That's awesome. It's really cool I think I might do that same thing! Are those tow hooks?

 

Yup. Hooks and brackets...

 

I opted for the front hitch because it wasn't too much more, and you can use it for side pulls, ties the rails together, move around trailers in tight spots, get a winch cradle and use a winch front or rear, and more.

 

Yeah, I kinda wanted that when I got these, but it was a spur-of-the-moment decision that led to purchasing these... I went to my first Jeeptoberfest and wasn't going to put my Jeep in the course... until I saw the stock course and thuoght "I can do that"... so I bought the hooks to meet minimum course requirements... these were what the vendor had at the show, so I got 'em.

I'm eventually going to get a cross-brace with steering gear support and a custom front bumper so that will supercede the strength of the front hitch anyway.

 

Finished product




Roof rack I made for my xj that mounts to the stock roof rack location. Turned out pretty cool if you ask me!

 

I agree! nice job! I am in the process of fixing a Yokohoma rack for a friend of mine. Some how water got in it and froze splitting several pipes. replacing some and welding up others. If we did not get it for next to nothing I would build something close to what you did.

 

Nice job! What type of material did you use

 

How heavy is it? Because if you could attach it to the stock roof rack rails then it must be pretty light?

 

Thanks! And yeah I like it a lot!

 

Thanks! And it was 1/2 inch steel tubing for everything in the second picture and then I used angle iron on the bottom along with some expanded metal to finish it off

 

It probably weighs 40-50 lbs not quite sure. I did try to reinforce the stock mounting holes on the roof a little bit and it went on nice and is very sturdy. So far the most weight I've had up top was around 450lbs and it didn't hurt the mounting holes or anything else on the roof.

 

Yeah I think you did a fine job on it. You have a bender to bend it. I recently bought a bender and I'm itching to try it out. I had considered conduit piping just because it's cheap and bends relatively easy lol

 

That's awesome!

 

Why do you say that? The factory roof rails, as long as the roof and rail hardware is in good condition and not rusted like it's been at the bottom of the ocean, are plenty strong. I've seen the drip rails that everyone swears by fail, but I've actually never seen the factory rails fail... that's not to say they don't, but I don't view them as being as weak as everyone makes them out to be.

 

^ Correct about the drip rails being the weak point. There have been many that have been ripped off or broken by gutter mount roof racks.
I set my rack onto the factory rails, on bumpers. Then attached gutter mounts. This removes a large portion of the weight load from drip rails.