Roof rack / lights

[NeilSmith]

I see you're runnng a 4" and 285/70s so are a bit higher than most of us I think. I made mine so I could unplug the lights and remove the entire set-up, rack, lights, and all. I cant get into the touch free car washes with the rack on and I have run into some garages in DC that I wouldnt be able to get in. it would suck to go out of town and run into that problem. I use my rack when we go to Va Beach and I have to make sure the hotel doesnt have a garage but an open lot. I would suggest making it easily removable and just use it when you need it. Now, if you are using the rack to carry your spare then.......

[strokeZ]

Yep I am planning on making a quick disconnect for any lights that I put up there. Right now I am removing the rack when I get home to fit in the garage and the parking structure at work. Eventually I plan on putting the spare up there for long trips only. I noticed my MPG sink with the rack up there and hoping to improve that even just a little with a lower profile. It's going to take some planning and I really have a narrow focus so just looking for ideas on how to address it.

Right now I can just fit into a structure that is 6'4". With the rack the way it is I will probably add 6" to that. I hoping to add no more than 4" when all said and done.

[txbajacommander]

Alot of the off-road race teams use lights that flip down when not in use. I believe Baja Desingns sells a light set up like this. they might be pretty pricey though. I'd go with the welded Defender roof rack.

[Sal-XK]

Right now I can just fit into a structure that is 6'4". With the rack the way it is I will probably add 6" to that. I hoping to add no more than 4" when all said and done.

I'm sitting at 6'10" to the top of the rack right now, 2" lift, 32.5" MT tires, rack on factory sport cross rails. A parking garage at 6'4" man thats small

[Adondo]

Yeah, kiss your MPG goodbye. As far as that goes, the lift kit itself causes a loss of MPG. Mine dropped about 2 MPG off the top with the RR lift kit. The forward rake stance is gone, the underneath is higher, so it doesn't cut the air as well. The roof rack is just another wind catching sail. I now get right at 17 MPG if I drive easy. It started out at 21 MPG.

I also added a disconnect plug for taking off the rack.

With my roof rack, I put large format 5x7'' rectangle tractor lights mounted low. I added a cut lengthwise 4'' ABS pipe (e.g. sewer pipe) as a wind breaker. It works somewhat as the ''banshee screams'' were reduced a lot. The wind whistle was bad above 40 MPH.

A little hard to see from straight on, but here it is anyway:


On edit:

Ah HA!! I found my close up view of the wind breaker:

[strokeZ]

@Sal: Your rack looks to be about 2" higher than mine. Yeah I just can barely squeeze that 6'4" height....lots of pucker factor. I am also going to see if there is a way to use the factory standard rails without the blocks underneath - at least that will follow to roofline profile. Not sure how stable that will be but worth a check.

@Adondo - last trip with the rack I only got 13 mpg hwy. I normally get 15-16 with the rack off. I do like the low mount lights!

[Adondo]

I don't know if you can tell, but they're aimed a couple of degrees UP. They're what I call ''hill approach'' lights. If you're coming up to or heading down a steep hill at night, the up-aimed lights give you a ''landing zone'' ahead. Headlights or driving lights aimed normally just blast a bright spot into the ground directly ahead, and you can't see what's on the ground you're about to drive onto. The steeper the hill, the worst the blind area.

With the HID's on the bumper, I can see 3,000 feet of dirt ahead, so the overheads do little more than show up flying moths anyway. And... HID's mounted above the windshield (light-bar, roof-rack) don't work, you can't see past the beam glare. (maybe within ten minutes of a heavy rain in perfectly clean air)

[NeilSmith]

One of our repeat customers has a H1 with a rack that runs full length of the roof. He parks it in a parking garage downtown every day. One night we had almost a foot of snow and he didnt notice how it had packed up at the garage entrance and he smashed the rack into the concrete .