Home made low pro roof rack
 

Hello, I figured Id share my roof rack I completed a couple weeks ago. I made my own rack 2 winters ago out of square stock, but it ended up being way too heavy and too bulky. I was proud of it at the time but I knew I could do better. I started his rack about 2 months ago and worked on it when I had a chance after work (my boss let me keep it in the shop and I used his welder).

Here is the old rack I made. I used JCR's gutter mounts to attach to my XJ:


https://cimg3.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.che...4e953cadae.jpg


https://cimg4.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.che...08957da5e4.jpg


https://cimg5.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.che...fcb7c2eb94.jpg


https://cimg6.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.che...b02fbb67e5.jpg


https://cimg7.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.che...a74b81be2f.jpg


https://cimg8.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.che...b08f87ff22.jpg

As you can see that old rack is ok for some things, but I needed more of a low profile and less weight, plus I plan on getting a Roof Top Tent in the future so I needed it to work with that.

I decided on using 1 1/4 120 wall tube steel. My boss and I are friends with many of the local business owners and he hooked me up with a guy that bent my 90's while we unloaded a bit of firewood from his pickup. I thought that was a pretty good trade! I was so excited to get started on this new rack that I forgot to take more pics... so hopefully the ones I do have will make due.

Heres where I started taking pics. This is after I welded all my 90's together. I used 1" tubing about 8 inches long where each section met, it fit perfectly inside my inch and quarter tubing and made it nice and sturdy.


https://cimg4.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.che...a3f5244cee.jpg


https://cimg6.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.che...bc5e19e0eb.jpg


https://cimg7.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.che...71f5c720f8.jpg

I added 1" trailer gate mesh on the back section, I wanted it to be a little bit more "open" because I knew of I had a tire up there it'd be easier to clean off if the rack got too muddy. I finished the rest of the rack (front section) off with smaller diamond flat mesh which was smaller and also very smooth.

Here I was test fitting everything

https://cimg7.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.che...7d107c54a4.jpg


https://cimg8.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.che...c7d6c2eca1.jpg

I ended up coating it with Rustoleum primer then adding a few coats of Dupli-Color Truck Bed Coating over that. Finished it off with my LED lights (and 2 halogens) and Im very pleased!

https://cimg9.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.che...465e698215.jpg


https://cimg0.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.che...3dbfdd4fad.jpg


https://cimg1.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.che...e678bd1c53.jpg

Both racks look great! One day I'll tackle one. I like the Camel Trophy style myself, but I can see a lot of advantages of your new lo-pro one. Great job!

Thanks. I still have the old rack, well half of it at least. I chopped the top half off of it and flipped it around to make it smaller. Its on my younger brothers XJ now. I really liked the Gobi stealth rack and thats what I was originally going to do with mine but last minute decided to keep it even more simple.

so you used 1" round stock, correct? Were you able to find that locally or did you order it? Can I ask what your total cost was?
Looks great by the way!

Hey thanks!

I used 1.25" x .120 wall tubing round stock. I used 1" to connect the sections together, basically I had two "staple" shapes that were 1.25" joined to make a rectangle, where they joined I cut an 8" piece of 1 inch and slid it inside the 1.25" as a stiffener (4 inches to each section). Any of the flat stock you see is all .120 wall. I put those pieces in for future mounting points (tire, jack, etc.).

I ordered my steel locally and had maybe $100 roughly in steel used, plus $40 for the JCR gutter mounts. Add welding wire and paint it was all built for less than $200. Overall dimensions were 48" wide x 72" long.

nice work

Love it

some nice work there :)

Thanks for the inspiration. I bought 48' of the square tubing like yours, but hadn't decided on a design. It was going to be more simple, but I like your first one so much, I'm going to go that route.

Looks great! I'm going to be building a low pro roof rack as well at some point.

Nice. JCR mounts probably cost more than everything else combined.