thought i should add my rack pics here as well....:guitar2:
Izzard,
Did you mount the rack a little bit forward than usual? I didn;t think it went that far forward.
Nice rack!!!
Roof Rack Special for August
- Thread starter Whitson Metalworks
- Start date
Izzard,
Did you mount the rack a little bit forward than usual? I didn;t think it went that far forward.
Nice rack!!!
crazydubman
New member
It'll look sweeter on your rig!!! Go buy one now!! LOL!
crazydubman
New member
Soon... soon... put your deposit down now.
I, in all reality, won't be able to pick one up till at least the end of October...
Hopefully josb is still making them and can set me up. Price hike or not i really like what he's got going here with the design
I, in all reality, won't be able to pick one up till at least the end of October...
Hopefully josb is still making them and can set me up. Price hike or not i really like what he's got going here with the design
:50cal:
I'm sure he'll be able to hook you up! All I can say is that he really must love what he does as I don't think he's making any money on these racks. He's also sooooo accomodating with all our requests.
I'm sure he'll be able to hook you up! All I can say is that he really must love what he does as I don't think he's making any money on these racks. He's also sooooo accomodating with all our requests.
tacosmasher
New member
I'm really interested in one of them, but id be mounting a rigid to the front of it so i may need a slightly different light mount setup on the front.
I'm tired of my surco with rigid u cradle combo.
I'm tired of my surco with rigid u cradle combo.
98_4runnerSR5
New member
So I recently purchased a Full Length Roof Rack for my 3rd gen 4-runner made by a guy down in Florida, Whitson Metalworks. I decided I'd write a review on it and share with everyone.
Price: Best bang for you buck. I got in on the August special so I got the rack for $625 w/ 2 light shelves, an adjustable cross bar and shipping included (Shipping was $100ish). Pretty darn good deal compared to the over $1,000 you'd spend on a Gobi that's similar.
Service/Time: Excellent! Couldn't have asked for a quicker turn around time. From the day I actually placed the order till the day I got it was less than a week and a half. Josh was accommodating and designed the rack specifically to my needs w/ adjustable bars, light shelves instead of tabs, etc.
Quality: You can definitely tell Josh knows what he's doing. The craftsmanship that goes into making this rack is well thought out and very well done. Good welds, strong tubing and very rigid!
Installation: Installing it was pretty easy. It comes with that hardware to slide it into the factory rails that run the rear portion of the roof rack. The mounting hardware could be a little more heavy duty but I think it will do it's job. The only complaint here is the front mounting design. It's sent with bolts that are threaded through the left and right corners of the front of the rack that side on 2 plates for the roof. They don't mount down to the plate but rather sit freely in them. Mine bounces up and down and knocks the plates so I took them out and am coming up with some other method. I think I'm going to weld a nut into the mounts to keep it from bouncing/knocking
Overall, I'm very satisfied with the way the rack turned out. It follows the lines of the roof well, sits at the perfect height from the roof, and is an easy installation. I would definitely recommend this rack to anyone contemplating buying one.
Price: Best bang for you buck. I got in on the August special so I got the rack for $625 w/ 2 light shelves, an adjustable cross bar and shipping included (Shipping was $100ish). Pretty darn good deal compared to the over $1,000 you'd spend on a Gobi that's similar.
Service/Time: Excellent! Couldn't have asked for a quicker turn around time. From the day I actually placed the order till the day I got it was less than a week and a half. Josh was accommodating and designed the rack specifically to my needs w/ adjustable bars, light shelves instead of tabs, etc.
Quality: You can definitely tell Josh knows what he's doing. The craftsmanship that goes into making this rack is well thought out and very well done. Good welds, strong tubing and very rigid!
Installation: Installing it was pretty easy. It comes with that hardware to slide it into the factory rails that run the rear portion of the roof rack. The mounting hardware could be a little more heavy duty but I think it will do it's job. The only complaint here is the front mounting design. It's sent with bolts that are threaded through the left and right corners of the front of the rack that side on 2 plates for the roof. They don't mount down to the plate but rather sit freely in them. Mine bounces up and down and knocks the plates so I took them out and am coming up with some other method. I think I'm going to weld a nut into the mounts to keep it from bouncing/knocking
Overall, I'm very satisfied with the way the rack turned out. It follows the lines of the roof well, sits at the perfect height from the roof, and is an easy installation. I would definitely recommend this rack to anyone contemplating buying one.
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crazydubman
New member
Awesome review.
Definitely looking forward to picking one up soon. :biggrin2:
Definitely looking forward to picking one up soon. :biggrin2:
Thanks for the great review! Can't wait to get mine but I know Josh has his hands full so I told him to take his time. After all like you said, he'll work with you to accomodate your requests and I had a lot.
About the front mounting, so you are thinking of welding a nut on the mount so you can bolt on to it then still double stick tape the mount to the roof? Wouldn't that just pull off when the rack bounces? I'm thinking maybe just cushy pads instead of double stick tape?
theizzardking
New member
putting a nut at the bottom may or may not solve the issue, what needs to happen is to have a pin off below the top nut on the rack so once you drive the rack up and put it into tension you can pin it off....as what's happening is that you put the little sticky pads down, drive the bolt into the cradle till the rack is level and in tension and then you start to drive....the vibration causes the bolt to back off and then allows for teh front half of the rack to start moving/bouncing ect ect..whatever you want to call it....i'd running a nut up underneath the welded nut and use that to lock it into place, otherwise try to find a 1/2" corse thread bolt with pin offs in it......
