Gamiviti: Another Full Length Roof Rack Option

delgadtn

New member
Installed my Gamiviti Rack about 2 months ago and so far, I am really happy with it. For me, I still really like the look of a tubular steel rack and thus avoided the flat style aluminum racks. Too, I wanted to preserve my sunroof and also have the ability to mount Yakiama cross bars over the rack for my other outdoor activities; cycling, skiing, kayaking, etc... I wanted to use my own cross bars as they are 66" and extend out beyond the footprint of the vehicle. I found Gamiviti Racks on the Land Cruiser forum IH8MUD as he has been building LC racks for sometime now. The LC folks seemed to not only like the rack, but working with the builder as well. I reached out to Tim Gamiviti and he had in fact done a 4th and 5th gen in the past. We worked together for a bit and came up with design that fit my needs. I have 6 towers (4 using the factory mounting points) and after running it for a few weeks without drilling the roof, I did opt to drill the roof given my desire to have it as secure as possible with my anticipated loads and uses. I do have an LED mounted on the rack which is hidden behind the fairing. The fairing is able to flip up to reveal the LEDs and I have run it up at 55mph without any issues. The way that the LED sits in the rack, no light is reflected on to my hood as it is instead deflected by the lower expo bar. Over Memorial Day I took it down to the desert of Sourthern Utah and Northern AZ for a 5 night off road trip. It's was loaded down with close to 200lbs of gear and I hammered it on everything from rock crawling on Elephant Hill to washboard roads in Valley of the Gods. It took the beating without any hiccups; even when I rubbed my awning up against a rock wall in Devils Pocket. The only real complaints I have are:
1. It uses standard instead of metric hardware. 1st world problem.

2. There is not a ton of aftermarket products to secure gear as there is for Frontrunner, Gobi, etc.. He does make an awning bracket which I really like. It's a hitch receiver style and allows me to mount and remove the awning in less than 90 seconds; I do lock it. I have been able to securely and neatly organize all of my gear, Rotopax, hi-lift, axe/shovel, using other manufactures bracket's, or fabricating my own backing plate support for Rotopax using aluminum from Home Depot. I have also used eye-bolts. Quick fists would work as well but I wanted something a bit more permanent. I think if I were to use quick fists I would use the Quick Fist extension brackets from Crazy Beaver as they seem super strong. I may have used these before getting other aftermarket brackets but I did not know they existed at the time.

I will get more pictures of the towers and such when able. Here are some pics of it.

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Here are a couple of pictures with it loaded down.

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Sooo...a question. Do they offer a flat version of this without the side rails?



Yes. That side rail they call an Expo Bar. You can run it with the expo bar up or down. I am running it with the bar down. You can also get just the flat rack without the Expo bar. I also chose to get the drop down basket and the grids. But, you can get it with just the bars only.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro
 
Nice rack :naughty: :biggrin1:

Two legs or three? If three, front mounts drill-in or gravity?

Also the front lower crossbar, below your lightbar, how far does it sit from the roof? it looks like there is an inch of clearance but hard to tell. That is something I haven't liked about others, the faring or even the rack itself comes in contact with the roof. Not a fan of that, years and years ago on another truck I had a yakima faring wear through to bare metal in pretty short order.
 
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Rack newb here. Does this one just connect to the factory spots? If so how does the weight forward of those points get supported?

Looks slick regardless.
 
Nice rack :naughty: :biggrin1:

Two legs or three? If three, front mounts drill-in or gravity?

Also the front lower crossbar, below your lightbar, how far does it sit from the roof? it looks like there is an inch of clearance but hard to tell. That is something I haven't liked about other bars is the faring or even the rack itself comes in contact with the roof. not a fan of that, years and years ago on another truck I had a yakima faring wear through to bare metal in pretty short order.



There are three towers on each side; 6 total. You could add 2 more (8 total) if you really want to load it up. The front towers can be either gravity or drill. I had them compression mounted at first by pushing up and flexing the the front of the rack and preloading the front towers. They were resting on some 3M VHB tape I put in the gutter. Ultimately though, I opted to just drill the roof and have 6 points of bomber contact. The front lower cross bar and fairing sit about 1.25 inches above the roof and do not touch. Wheeled it pretty hard in Canyonlands and it never touched. They are actually coming out with a fairing that is slightly longer than the current one and should rest closer but still not touch the roof; I get some whistling with the sunroof open and I want that to go away. I will post pictures when it arrives in a few days.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro
 
