80/20 Roof Rack

[dlongoria3880]

Roof racks! Definitely one of the coolest accessories for our 4Runners! There are so many options now. Each has there own different features and specialties, but in the end it all comes down to how each person wants to use it. I have been working to design and build a roof rack since my first 5th Gen back in 2010. EMT conduit was my first thought, it did not turn out to well. But I still attempted it. I didn't get in a big hurry after the first trial, but rather set out to find a universal material to make a roof rack out of Now, years later my research and designing has all come together. This is a roof rack that is ALMOST all DIY. 80/20 T-slot extruded aluminum (aka - the industrial erector set) is very lightweight and in my opinion very strong. 80/20 also offers so many options, it makes it really easy to make a rack all your own. Plus adding on to it is easy. Overall this rack has cost me around $750. Which I have thought, oh I could have bought one for that much, but I feel that this has way more versatility. The mounting feet were the biggest challenge to begin with, and the roof rails (factory mount spots) not being parallel. After looking at multiple other mounts, I came up with what I needed, drew it up and took it to a local machine shop. I have these drawings and can send them if anyone is interested. These mounting feet cost $175 to have made at the local machine shop. The next thing I had to find a solution for was the spacers. I have the "drawer of misc parts", so I started digging through it and found 8 black plastic spacers that an 8mm bolt just happened to fit perfectly through. The spacers came with some TV wall mounts I had purchased! We will see how they hold up. Although, I bet you can find spacers pretty easy. I have seen them on here made out of oval'd pipe. These were the two biggest challenges to getting this made. Now that it is complete, I am just adding to it. With the way I have the front light bar mounted, it whistled in oncoming wind. I have bought slot filler pieces that have stopped this. I hope to have a RTT mounted to it this summer as I feel it will be a good test of the rack's overall strength. I have crawled up on it and rocked the runner side to side and transferred my weight (230 lbs) between the crossbars. The crossbars, mounting points, and rack all stayed solid. This is a 100% self designed roof rack, as are the mounting brackets. I understand that there may be flaws in some of the parts, but I am willing to see what this thing will do as is. I will continue to post about issues that may arise. So with that being said, enough of reading, on to the most important part. The pictures!

All assembled.

Bolted on with 5/16" carriage bolts for test fit. These fit in the slot and hold
when tightening down on them.

Test fit.

Mount before paint.





More pictures and comments to follow.

 

[HELOTESTXTRD]

Great job


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk Pro

 

[honda250xtitan]

Nicely done man! it's similar to a frontrunner/prinsu.

 

[clweathers]

:cheers:

 

[DallasStarsFan]

I have been pondering something like this. Thanks to you I will be shopping. On a few of my designs there are vertical sides bolted in to haul things like boxes when needed and brackets to haul 4x8 sheets. Good job!

 

[dot_tom]

Is 80/20 your name for the rack? I admire the work and desire to DIY but $750? A Prinsu would have been a great alternative, met all needs, and you wouldn't have had to sacrifice your XM antenna. Prinsu makes zero noise on highway when properly setup, also. just my .2

 

[thatmaceguy]

Is 80/20 your name for the rack? I admire the work and desire to DIY but $750? A Prinsu would have been a great alternative, met all needs, and you wouldn't have had to sacrifice your XM antenna. Prinsu makes zero noise on highway when properly setup, also. just my .2

80/20 is the name of the framing system he's using and the company that provides the materials (8020.net). It's extruded 6105-T5 aluminum with T-slotted profile. Prinsu, Southern Style Offroad, and a few others use this material for the cross-bars in their roof racks.

 

[thatmaceguy]

I've been considering doing something similar.

Since Rago and LFD Off Road introduced their cross-bars that mount between the stock 4Runner roof rails, I don't see any reason you couldn't do the same with 80/20. I know of only one person who has tried it on a GX and it seems to be working great.

Could you post up which tubing profiles you used for the cross-bars? and which parts you used for the inside corner brackets they're mounted with?

 

[calcrc]

Nice job man, I am working on my rack also, all aluminium with some extras for my carrying needs, will start the cutting soon

 

[dot_tom]

80/20 is the name of the framing system he's using and the company that provides the materials (8020.net). It's extruded 6105-T5 aluminum with T-slotted profile. Prinsu, Southern Style Offroad, and a few others use this material for the cross-bars in their roof racks.

Makes more sense. Thanks, I was not aware of that company.

 

[ehcanadian]

Awesome job! That 80/20 stuff is awesome. I have the plans to do something very similar to this, just my plan was just make it a "hybrid" style - cargo style rack (like gobi) to a flat rack, Being the sides just screw in. Literally have all the materials but haven't had time to stop by the cnc shop from some prototype cuts

 

[e60ral]

one of the cool things about 80/20 is they have a CAD plugin where you draw up stuff with their parts and it develops exact BOM with sizes and lengths and they cut and machine everything to exactly what you, they will even package into kits if you have multiple copies.

i started a drawer system using 80/20 with the plan to sell kits but it got to where it wasn't cost competitive against the already existing good products (80/20 is really cool, but it's not cheap). i used to get loads of scrap from work but since i have a project i want to use it on there hasn't been anything (goose gear uses some 80/20 along with square tubing like EZ-tube)

 

[gundrted+t4r]

SWWWEEEEET!!!!

