POLL!! Roof Rack floor material, ESM or Tube?

[Whitson Metalworks]

First of all, HAPPY THANKSGIVING everyone!!

Secondly, I would love your opinions on the material for the floor of my full length racks. My local steel supplier is pretty narrow minded and doesn't want to deal with anything he doesn't already carry which cuts out a lot of sweet looking perforated materials. I have always used a super tough, 3/4"x9 expanded sheet metal. Its a great solution for the floor; its very stout and provides great coverage for open areas between cross-members. The problems with it are; its a PITA to work with (sharp!), it adds a decent amount of weight to the rack, and cost goes up sporadically. I've heard some comments where folks didn't prefer the coverage of the mesh floor and would like something more open.

The Poll; Which floor would you hypothetically prefer on a rack? The expanded sheet metal (mesh) or square/round tube spaced closer together?

 

[the great him]

Having built a few racks of my own, the expanded metal flooring is my favorite. Its ability to hold a load and protect the roof is awesome, it provides infinite tie dow/off points for securing loads, its much easier to stand on -I have almost broken my ankle on a rack that has cross bars because my foot got caught and I lost my balance, and almost fell off. There are advantages to the cross bars, but I don't think enough to be better than the expanded metal, unless you are going for as light of weight as possible. Just my .02

 

[Whitson Metalworks]

Having built a few racks of my own, the expanded metal flooring is my favorite. Its ability to hold a load and protect the roof is awesome, it provides infinite tie dow/off points for securing loads, its much easier to stand on -I have almost broken my ankle on a rack that has cross bars because my foot got caught and I lost my balance, and almost fell off. There are advantages to the cross bars, but I don't think enough to be better than the expanded metal, unless you are going for as light of weight as possible. Just my .02

Right on, all very good points. The tube would save some weight, not sure how much though, and make cleaning the roof easier. I do like all the tie down points of the mesh and with this heavy mesh it can be bolt-down points!

 

[Aznwolf118]

Does the poll have the making of a gb or cyber Monday sale......

Actually I prefer the mesh, I have used the gobi on my brothers fj and with the flexibility and thinness of the factory 4runner roof I think the mesh just gives it that much more protection and rigidity. Yes it's a bit of a pain to clean but worth the trade off.