Installed my Gamiviti Rack about 2 months ago and so far, I am really happy with it. For me, I still really like the look of a tubular steel rack and thus avoided the flat style aluminum racks. Too, I wanted to preserve my sunroof and also have the ability to mount Yakiama cross bars over the rack for my other outdoor activities; cycling, skiing, kayaking, etc... I wanted to use my own cross bars as they are 66" and extend out beyond the footprint of the vehicle. I found Gamiviti Racks on the Land Cruiser forum IH8MUD as he has been building LC racks for sometime now. The LC folks seemed to not only like the rack, but working with the builder as well. I reached out to Tim Gamiviti and he had in fact done a 4th and 5th gen in the past. We worked together for a bit and came up with design that fit my needs. I have 6 towers (4 using the factory mounting points) and after running it for a few weeks without drilling the roof, I did opt to drill the roof given my desire to have it as secure as possible with my anticipated loads and uses. I do have an LED mounted on the rack which is hidden behind the fairing. The fairing is able to flip up to reveal the LEDs and I have run it up at 55mph without any issues. The way that the LED sits in the rack, no light is reflected on to my hood as it is instead deflected by the lower expo bar. Over Memorial Day I took it down to the desert of Sourthern Utah and Northern AZ for a 5 night off road trip. It's was loaded down with close to 200lbs of gear and I hammered it on everything from rock crawling on Elephant Hill to washboard roads in Valley of the Gods. It took the beating without any hiccups; even when I rubbed my awning up against a rock wall in Devils Pocket. The only real complaints I have are:
1. It uses standard instead of metric hardware. 1st world problem.

2. There is not a ton of aftermarket products to secure gear as there is for Frontrunner, Gobi, etc.. He does make an awning bracket which I really like. It's a hitch receiver style and allows me to mount and remove the awning in less than 90 seconds; I do lock it. I have been able to securely and neatly organize all of my gear, Rotopax, hi-lift, axe/shovel, using other manufactures bracket's, or fabricating my own backing plate support for Rotopax using aluminum from Home Depot. I have also used eye-bolts. Quick fists would work as well but I wanted something a bit more permanent. I think if I were to use quick fists I would use the Quick Fist extension brackets from Crazy Beaver as they seem super strong. I may have used these before getting other aftermarket brackets but I did not know they existed at the time.

Is this aluminum or steel? Thanks!
 
They don't have a 5th gen listed on their website... what was the price and lead time? Where are they located?

Thanks
 
They don't have a 5th gen listed on their website... what was the price and lead time? Where are they located?

Thanks

Would you be willing to let us know how much you paid? Thanks, your rack looks great.

i emailed them a few months back (February) about some info. They quoted me about $1200 +/- depending on the options i wanted. Estimated lead time was 6 weeks..
 
Does this one just connect to the factory spots? If so how does the weight forward of those points get supported?

Yes, it connects to the four existing factory spots and I have two additional towers up front. I chose to drill but you do not necessarily have to. See above post for more details.

They don't have a 5th gen listed on their website... what was the price and lead time? Where are they located?

They are located in Denver. Lead time is 6 weeks. I drove there from Utah we installed it together. In hindsight, it is not a hard install and I could have done it myself.

Would you be willing to let us know how much you paid? Thanks, your rack looks great.

You can get a full length rack for around $700. Mine was on the higher end because I chose a lot of options: Expo bar, Sunroof cut out, drop down basket, grid, 8 gussets (attach quick fists and lights), light bar cutout, 2 extra rectangular plates (see pictures), and custom riser towers to mate with my Yakima Control towers (visible in one of the firsts pictures). I paid ~$1300 with powder coat

Is this aluminum or steel? Thanks!

It is steel.
 
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Here are a couple detailed pictures of the rack. The towers have sliding adjustability and allow you to compression mount the rack simply by preloading the towers.

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The fairing simply flips up by tugging on the lower two clips. I chose to insulate the rack with electrical tape under the clips simply to prevent any damage to the powder coat. The faring is quite stable when flipped up and I have driven at 55 mph without issue. I would not want to keep it up all the time though as it does increase wind noise and faster speeds.

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The awning mounts using a trailer hitch receiver style and quick release pin. The awning can be removed in seconds. Good and bad I suppose and I have chosen to add a small cable gun style lock to mine. There was some vibration between the male and female pieces though. It comes with some electrical shrink insulation and if you use that with a little adhesive underneath it it stays in place and dampens any vibrations. I have not had any issues since I did this.

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Tim's part of my 4x4 group in Denver. He showed me your rack as I was thinking of ordering one from him. Just put in my order and am excited!

The fact that his racks are fully customization and he's willing to work with you on small details of the rack are worth it.
 

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