I've been looking at doing the exact same thing as well, but with a little twist. I'm look at keeping my factory roof rails. I've been thinking of ways to mount the rack to the current 'slots' used by the factory cross bar.

Does anyone know the size/type of bolt that would fit into the factory rail slots?

For all of us it comes down to the use case. I have a Thule Atlas 1200 roof box. It takes up about 1/2 the roof real-estate. The other half I would love to have a usable space for Treds Pro, fuel can, hot water tube and may be a shade awning.

The Atlas has a claw style mounting system and recessed bottom. This means it can't be mounted to a flat deck and needs some kind of raised bar to attach to. I also need the ability to easily remove the roof box for car washes, parking garages and when its not used (summer mostly).

At this point I'm not entirely sure how to accomedate the Thule box and a storage platform. If all else fails, I could always mount the deck to my current Yakima crossbars.

 

[gundrted+t4r]

Roof racks! Definitely one of the coolest accessories for our 4Runners! There are so many options now. Each has there own different features and specialties, but in the end it all comes down to how each person wants to use it. I have been working to design and build a roof rack since my first 5th Gen back in 2010. EMT conduit was my first thought, it did not turn out to well. But I still attempted it. I didn't get in a big hurry after the first trial, but rather set out to find a universal material to make a roof rack out of Now, years later my research and designing has all come together. This is a roof rack that is ALMOST all DIY. 80/20 T-slot extruded aluminum (aka - the industrial erector set) is very lightweight and in my opinion very strong. 80/20 also offers so many options, it makes it really easy to make a rack all your own. Plus adding on to it is easy. Overall this rack has cost me around $750. Which I have thought, oh I could have bought one for that much, but I feel that this has way more versatility. The mounting feet were the biggest challenge to begin with, and the roof rails (factory mount spots) not being parallel. After looking at multiple other mounts, I came up with what I needed, drew it up and took it to a local machine shop. I have these drawings and can send them if anyone is interested. These mounting feet cost $175 to have made at the local machine shop. The next thing I had to find a solution for was the spacers. I have the "drawer of misc parts", so I started digging through it and found 8 black plastic spacers that an 8mm bolt just happened to fit perfectly through. The spacers came with some TV wall mounts I had purchased! We will see how they hold up. Although, I bet you can find spacers pretty easy. I have seen them on here made out of oval'd pipe. These were the two biggest challenges to getting this made. Now that it is complete, I am just adding to it. With the way I have the front light bar mounted, it whistled in oncoming wind. I have bought slot filler pieces that have stopped this. I hope to have a RTT mounted to it this summer as I feel it will be a good test of the rack's overall strength. I have crawled up on it and rocked the runner side to side and transferred my weight (230 lbs) between the crossbars. The crossbars, mounting points, and rack all stayed solid. This is a 100% self designed roof rack, as are the mounting brackets. I understand that there may be flaws in some of the parts, but I am willing to see what this thing will do as is. I will continue to post about issues that may arise. So with that being said, enough of reading, on to the most important part. The pictures!

Can you share a part list?

It looks like you went with the heavier duty members. The black also adds some cost. Did you use the stress calculators to size the members?

 

[Kenn]

Yes, please post a parts list, thanks!

 

[emonell2]

Weight?

How much weight do you guess that those cross bars and fasteners can support? Thinking about building one of my own and trying to figure the best fasteners to use for the most strength.

 

[gundrted+t4r]

How much weight do you guess that those cross bars and fasteners can support? Thinking about building one of my own and trying to figure the best fasteners to use for the most strength.

It really depends what framing members you use and how its supported. I'll attach a PDF of something I just worked up using the 80/20 deflection calculator. I'm just guessing the parts used by the OP and that is supported from the end (not a point load).

https://8020.net/deflection-calculator

 

[3s1kill]

It really depends what framing members you use and how its supported. I'll attach a PDF of something I just worked up using the 80/20 deflection calculator. I'm just guessing the parts used by the OP and that is supported from the end (not a point load).

https://8020.net/deflection-calculator

I love the rack and I was hyped for DIY project I could take on myself but you lost me at $720.

 

[Stick4R]

SWWWEEEEET!!!!

I've been looking at doing the exact same thing as well, but with a little twist. I'm look at keeping my factory roof rails. I've been thinking of ways to mount the rack to the current 'slots' used by the factory cross bar.

Does anyone know the size/type of bolt that would fit into the factory rail slots?

For all of us it comes down to the use case. I have a Thule Atlas 1200 roof box. It takes up about 1/2 the roof real-estate. The other half I would love to have a usable space for Treds Pro, fuel can, hot water tube and may be a shade awning.

The Atlas has a claw style mounting system and recessed bottom. This means it can't be mounted to a flat deck and needs some kind of raised bar to attach to. I also need the ability to easily remove the roof box for car washes, parking garages and when its not used (summer mostly).

At this point I'm not entirely sure how to accomedate the Thule box and a storage platform. If all else fails, I could always mount the deck to my current Yakima crossbars.

Awesome! I’m looking to do the same thing trying to use the 80/20 system and attach to the existing “T-slot” factory roof rails. Have you done this already I would like to know if you have done this yet and have any pics/ tips on doing this. When I get around to this I will post it too.

 

[zoiseaux]

A thing of beauty.