Alright so I know that there is plenty of threads on here about roof racks and so many good ideas but i have not seen anyone with something close to what I built yet so I thought I would share it.

It is made from 3/8"-rod display racks that are in a 2"x2" grid- from a grocery store. They come in 6'1"x4'2" sheets and you can by them at any store that sells display racks for businesses. This is the "heavy duty rack" that is offered. However, I work at a grocery store so when they remodeled I got the racks for free!

I made the roof rack using 2 sheets, a full sheet for the base and I cut up the second sheet for the sides. I then added 3-1.5"x2" rectangular tubing to brace the rack length wise. I added 2-2" angle iron pieces to mount lights and CB antenna as well bike fork mounts (I am an avid road and mountain biker). and it is all full welded and welded to Thule Load bars with gutter mounts.

I have slept in it (it fits an air mattress perfectly!!)
hauled 12 bikes on it
put 300lbs of camping gear in it (way top heavy but I was not off roading with it when we did so)
and it has taken a lot of abuse from trees and brush.

The whole rack is grounded to the body of the jeep and the light wiring is on quick disconnects.

The final dimensions are 6'1"x4'2"x8"

 

after 2 years of abuse it still is holding strong as well

 

nicely done man, Hey what size lift and tires u have?

 

I like it...and i can tell your still in school. everyday i walk out to my jeep in the parking lot to see a crowd of people drawing stupid things in the mud. usually profane things haha

the picture with the bikes is pretty sick

 

THANKS! i just finished my rear leaf springs 3 weeks ago (2nd to last picture where you can see the back end jacked up compared to the front) and the rear now sits at 6.5" lift and the front is still at 5" for now. I am waiting on my new coil springs. the rear leaf springs are one that I made out of my last 4.5" RC leaf pack and leafs from my original 4.5" bastard pack. started out at just over 6.5" and after 1000 road miles and about 240 trail miles it has settled down to 6.5" exact nice soft flex ride but doesnt sag as much when its all loaded up. i run 33x10.5r15 radial TSL's on 15x8's with 4.5 BS

 

yeah i am a soph in college getting a degree in Mechanical Engineering haha. and thanks to arizona seat belt laws we were able to fix all 12 ppl in my jeep as well. look how saggy the rear end is. it was getting to dark to ride back down the mountain so thats what we had to do. 26 miles all up hill, makes for a great ride down! going 45-54 on a road bike the entire way down is a blast too!

 

Nice! Very Nice!

 

I think I am going to make one very similar to yours if thats ok because it looks freakin sick.

 

Nice..

 

Go for it bro! just make sure to give credit! hahaha.

and thanks!

 

Haha will do man!

 

holy crap, 12 people in an XJ how'd u pull that off? what are these seat belt laws that you speak of?

 

I like the rack! I especially like it because I have some of that same material laying around my house! Endless tie down points and great strength are a huge plus. One use for the rack on my future Cherokee will require me to be on top of the Jeep, so strength is a huge factor.

 

Holy crap! Ive never seen that many bikes on a car before! Ha. What kind of bike do you ride? I just started about a year ago. Fun stuff. Oh and nice rack!

 

It is 12 bikes hahaha and thanks man!!

I got some new pictures to show off in the album now too =]





towing about 600lbs of cargo(no joke...)

putting it to use to carry my broken stock bumper(with sway bars connected):



cool full frontal shot