wheelinwv

i love the look of this roof rack man....nice work... u dont mind if i was to make one very simliar do ya...

moodster90

You sketchup design is awesome, i'm trying to work with sketchup and its pissing me off. I don't even know where to begin.

bikegaucho

thats what a rack should look like! nice and BIG!! well done sir!

Be635

That's a cool roof rack idea

scottq60

REALLY well done! . I'd like to do something like that for mine.

xj_mafia570

Over all how much did you pay for the steel?

bdiggity

Thanks for all the positive comments! I haven't been on the forum for a while. College and work have taken over my life...

Here is a little update of things that I've found that I wish I would have changed when I built it.
1. Use thicker metal for the base
2. Run a square tube down the middle of the base from front to back to help support and distribute the weight more evenly.
3. Gusset the gutter mounts where they mount to the base of the rack.

Somehow after a couple months the part where the gutter mounts mount to the base sheared right off. I think it was a cin reaction. One sheared and then more stress was put on the others and I almost lost the whole thing driving home. To fix it I had to get some 1/4" thick angle iron to patch the parts in the base. Then I made new gutter mounts out of 1/4" steel bar and added gusetts to hopefully lesson the stress a the four mounting points on the base. While I was at that I decided to help strengthen the cross bars because the weight of the spare tire the bars were starting to bend because of how wide the rack is. So I put to 1" wide by 1/4" thick steel bars going from front to back under the cross bars. That solved the bending cross bars.

So if you're going to make this rack, those 3 suggestions I mentioned earlier will save you a lot of hassle.

Thanks again for all the positive comments. I'm glad so many people like it.

bdiggity

As of right now with the modifications I had to make I'm into it about $120.

bdiggity

Go for it! You won't regret it.

ridgerunner13

Very nice man! I like how it's bigger than most of what you normally see. I was thinking of making mine out of tubbing but after seeing this defiantly going square!!!

moodster90

Post pictures of what you had to add, if you can.

xj_mafia570

And what kind of welder did you use i have a harbor freight flux-corded welder it should be able to weld that stuff no problem right?