JasonKoko
New member
I've always greatly appreciated detailed write-ups regarding installations, so I figured I'd put something else together on my install of the 2.2 meter variant of the Eezi Awn K9 roof rack.
Firstly, I purchased it from Paul with Equipt on a Thursday, and had everything delivered to my office by the following Friday afternoon.
Removing the factory roof rails was pretty straight forward. Once you use a flathead screwdriver to gently pry the black covers off, the removal of the bolts was the easiest part of the install.
Once I got everything laid out, I was ready for the install. You can see the rails and all the boxes with the foot hardware.
The Eezi Awn rails that will be the mounting seat for the rack itself have a soft padding on the underside that will rest on the black strips that lined where the factory rails were mounted.
Once I had removed the factory rails, I placed the Eezi Awn rails in place and screwed the bolts in.
Based on some other threads I read, I used some marine/outside silicon to put around the holes where the new bolts would be screwed into. This was probably overkill but it was an easy and cheap way to give me a little piece of mind against the potential to leak.
You can see the aluminum washers provided. I may undo some of this at a later time and add additional washers to try and correct the "roller coaster" effect you can see in some of the later photos.
When it was time to put the legs on, I measured the mid-point and went ahead and mounted/tightened down the middle leg. I left the others loose since I wasn't confident where their final position would be.
You can see in the photo, I removed the portion of the leg that will attach to the rack - it was easier to torque the mounting bolts down this way. It ended up being moot later since when I tightened them all down for the last time, removing this piece wasn’t possible.
I went ahead and tightened this leg at the lowest positioned heighth. Paul recommended that the middle leg be positioned as low as possible in order to utilize the "cantilever method”. This almost completely corrects the appearance of the front of the rail ‘lifting’ off the roofline of the truck, as seen in an earlier photo.
Explanation of the "cantilever method": The roofline of the 4Runner has a slight curvature to it. And when the rack is bolted tight to the factory mounting points, the front of the rail will actually be raised slightly from the roof line. In order to get that rail to bend more along the roofline, Paul recommended that the middle leg be positioned in its lowest height, then raise the back legs to their highest position, then do the same to the front. The result will put pressure on the front of the rail so that the rail sits more along the roofline and the rack is still level.
The next step was to put all the mounting bolts in the slots before I raised the rack above the truck to mount to the feet.
At first, I had these all aligned on either side, but I found them better positioned in the middle so I could slide them over the mounting holes once it was on top of the roof. When you install, you’ll see what I mean.
Getting the rack on top of a lifted 4Runner was interesting. Luckily I had my 5'2" wife to help. Haha. We had to put it up from the back, then sort of inch it forward enough to get it to rest on its own. We repositioned our stools and were able to work it forward and get it where it needed to rest.
I started the mounting process by only loosely securing the outer-most bolt from the rack to the middle foot. Once I did this I made sure everything else was in a good position before tightening any of the other bolts.
I had a hard time leveraging the front to its maximum height, but with the help of the leftover hardware boxes, I was able to raise it up.
Something I realized (luckily) before I tightened everything up was that I needed to make sure the rack was moved forward enough for the lift-gate to clear.
I also made sure to position the legs such that when you tighten the bolts, they don't tighten into the rail bolts (that secure the rail to the roof).
I eyed the rack from the front and rear of the truck to make sure the rack was centered on the roof, then tightened the bolts that attach the rack itself to the individual feet.
I left the screws that tighten the feet to the rails loose, so I could slide it forward and back until it was well positioned.
Then I went around the whole rack again and tightened the feet to the rails.
Then I took another pass and checked all the screws, bolts, nuts, fittings, whatever to ensure they were all nice and snug.
During my adjustments, I had to inch things forward and back and to the left and right until I found what I felt to be the best positioning, as perfectly centered and aligned as I could get it.
My wife thought I looked goofy enough to take a picture. And apparently I agreed enough to publish it on the internets. My only defense: it was hot, so so hot. And the sun was singing my balding head - so this kid’s towel seemed like the perfect solution.