i have been at looking at replacing the front leveling bolts with a swivel foot adjuster from carr lane and the likes for nothing more than appearance and i kind of want to have a handle so i can manually adjust without tools ..that said, adding a swivel foot isn't going to help with the issues your talking about it's just going to start slamming the swivel foot into the roof as opposed to the bolt into the cradle sticky thing as the vibration is still going to cause it to back off and lose tension and then the rack will deflect as your driving and cause the issue your speaking of.
with that said though this is an excellent rack that is well made and works well, if you're not being wired all of the included hardware will work just fine, put a little blue loc-tite on that 1/2 bolt when you install it and it should be fine, personally though for an extra $50~60 and sourcing it on my own i prefer to have top of the line hardware, and must say for the turn around time and the price he's selling these at his profits have gotta be razor thin and adding an extra $60 in hardware to each rack makes for a tougher sell and less money in his pockets, nothing wrong with that, if he doesn't make any money we don't get anymore racks and are stuck with gobi at 1.3k or yakima at $300with nothing of note inbetween....
i'm thrilled with mine as it came , personally, and will be making some brackets and modding it to suit!
i have been at looking at replacing the front leveling bolts with a swivel foot adjuster from carr lane and the likes for nothing more than appearance and i kind of want to have a handle so i can manually adjust without tools ..that said, adding a swivel foot isn't going to help with the issues your talking about it's just going to start slamming the swivel foot into the roof as opposed to the bolt into the cradle sticky thing as the vibration is still going to cause it to back off and lose tension and then the rack will deflect as your driving and cause the issue your speaking of.
with that said though this is an excellent rack that is well made and works well, if you're not being wired all of the included hardware will work just fine, put a little blue loc-tite on that 1/2 bolt when you install it and it should be fine, personally though for an extra $50~60 and sourcing it on my own i prefer to have top of the line hardware, and must say for the turn around time and the price he's selling these at his profits have gotta be razor thin and adding an extra $60 in hardware to each rack makes for a tougher sell and less money in his pockets, nothing wrong with that, if he doesn't make any money we don't get anymore racks and are stuck with gobi at 1.3k or yakima at $300with nothing of note inbetween....
i'm thrilled with mine as it came , personally, and will be making some brackets and modding it to suit!
Whitson Metalworks
New member
Izzardking you're right, a nut on the bottom of the front nut would lock that adjuster in place, I reckon I'll throw another nut on future racks prior to shipment. Also, you are correct in nicer hardware making the rack a tougher sale, its amazing how quickly hardware costs add up! Thanks for your reviews indeed!
Ah ok, so that's the problem. The bolt basically backs off due to vibration. Yeah then the simple solution is to add a nut and maybe a lock washer to the bolt. I would put the nut on top so it tightens to the threads on the rack from the top becuase it looks like its hard to get to from the bottom. So you basically tighten up the bolt then tighten up the nut against the rack. That should hold. Right?
Full_Throttle
New member
Just to chime in here, I personally have not experienced the bolts backing out. As I recall the "nut" that is welded into place is the type that "grabs" the bolt to prevent this. I know there is a name for this, but I don't know what it is. Anyway, my bolts required a wrench to move...I cannot do it by hand. Maybe I just got lucky? Maybe I will experience this as time goes by....either way a 2nd nut will fix the issue.
Thanks again for a quality product.
Thanks again for a quality product.
theizzardking
New member
Its called a nylock .......and it should happen to you as well , you basically have a jack bolt under vibration, that's different than a nylock being used in a clamping type scenario, also i think those with the inserts and lights ect will have more issue due to more weight at the end of rack and on those bolts ...
Whitson Metalworks
New member
i switched from the nyloc nuts since the nylon does not like the heat a tack weld puts on it, it still works, but its not perfect. as for others who have theirs bouncing around: on mine, i adjust the front until it puts a moderate amount of pressure on the plate below. mind you its pushing against the downward curve of the rack the whole time so it will take a good bit of pressure here. its an imperfect system, and given that there are no built in attachment points like there are on the rear (rails), options are very limited. for anyone who'd like a couple of extra nuts (hahaha), pm me and i'll be happy to mail some out.
Full_Throttle
New member
Yeah, that's the name :hatsoff:
I see your point about it being used in a different situation than its intended purpose.
When I start having issues, I will follow others and add a nut (a couple more nuts for this runner isn't a bad thing)
Thanks for the info.
theizzardking
New member
Lol, now that's service , you're going to pay more in shipping than the nuts are worth, that's pretty cool!
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theizzardking
New member
fully loaded for an extended trip, bought one of those waterproof bag things for $30 and made a yukon pack with the rest of the stuff with an extra large tarp, held the weight well and was simple enough to load and the grating makes for awesome attachment points, i have 4 camp chairs strapped to the grate under the silver tarp in the back and then the tarp pack tied down to the grate and then the rails, very secure , it was really cool to have the whole cabin clear for the trip only thing in the back was the coolers which i prefer to keep inside for snacks during the trip, also considering the tarp pack contained a full sized futon mattress as well as various cooking gear ,sleeping bags and bed clothes i'm really impressed with how much you can load this thing up with, the limit is truly the roof itself lol, and i don't normally pack a full size futon mattress but they wife suggested it and i said what the heck, lol ...:roadkill:
Whitson Metalworks
New member
lol, nice! the look on your dog's face cracks me up, does he/she come along too?? thats a load!
theizzardking
New member
Oh yeah always comes with , he appreciates the new rack more than anyone else , lol, as he can now fully stretch out and move a bit on the long hauls he whines no more, it sucked having all of that stuff in the truck on previous trips , gotta love car camping haha
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