This involves a Wilderness Racks Off Road track rack...I think this one... Track Rack, Off Road Series, CJ7/YJ/TJ Hard-Top, 60L They have 4"and 6" versions plus other various rack stuff but the key element is their mounts for the track style racks. Good stock mounting photo can be seen here... http://www.wildernessracks.com/index.php/track-rack-off-road-series-86-91-suburban.html ...and elsewhere on their page.
So, the rack came on my Dad's Wrangler and it's been hanging on the wall in the garage for over a year so he was ready to get rid of it. It seemed like a good idea to see if it would fit on the 4Runner before Craigslist.
Basically I used the stock Wilderness basket with their track style mounts but instead of removing the 4runner factory rails and mounting the Wilderness tracks I just slid the Wilderness track mounts inside the 4Runner factory rails.
Wilderness stock track mount
Inside 4R factory rails
I removed the plastic end caps on the rear of the 4runner rails, slid out the factory cross bars, slid the front track mounts in, slid the factory cross bars back in, and slid the rear track mounts in. I wanted to keep the factory cross bars on because I'm a whitewater paddler more than I am a cargo rack user.
I chose to have the mounting tabs/arms to be flipped to the outside, but suppose they could be on the inside just same. It was a bit of a struggle by myself to get it all adjusted and square because of all the ways the track mounts can be adjusted. Plus it started raining half way through install. With two people it would be a lot easier.
If the bolt mounting locations on the Wilderness Rack were any further apart this would not work as the track mounts are at the farthest ends of the 4Runner factory rails before hitting the roof mounts. In other words, there really is no room for adjusting the rack fore and aft...but it seems to be sitting in a good spot on the roof.
See how close the track mounts are to the end of the factory rails...
With this setup the bottom of the basket just clears the factory rails and cross bars. Plus this setup would be easy to remove the rack, with just 4 nuts it will come off leaving the track mounts in place and relatively out of the way for loading boats or anything else.
It's solid and I have no qualms about loading it up.
So, the rack came on my Dad's Wrangler and it's been hanging on the wall in the garage for over a year so he was ready to get rid of it. It seemed like a good idea to see if it would fit on the 4Runner before Craigslist.
Basically I used the stock Wilderness basket with their track style mounts but instead of removing the 4runner factory rails and mounting the Wilderness tracks I just slid the Wilderness track mounts inside the 4Runner factory rails.
Wilderness stock track mount
Inside 4R factory rails
I removed the plastic end caps on the rear of the 4runner rails, slid out the factory cross bars, slid the front track mounts in, slid the factory cross bars back in, and slid the rear track mounts in. I wanted to keep the factory cross bars on because I'm a whitewater paddler more than I am a cargo rack user.
I chose to have the mounting tabs/arms to be flipped to the outside, but suppose they could be on the inside just same. It was a bit of a struggle by myself to get it all adjusted and square because of all the ways the track mounts can be adjusted. Plus it started raining half way through install. With two people it would be a lot easier.
If the bolt mounting locations on the Wilderness Rack were any further apart this would not work as the track mounts are at the farthest ends of the 4Runner factory rails before hitting the roof mounts. In other words, there really is no room for adjusting the rack fore and aft...but it seems to be sitting in a good spot on the roof.
See how close the track mounts are to the end of the factory rails...
With this setup the bottom of the basket just clears the factory rails and cross bars. Plus this setup would be easy to remove the rack, with just 4 nuts it will come off leaving the track mounts in place and relatively out of the way for loading boats or anything else.
It's solid and I have no qualms about loading it up.
