DasWulf79

I have a roof rack mounted to my factory crossbars and rails on my 89 Limited. The factory bars flex alot, and one started cracking the plastic piece that mounts it to the rails. So I started looking at different mounting solutions. The previous owner had a gutter mounted rack, and it really tore up the passenger side gutters. I know thats supposed to be a strong point to mount a rack to, but after seeing the damage on mine, I'm kinda skeptical. So I decided to make beefed up rail mounts. I found a thick piece of alcoa aluminum angle in the scrap bin at work. We use these angles for mounting deck plates, and its very strong. We have alot of gear, toolboxes and such sitting on these deckplates in the engine room so i figure it should be strong enough to support a small rack and full size 30x9.50R15 spare. It is 1/4" thick on one side and tapers from 1/4" -1/2" on the other side.




I measured and drilled two 1/4" holes to mount it to the rails, and a 7/16" hole for the rack mount.


I bought two 7/16"×48" pieces of all thread, six 7/16" all thread couplers, nuts, flat and lock washers, and two 3/4"×60" pieces of emt conduit. I started by checking the tightness of my roof rail bolts. A couple were slightly loose. I also strengthened them by running lock nuts where they come through the rubber. I mounted the brackets to the rail using m6-1.0×16mm bolts, and the existing rail sliders. My 89 has 4 on each side 2 for the tie downs and 2 for the crossbars. Noting the angle of the brackets I marked and cut the emt conduit. I painted the brackets and conduit black. I had taken pics of this process but they didn't save to my sd card for some reason. Anyways, I put the couplers on the all thread to serve as spacers, ran it through the conduit, and mounted it to the brackets. I tightened everything up and mounted my rack back to the new crossbars. I am only putting my spare in this rack , and I can stand in it and bounce up and down wih not much give. The angle of the brackets and conduit create a wedge, which in my opinion strengthens the whole unit.









I'm pretty happy with how it came out. It works for what I need.

Wetod1

very nice,after i talk rex21 into helping me put my 3inch lift in,that will be my next project,im on disability,so im impressed the "better half" let me get the lift,lol.

DasWulf79

Thank you. This is definitely a budget solution. All the materials I used yo make the crossbars only cost $25.

jakejeep

awesome idea. came out good

DasWulf79

Almost a month has gone by since this project, and its holdin up great. I haven't had any problems with it at all.

ZombieResponseJeep

That's pretty slick!

Prototype4342

Looks nice, although my rails don't look like that since I have a later Cherokee. I went simple and used the stock cross bars, they are the weakest part of the whole rack.

DasWulf79

I have read about people buying 1 or 2 extra factory bars and using all 3 or 4 and makin the whole thing stronger. They probably don't cost that much at a Pull A Part. My newest XJ is a 96 and it has the same rails as yours Prototype, and honestly they seem somewhat stronger than the ones that were on my 89.