I bought my 04 4WD a couple of months ago specifically to cart hang gliders around. So after some basic maintenance (brake job, fluid change) my first project was to build a rack capable of holding some hang gliders.
First off, hang gliders prefer large flat padded support surfaces (like 2x4's). Narrow curved roof bars like those on the OEM roof rack would damage a sail in short order and had to go.
So step one was to remove the rear plastic covers on the stock roof rack and yank out the stock roof bars.
Step 2 was to cut up some 3.5" lengths of steel (1/4" thick x 1" bar and 3/16" thick x 1 1/2" angle) as shown:
Now drill two holes 2.5" apart in the flat pieces and tap 1/4-20. Drill matching 1/4" clearance holes in one face and a centered 5/16" clearance hole in the opposing face of the angle sections and these assemble into brackets as shown:
Now mount the brackets loosely on the roof rack rails, lay a 4' length of 2x4 on top and mark where the 5/16 bracket holes line up. Drill 5/16" clearance holes in these locations, attach 2x4's to the brackets with 5/16 carriage bolts and tighten everything up. Snap the plastic rail covers back in place and you have a basic flat rack:
Staple on some carpeting for padding and the back portion is done:
The front was a bit more involved. Probably the simplest solution would have been to mount a front receiver like the one from CBI. Various hitch mounted racks are then available. Just for grins I decided to fab up a cheap bolt on solution instead.
First need to get access to the frame rails to anchor a front rack. So yank off the bumper cover and bumper reinforcement to find these 4 handy 10mm mounting studs sticking out of the frame rails:
I cut up a 3" length of 1/4" thick x 6" steel box beam in two halves as shown:
and then drilled a couple of 27/64" holes in the back face of each half to mate up with the 10mm frame rail studs. While there I also drilled some additional 1/4 and 3/8" holes for later use. This allows these plates to be sandwiched behind the bumper reinforcement when it's reinstalled as shown:
With a little bit of careful measurement and trimming these plates will mate up with gaps in the front bumper grill and allow the bumper cover to be reinstalled right over them:
These 1/4" steel beams can now support all sorts of front rack designs, but I opted for a simple one based on 1 1/8" Aluminum tubing since I had an excess supply of that (raw stock for hang glider repairs). So I just needed to fab up some pieces that would adapt tubing to these steel plates.
For this I cut up some 4" lengths of 2.5" square Aluminum. Bored one side 1 1/8" diameter by 2.5" deep and drilled a 3/8" clearance hole down the center of this bore hole. Sawed out a chunk from the other side and drilled another couple of holes so it would mate up to steel plates and I had a couple of pieces that look like this:
and bolted up to the steel plates like this:
Tubing pops right in and is held in by a finger tight wingnut for easy removal:
A bit of bolting together some tubing and a 2x4 and we now have a front rack bar matching the rear two:
About a minute of fiddling with the wing nuts and the front rack can be removed allowing for a semi-normal looking front end for ordinary non-glider-hauling tasks:
Anyway, not the most elegant rack solution, but it carries hang gliders in comfort and that's what I was looking for.
First off, hang gliders prefer large flat padded support surfaces (like 2x4's). Narrow curved roof bars like those on the OEM roof rack would damage a sail in short order and had to go.
So step one was to remove the rear plastic covers on the stock roof rack and yank out the stock roof bars.
Step 2 was to cut up some 3.5" lengths of steel (1/4" thick x 1" bar and 3/16" thick x 1 1/2" angle) as shown:
Now drill two holes 2.5" apart in the flat pieces and tap 1/4-20. Drill matching 1/4" clearance holes in one face and a centered 5/16" clearance hole in the opposing face of the angle sections and these assemble into brackets as shown:
Now mount the brackets loosely on the roof rack rails, lay a 4' length of 2x4 on top and mark where the 5/16 bracket holes line up. Drill 5/16" clearance holes in these locations, attach 2x4's to the brackets with 5/16 carriage bolts and tighten everything up. Snap the plastic rail covers back in place and you have a basic flat rack:
Staple on some carpeting for padding and the back portion is done:
The front was a bit more involved. Probably the simplest solution would have been to mount a front receiver like the one from CBI. Various hitch mounted racks are then available. Just for grins I decided to fab up a cheap bolt on solution instead.
First need to get access to the frame rails to anchor a front rack. So yank off the bumper cover and bumper reinforcement to find these 4 handy 10mm mounting studs sticking out of the frame rails:
I cut up a 3" length of 1/4" thick x 6" steel box beam in two halves as shown:
and then drilled a couple of 27/64" holes in the back face of each half to mate up with the 10mm frame rail studs. While there I also drilled some additional 1/4 and 3/8" holes for later use. This allows these plates to be sandwiched behind the bumper reinforcement when it's reinstalled as shown:
With a little bit of careful measurement and trimming these plates will mate up with gaps in the front bumper grill and allow the bumper cover to be reinstalled right over them:
These 1/4" steel beams can now support all sorts of front rack designs, but I opted for a simple one based on 1 1/8" Aluminum tubing since I had an excess supply of that (raw stock for hang glider repairs). So I just needed to fab up some pieces that would adapt tubing to these steel plates.
For this I cut up some 4" lengths of 2.5" square Aluminum. Bored one side 1 1/8" diameter by 2.5" deep and drilled a 3/8" clearance hole down the center of this bore hole. Sawed out a chunk from the other side and drilled another couple of holes so it would mate up to steel plates and I had a couple of pieces that look like this:
and bolted up to the steel plates like this:
Tubing pops right in and is held in by a finger tight wingnut for easy removal:
A bit of bolting together some tubing and a 2x4 and we now have a front rack bar matching the rear two:
About a minute of fiddling with the wing nuts and the front rack can be removed allowing for a semi-normal looking front end for ordinary non-glider-hauling tasks:
Anyway, not the most elegant rack solution, but it carries hang gliders in comfort and that's what I was looking for.
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