Thanks for the reminder. Must have told myself 10 times to do that and still forgot.
Thanks for the reminder. Must have told myself 10 times to do that and still forgot.
'07 3.7L, 255/75-17 BFG MT, 2" Rough Country lift, 1.5" Spidertrax spacers
My Garage
Nice looking Jeep, thanks for sharing.
2006 XK Limited, 5.7L Hemi
Dark Khaki, QDII, Rocky Road 2.25" lift, Steel Armadillo front bumper with Warn PowerPlant winch, Steel Armadillo rear bumper w/ tire carrier, Rock Sliders, Light Bar & Front Fender Tube Fenders, 4xGuard belly skid plate & rear differential guard, BFG M/T A/T 255/75R17s on Rubicon rims, Spidertrax 1.5 inch wheel spacers, Rhino Rack Pioneer Tray with FoxWing Awning, Superchips VIVID Programmer, Air Flow snorkel, Steel Armadillo Secure Console, Cobra CB Radio, Lock Pick Video Programmer, ASFIR Skid Plates.
Knappster's Garage
AKA: the Owner of The Steel Armadillo L.L.C.
Nice looking Jeep! Always been a fan of that color green.
First off, I'm cheap, impatient and in need of some crossbars.
If I can't get what I need from my pile of scrap and buckets of misc nuts and bolts, I MIGHT see if they have something that will work at Home Depot.
If I strike out there, I'll redesign whatever it is i'm trying to make to use what I have.
After reading through the The Roof Rack Thread and checking out Matt's low profile mounts and Sal-XK's UniStrut crossbars, I came up with a plan.
Luckily they have UniStrut at Home Depot, because I don't have any on my scrap pile and I really like the stuff.
The mounts are kind of tricky due to the rail sides not being flat.
I'm not sure what Sal did, but I tried a few things that would use a single bolt, but my scrap pile let me down.
Matt got around this by using u-bolts and a slotted plate which is a cool idea that I stole.
After a couple of false starts, I came up with this pile of junk.
4 u-bolts
flat stock (3/16 I think)
the stuff with holes in it (1/8ish)
A hunk of pipe
A hunk of conveyor belt. (Matt used 'Fiber reinforced silicone rubber'. That's just a fancy name for conveyor belt)
Some rusty nuts that fit in the slot in the rails.
Not shown are some washers, nuts, and thick walled hose
After several hours and beers I ended up with this.
The nuts are welded off center and the 2 pieces of pipe are cut at an angle so that the u-bolt has room to pivot.
The pipe was then welded to the other side of the plate.
Instead of paint, I used spray on Plasti-Dip. Hopefully it will be a little more durable.
Assembled
Didn't like it so I dug up the black hose and ended up with this.
(shhhh...don't tell anyone my welds look like crap.)
With the hose on there, the crossbars are completely isolated. Not something I was shooting for, but nice that it turned out that way.
All done.
I'm going to use some Nylocks for the top nuts and cut the extra off the u-bolts.
I'm thinking of using bed-liner on the UniStrut since I'll be using it on the rack. Haven't decided yet.
Next up is to pick up some UniStrut hardware to attach the rack, and get the rack stripped since the paint is flaking off anyway.
More to come...
'07 3.7L, 255/75-17 BFG MT, 2" Rough Country lift, 1.5" Spidertrax spacers
My Garage
looks great
PJMJR508
(Happy Jeep)
Nice job man! I used a single bolt that captured the lip inside the rail then wen't threw the hole on the unistrut. Also since unistrut is made to hang bars from just measure the tube or bar on your roof rack and get the size pipe mount for unitstrut you need to easy bro keep up the good work. We love to see mods not out of a catalog around here
2007 Commander Overland / 4" SuperLift / 285/70R17 Cooper Discoverer ST Maxx / Rusty's adjustable rear UCAs / Carolina Driveline front drive shaft / Flashpaq / DRLs & Tilting Mirrors / Autolite Iridiums / Cobra 29LX Chrome LE CB & Firestik antenna / Rear fog lights / Mopar Grille Guard with HID driving lights
"4 wheel drive does not mean 4 wheel stop!" -Lee Goldberg, WABC TV weatherman
'07 3.7L, 255/75-17 BFG MT, 2" Rough Country lift, 1.5" Spidertrax spacers
My Garage
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