40x40 bars, increase the load capability in the center by about 30% (close to 110 pounds on any given bar at dead center instead of what we tested at 68 pounds on our current configuration.)

The good news is that all of our design and production is in house. The rack that ships on 3.15 is solid and sound for what most people are going to throw up there. But if we've got a guy that is really going to push the limits.....anything is possible. PM me if you think you'll do more than an RTT or the standard gear and I'll do the homework on the back end for a beefed up version for hard core guys.

 

Do you have a plan for awning mounts off the side of these racks?

 

Trying to get it as low as possible is hard.. the middle of the roof has the highest peak thus if the limiting factor on height. I was in the same boat.

 

You could keep the weight down and increase the load capacity by orienting 2040 bars vertically instead of horizontally like most do. I'm not sure of this but I think the closer the bars get to the roof the higher the noise pitch could get. Noise seems to pick up substantially at 60-65 with either nothing or Thule bars up there. With nothing it seems to come through the rear window but the bars are even louder.

 

@Relic_Micah - can you post head on and full side (perpendicular and showing the whole truck) views when you get a moment?

 

I've got a Roam awning ordered for mine. When it gets here I'll get into and get it mounted to mine. I am assuming the brackets for that will be pretty universal.

 

Awesome! Those Roam awnings look the same as ARB/Smittybilt/insert any company name here.

Also - will cut outs for 30" or 40" Baja Designs lights be available

 

Yes. I run the s* lights because I have quite a few of them from other builds but there will be four different visors that you can select when you order. No Light, S8 10 pair, S830, S840. We can do other things for rigid guys, Heise, etc....realizing not everyone is as afraid of the dark as you and I are. Hahahaha.

 

Very unique! I just followed you on IG the other day.

 

What if we get really scared of the dark and go with an Onx6 bar???

 

At this point you might want to start a new thread and get a list together of buyers.

 

Hahahahaha! YES!!!!

 

Random question - why have a bracket for the MaxTrax and not just mounting pin sets as they come?

 

So... I'm just gonna nudge my way in here... OP, I understand you may not have a direct answer for this, but any idea what may need to be changed or modified to make one of these absolutely sexy racks fit and function on my 06 Access cab? I see a few other 2nd gen owners in this thread, but I haven't seen any talk of cross-(contamination?)generation fitment...


Thanks in advance!!!

 

Very Nice!!!

 

You're gonna need some mounts for starters. AC's don't come predrilled with nuts for racks.

 

Got any 'empty' pictures? That's how mine's gonna roll 90% of the time. @Relic_Micah