Firstly, I purchased it from Paul with Equipt on a Thursday, and had everything delivered to my office by the following Friday afternoon.
Removing the factory roof rails was pretty straight forward. Once you use a flathead screwdriver to gently pry the black covers off, the removal of the bolts was the easiest part of the install.
Once I got everything laid out, I was ready for the install. You can see the rails and all the boxes with the foot hardware.
The Eezi Awn rails that will be the mounting seat for the rack itself have a soft padding on the underside that will rest on the black strips that lined where the factory rails were mounted.
Once I had removed the factory rails, I placed the Eezi Awn rails in place and screwed the bolts in.
Based on some other threads I read, I used some marine/outside silicon to put around the holes where the new bolts would be screwed into. This was probably overkill but it was an easy and cheap way to give me a little piece of mind against the potential to leak.
You can see the aluminum washers provided. I may undo some of this at a later time and add additional washers to try and correct the "roller coaster" effect you can see in some of the later photos.
When it was time to put the legs on, I measured the mid-point and went ahead and mounted/tightened down the middle leg. I left the others loose since I wasn't confident where their final position would be.
You can see in the photo, I removed the portion of the leg that will attach to the rack - it was easier to torque the mounting bolts down this way. It ended up being moot later since when I tightened them all down for the last time, removing this piece wasn’t possible.
I went ahead and tightened this leg at the lowest positioned heighth. Paul recommended that the middle leg be positioned as low as possible in order to utilize the "cantilever method”. This almost completely corrects the appearance of the front of the rail ‘lifting’ off the roofline of the truck, as seen in an earlier photo.
Explanation of the "cantilever method": The roofline of the 4Runner has a slight curvature to it. And when the rack is bolted tight to the factory mounting points, the front of the rail will actually be raised slightly from the roof line. In order to get that rail to bend more along the roofline, Paul recommended that the middle leg be positioned in its lowest height, then raise the back legs to their highest position, then do the same to the front. The result will put pressure on the front of the rail so that the rail sits more along the roofline and the rack is still level.
The next step was to put all the mounting bolts in the slots before I raised the rack above the truck to mount to the feet.
At first, I had these all aligned on either side, but I found them better positioned in the middle so I could slide them over the mounting holes once it was on top of the roof. When you install, you’ll see what I mean.
Getting the rack on top of a lifted 4Runner was interesting. Luckily I had my 5'2" wife to help. Haha. We had to put it up from the back, then sort of inch it forward enough to get it to rest on its own. We repositioned our stools and were able to work it forward and get it where it needed to rest.
I started the mounting process by only loosely securing the outer-most bolt from the rack to the middle foot. Once I did this I made sure everything else was in a good position before tightening any of the other bolts.
I had a hard time leveraging the front to its maximum height, but with the help of the leftover hardware boxes, I was able to raise it up.
Something I realized (luckily) before I tightened everything up was that I needed to make sure the rack was moved forward enough for the lift-gate to clear.
I also made sure to position the legs such that when you tighten the bolts, they don't tighten into the rail bolts (that secure the rail to the roof).
I eyed the rack from the front and rear of the truck to make sure the rack was centered on the roof, then tightened the bolts that attach the rack itself to the individual feet.
I left the screws that tighten the feet to the rails loose, so I could slide it forward and back until it was well positioned.
Then I went around the whole rack again and tightened the feet to the rails.
Then I took another pass and checked all the screws, bolts, nuts, fittings, whatever to ensure they were all nice and snug.
During my adjustments, I had to inch things forward and back and to the left and right until I found what I felt to be the best positioning, as perfectly centered and aligned as I could get it.
My wife thought I looked goofy enough to take a picture. And apparently I agreed enough to publish it on the internets. My only defense: it was hot, so so hot. And the sun was singing my balding head - so this kid’s towel seemed like the perfect solution.
