Mister_Seth92
New member
Hey all, just thought I'd share what progress I made today on my "homebrew" roof rack. I was looking around at my options for racks, and being a college student, I realized that I cannot spend $5-$600 on a rack that I wouldn't use unless camping, fishing, or moving. Luckily, I'll be graduating in May and will be moving to Oklahoma, so I had an excuse to fabricate something to help me out while NOT breaking the bank.
COST- Materials:
32' 1"x1" Square Tube Stock= $35 @ The Yard in Wichita, KS
10' 1" Tubing= $10
48" 2"x2" Angle Iron= $19
Paint- I haven't purchased yet, and will ask YOU all for suggestions
TOTAL COST as of today= $63.00 and some time.
So I designed this to utilize the stock cross bar mounting rails- I am using 3/8" Grade 8 carriage bolts to mount the rack. The neat part about using carriage bolts is that I can slide the head through the existing rail. Why is this neat? I can adjust the rack forwards or backwards and remove the rack when I sell the vehicle (doubt I will, I love my Yota).
Now, it isn't pictured, but connecting each cross section of square tube stock, there are 3 bars in between the rungs running parallel with the side bars. I wanted some added rigidity so have the option to sleep up on my rack, add a future rooftop tent, and have a neat little shooting platform when I go out to play. I put the rack between those two saw horses, crossed my fingers, stood on top and jumped up and down- ZERO movement or flex. I was quite pleased and actually laughed a little bit.
Some of you may see my front-most bar and say "why right in the middle of your sunroof?" My idea here was to go as far forward as possible whilst maintaining the body lines of the roof so the rack won't be as visually "HOLY CRAP WHAT A PIECE" as if it extended to the top of the windshield. I can also mount a light bar on it and it shouldn't glare off of the hood TOO much. Yay little to none sunroof protection, but hey, in the shameful words of my generation "YOLO".
Anyways, this is what I've done. The rack will sit about an inch higher than pictured once the bolts are in and tightened, so it won't tear up the silver paint on the existing bars.
Enjoy! I hope to wrap up the project sometime tomorrow or next weekend.
PS: The open ends will have plastic end caps I found at Wally World in the home section. Yay fencing.
COST- Materials:
32' 1"x1" Square Tube Stock= $35 @ The Yard in Wichita, KS
10' 1" Tubing= $10
48" 2"x2" Angle Iron= $19
Paint- I haven't purchased yet, and will ask YOU all for suggestions
TOTAL COST as of today= $63.00 and some time.
So I designed this to utilize the stock cross bar mounting rails- I am using 3/8" Grade 8 carriage bolts to mount the rack. The neat part about using carriage bolts is that I can slide the head through the existing rail. Why is this neat? I can adjust the rack forwards or backwards and remove the rack when I sell the vehicle (doubt I will, I love my Yota).
Now, it isn't pictured, but connecting each cross section of square tube stock, there are 3 bars in between the rungs running parallel with the side bars. I wanted some added rigidity so have the option to sleep up on my rack, add a future rooftop tent, and have a neat little shooting platform when I go out to play. I put the rack between those two saw horses, crossed my fingers, stood on top and jumped up and down- ZERO movement or flex. I was quite pleased and actually laughed a little bit.
Some of you may see my front-most bar and say "why right in the middle of your sunroof?" My idea here was to go as far forward as possible whilst maintaining the body lines of the roof so the rack won't be as visually "HOLY CRAP WHAT A PIECE" as if it extended to the top of the windshield. I can also mount a light bar on it and it shouldn't glare off of the hood TOO much. Yay little to none sunroof protection, but hey, in the shameful words of my generation "YOLO".
Anyways, this is what I've done. The rack will sit about an inch higher than pictured once the bolts are in and tightened, so it won't tear up the silver paint on the existing bars.
Enjoy! I hope to wrap up the project sometime tomorrow or next weekend.
PS: The open ends will have plastic end caps I found at Wally World in the home section. Yay fencing.
