The stock (at least my stock) roof rack system is ridiculous. I want to haul canoes and camping stuff on the roof of my xj but the mounts only allow the crossbars to slide only about halfway up to the front of the roof. Basically there is half of the roof (front half) that has no crossbar for anything to tie to. It's useless to me basically. Anyways, I want an upgrade but not some crazy huge cage that is going to weigh the vehicle down and reduce gas mileage a ton. Suggestions?

 

Hehe the joy of a '99. I believe '98 was the last year of the full-length rails. Go hit up a junkyard, older XJs will have rails that go to a few inches from the windshield. Direct bolt in in the rear, drill a few holes up front. Sounds like this is the solution you're looking for versus some hokey Yakima clamp-on crap.

 

I'm guessing you have a newer body style XJ, 97+, with the short roof rack. Go to the junkyard and find another similar body style XJ and grab the full length roof rack. That would be the cheapest and most OEM way to do it.

 

yes. I did some searching for this and see what you mean. thanks for the advice. Also, sorry for the double post!

 

The only low profile aftermarket one i know of is http://www.jcroffroad.com/product/XJ-RCK-B.html

 

I did enjoy looking at the many options for racks, but alas, this does seem to be the best choice for now.

 

The Gobi stealth rack is another low profile rack except they are expensive.
http://www.gobijeep.com/Cherokee.htm

 

Thsts my favorite roof rack but the price is a bit to much.

 

Same here, agreed it's out of my price range. When I get a jk eventually I will get one for it but I will build one for the XJ

 

keep in mind the factory roof racks are only rated to 150lbs evenly distributed between the two of them. If you want to haul any serious weight up there you would be better off building a gutter mounted system. I currently run a gutter mount light bar, and the wind drag sucks. If you could make a solid square out of 1x1 stock with some cross braces it would be much stronger, and low-profile.