Heinz57Fox

Looks good!

xj_maniac_newb

you got some major skill, you could sell those

Ritter4.0

Personally I think they could both use some finishing touches, but maybe I'm expecting too much of myself haha. If you want more pics of them, just click on my photobucket link. As far as making stuff, "there ain't nothin to it but to do it"


Tomorrow if my friend doesnt need help with his car, I will work on the guttermount attachments. Then I will make a mock up of the swing up out of scrap wood.

tactical40cal

interesting to say the least...

xj_maniac_newb

i cant wait till this is done, updates?!?!??!

Ritter4.0

I should have the gutter mounts finished tomorrow. Then I'll make a prototype of the swing up out of wood.

Pics will be up either tomorrow or Monday

Ritter4.0

I'm really slacking on updates and pics, but my sister lost her camera, and my other sister doesn't have an SD card for hers. So my next paycheck will hopefully go to a decent camera for myself.

But I did get the gutter mounts finished, and after looking at how much stuff other people load onto only 4 mounts, I think 8 should be more than plenty for what I am doing. If not, then I'll just add more lol. Now for the hard part of making the lift part, and making it work.

Just so you all know, this is mostly a weekend project, but I do work on it some afternoons. I can almost guarentee that it will be a while before I finish this. The only motivation that I have to get it done is that I will be able to put my kayak(s) up there, and the coolness of the lifting tire. If I had a real deadline, and a garage with all the proper tools to do it with, I would have been done months ago.



Thanks for all you guys' input, ideas and patience so far.



Edit: I'm pretty surprised this thread has gotten over 11,000 views, and I'm not even done yet...

Ritter4.0

Here are some pics of the gutter mounts and how they clamp down. I like these because there is every bit of an inch of adjustment up and down. This means that even if my rack, or the gutters do not line up perfectly, I can just crank these down to make them meet. This will also be good for if the rack is ever put on another Cherokee. Four to each side.

Pics:

offroadnut36

Looks good, keep it up.

ZachsXJ

no offense meant here, but those are some fugly welds. If it were just for a roof rack I wouldn't say anything...however with the intended use I'm not sure I'd trust those to do the job and not break over time. From the looks of your welds, you should turn the power up and drop the wire speed a bit.

Just $.02 from someone who is also learning to weld and those look just like mine when I have the power too low and/or the wire speed too high.

xjoffroad

x2 looks like you are getting very little penetration.

ZachsXJ

exactly, which means eventually the welds will separate from the connected pieces.

88grayxj

looks like youre getting there just takes time.

Ritter4.0

No offense taken. I know they aren't the prettiest, but I do know they will hold. The nuts welded to the mounts were welded using the "D", or highest setting on my dads welder, and a feed somewhere around 3-5. ( Lincoln Pro-MIG 135, it can do gas, I have the gas and wire, but am using flux right now) I feel I have plenty of penetration on those. I could see where the heat had affected the other side of the metal, which is 1/4".

I'm pretty sure the feed is centimeters of wire per second, but I could be wrong. The welder can go up to 10.

On the part that pulls it all down, both the C channel and the bracket part are 1/8". They were all welded with the "C" setting, and feed at 3 I think. If I was on the "D" setting, I would have burned through. On these I could also see how the heat affected the metal on the other side.

I know these welds look like ****, only a few look halfway like a "stack of dimes". Of course they are the ones that nobody sees.






As far as progress, I have am about 1/4 of the way through with making the wooden prototype of the swing up part.

Ritter4.0

Ok....I just went and looked at them again, I think I will probably hit them again, with more heat this time to "smooth" the "buggars" into one steady bead. They looked better before I painted them, but now the sheen makes all the bad parts scream "Look at me!!!!!!".