Roof Rack Sizing

[Doc in AZ]

I made just a light rack for Jon's rhinorack a couple days ago.... again, spy quality photos to keep the anticipation high

[Matt]

Another reason to move to AZ.... i can take my own spy photos...

[NeilSmith]

When i first installed my BajaRack I had some wind noise. When I installed the lights the wind noise completely went away. I like the rack sitting up off the roof a little bit. It can be easier to get underneath to attach bungees and I have to get under it to tighten and loosen my mounts. just a couple of thoughts. And dont skimp when fabbing your cross bars because there will come a time when you will want to stand up there.

[Matt]

Talked to my buddy from the bike shop today. Even with his discount, it's just not enough to "not" get a good rack. 99.9% sure I'll be rocking a Doc Rack in the near future

Being kind of excited about it, i was checking out Docs FB page and decided to take a break from messing around with my mounting ideas.... I felt like making an XK sized rack



Doc if you read this, just a quick note.... I've never built my own rack and know you're experienced as hell. I was just messing around with Pro-E tonight. When I get my rack from you, I'm going with your design, not my amateur 45 minute "wannabe roof rack designer" 3D model.

[Doc in AZ]

You put more effort into the design process than I ever did... lol... drew it with Sharpie marker on the steel welding table, did some long hand math right there on the table and started bending. Keep in mind my side tabs are not sheet metal they are 3/16" steel plate waterjet cut for precision and accuracy for the holes in the side to mount tools.

[Matt]

lol, well i do failure analysis and mechanical design for a living... how's that saying go? if you like what you do then you'll never work a day in your life? (Well, in my case you have to add in "except for when program managers piss you off" but thats another story, and the reason I read my daily Dilbert comic).

I actually used 1/2" plate for the model and 1" tube. It was just a visualization thing.... and because Jon Stewart was a bit boring tonight.

[cico7]

MAtt, Doc, quit screwing with the stock rack and rail and modifying it. Start over. Meaning, I was looking at a rack on a Hummer today. It's system is the width of the vehicle
and sits quite low. I think you should start with the rails, then the supports, then rack.

Of course it is easy for me to say that since I have no time or money invested in this. Ok, feel free to bash my idea.

[Matt]

Lol that is a valid idea... but would take a considerable amount of time to develop.... and time is money.

I actually emailed doc an idea last night, and now the I have a rack modeled ill probably model my newest mounting idea tonight. Basically I'm thinking Doc may be able to have 3 of the floor crossbars extend about 4" out of each side. Then I would just machine those mounts that I'm developing to clamp around those 1" diameter bars and completely eliminate the need for load bars. The rack can't get much more low pro than that......

Another benefit of this is that the mounts would also work with Yakima load bars... so they'd be dual purpose. They'd also be easier to machine since I wouldn't have to mill a deep square groove... I'd just blast a 1" hole in the mount and then cut it to make it 2 halves.

[pjmjr508]

Maybe you can make some mounts like that for the Rola Roof Racks from 4x so I can remove the cross bars & just have the rack lower & attached to rails & on top of cross bars.

They should clamp up the same way.

[Matt]

Maybe you can make some mounts like that for the Rola Roof Racks from 4x so I can remove the cross bars & just have the rack lower & attached to rails & on top of cross bars.

They should clamp up the same way.

I don't know what the rola mounts look like. Take some pictures and post them in this thread:
http://www.xk-forum.com/showthread.p...ss-Rail-Mounts