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For my ARB tent I just ditched the factory cross bars and used Thule cross bars and bases that work with the factory track. For the tent I use 3 cross bars and for the coffin I use 2.
Hey guys,
I am bringing back an old but very valuable thread..... I love all the ideas here on roof racks. I am going to start doing some CAD drawings tomorrow but I have a few quick questions. I am leaning towards pulling the whole stock rack and going with angle iron idea. For those that have done this, did you go with a lighter gauge angle like 1/8" or smaller so that it contoured to the overall roof (except in front where the roof drops), or did you just make it rigid and totally flat and let the roof push flat. Also by "hard point" connectors are you guys referring to the stock bolt points? or are you guys drilling and through bolting?
Over all, I am building the truck to haul my camper, 1 canoe, 1 kayak, and 5 bicycles. I definitely want it flat and full length like ExploringNH's old rack minus the front drop down. this way I can add the J_bars for the kayak and get the canoe up and down with "limited" ease!!! I am coming from an f350 crew cab full bed, so i am still trying to learn to pack lighter!!! My kids are still super young so we bring EVERYTHING!!I want to be able to toss the generator, portable water tanks and waste tank up there too.
thanks for any suggestions offered..
This is not the angle iron method, but was simple to assemble and has held up well. Easy to gather parts and utilizes the factory rails with no drilling necessary and is really sturdy and flexible for turning into a rack or attaching a rack to these crossbars.
thanks to someone on this forum I went with the cheap and easy mod to my stock roof rack. found some scrap rubber, cut it with my circular saw, drilled and installed with longer 6 x 40mm metric cap bolt. worked great. repainted the stock rails and cross bars flat black. just need to find a couple more of the screw on parts that hold the cross members on. here is the spec on the rubber, i'll put up pics as soon as i figure out how to...
Wow. What a thread. Obviously roof racks for the Ex are super popular.
Just a word of caution.
Shortly after buying my Excursion in 2001, I wanted to free up more inside cargo space and put my spare on the roof in a roof basket. I was merrily flying along a logging road in southern British Columbia that had just been graded nice and smooth. The grader quit at the entrance of a corner that I flew into at smooth road speed. It was a minefield of potholes.
The rear end slammed into a few and damn near got airborne. I stopped to shake off the rattle and found the roof rack rails pulled out of the sheet metal. I was disappointed to see the rails were not anchored in much more than the tin of the roof.
I glued the rails down with some kind of magic construction adhesive (PL400?). It has held to this day.
So be careful on what you put up there. Those anchor screws are not very robust. I trust that rack to hold little more than a tandem kayak and a greasy power saw and fuel.
Man o man it has been a while. I quit coming on here for a number of years, as I started to pursue other hobbies, and just pretty much did not have any issues with the X.
Nice to see this thread on the first time back after a few years. Mine is still going strong, and the full alum basket that I ended up installing on the stock rails is still holding up strong, I think since 2011 ish.
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