Homemade Roofracks.

the front hoop is a Gobi.View attachment 409243 the rear is a bracket made from C channel and a rubber rod-end View attachment 409246View attachment 409247

You sir have given me some excellent ideas on how to mount a roof rack on my 79 Bronco. The fiberglass shell has no rain gutters or any type of roof rails. I would rather not drill the fiberglass shell to mount anything. Some roof racks I had seen in the past used a flat plate sandwiched between the shell and the body, on each side of the body. Then using support tubes welded to the sandwich plate to support the rack. I am not fond of that as it distracts from the body. Since I am already designing a dual rear swing out for the rear I can use your bushing mounts on the rear. I would change the A pillar mounts to also use bushing mounts. Using locking pull pins I can then make the rack hinged. Removing my heavy fiberglas shell is a two to three person job. It has to slide out the back. Swinging the empty rack forward so it rest on the hood would allow me to remove the shell and then swing the rack back into to place. This allows me to be topless and still use the rack.
 

Rezarf <><

Explorer
Finally got my home made rack painted and mounted up.

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Function > Form

New member
Just getting started on the rack for my 2003 liberty.

I'm using 1" square bars attached to the bed rails from a queen-sized bed frame - pretty strong stuff actually. I chopped the headboard supports to be flush with the bottom of the rack but retained some to make attachment of lights super easy. I will be thinking up a way to move both front floods to one side for camp light, but for now they are pointed to the front and slightly out (they are Amazon specials). There is a 22" light bar on at the rear also.

So far, I have only attached the front and rear bars to the longitudinals, but am planning to add 4 more cross bars. edit: might be doing coarse wire mesh if I can find something thick enough.

Currently it is 79" in length, around 38" wide rear, 40" front. It hugs the roof pretty closely and is attached to the stock rails at the rear with 2" width u-bolts and at the front with 2.5" width u-bolts. In addition to more cross bars, I will also add 8" vertical supports to the sides and bars running the length of the rack, with the bar angling down to the front lights/front of the rack in the front 22 or so inches. I will not add any taller parts front and rear so as to make canoe mounting lower and to reduce wind noise.

Welded it up with an old Canadian Tire fluxcore 110V.

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WSS

Rock Stacker
I built the rack a few years ago but added the solar panel this summer. works great. I need to come up with a way to connect it via a plug but for now I pug it directly to the power port/cig lighter. It's a flexible 70w panel with a very small MPPT controller on a slide out. When driving and off roading, it's tucked away safely. When parked, loosen two knobs and it slides out by hand easily on small bearings.

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travel position:
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building

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theksmith

Explorer
I built the rack a few years ago but added the solar panel this summer. works great. I need to come up with a way to connect it via a plug but for now I pug it directly to the power port/cig lighter. It's a flexible 70w panel with a very small MPPT controller on a slide out. When driving and off roading, it's tucked away safely. When parked, loosen two knobs and it slides out by hand easily on small bearings.

...

nice - great idea!
 

Function > Form

New member
Added to my rack this weekend to add a little height and cross bars. Polyurethane'd wooden fairing to come, along with metal mesh under the front section.

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