Roof Rack fabrication project

[ianmayco68]

Hi all , so as the title says I'm building my own roof rack, why ? Well I've looked round for a roof rack and the cost was loads or I just didn't like them so decided to make my own . So the steel cost me £90 from work and to be honest I brought to much , if any of you have seen my thread  "fixing straps " were I ended up doing a build thread for a jerry can holder , I made that out of the steel as well and I think I'll have some left . So this is what it's going to look like , and how the legs will fit , except the actual rack will sit level with the leg .

So as it was warm and I'd been welding all morning at work I had a leisurely afternoon making the template for the legs , I bent a bit of thin steel as a guide for the angles for later use then set about with paper, scissors and cellotape making the working bit , and it came out like this .

Photo's aren't very good but give you an idea , I used 2 pieces to give more strength i'll then weld them together . Also worked out how I was going to do the corners on the main frame they ended up like this .

Will cut a section and weld it in the back to make it look good , so the start of another project .

cheers Ian

[miketomcat]

I made my own a few years ago unfortunately I sold it after selling my last 110 thinking I wouldn't need it. Then I bought another 110 and wish I'd kept it.

Mike

[ianmayco68]

Nice work Mike , it's amazing that everything you sell you need or find a use for after it's gone , keep something saying " I'll need that for some project or other " and it's still there years later .

[Ed Poore]

I quite like that Mike.

I'm loath to increase the height of my 110 but I seem to be trying to shift longer and longer stuff these days so have considered building some roof bars but your design looks neat. Take it it was all steel rather than ali? Do you remember what spec the tube was you used (wall thickness and OD mainly)? 

[miketomcat]

It was steel. It was built from cds 3mm wall from memory with 6mm uprights and some brownchurch style clamps the x were 25mmx3mm flat bar. If I did it again I'd use thinner wall subject to it bending ok but I'd get it galv'd. Ali would be good but I can't weld Ali. I don't thing it was much different in weight to my current patriot. If you want give me a shout and I can tell you how I made it.

Mike

 

[TobyMellin]

I built one for my 90 after seeing the price of new ones!

I went to my local steel place and bought a 20m of 25mm rust stock tube for £6, then I had a load of pre-bent 25mm 90degree from scrap skip at work.

Took me best part of 2 days to make it, having to notch all the tubes etc, but definitely worth it!

 

[ianmayco68]

Nice job Toby, have got 40x20 for lower rail and 20mm round tube for the top rail , I decided to build my own for the same reason as you the price it the new ones .

[ianmayco68]

Well finished the jobs off on the 110 then thought I'd have a go at the roof rack , so with the help of my little plasma cutter 

I marked out one of each so I could make sure they fitted together ok

then bent them and tacked them together ,they'll need a bit of trimming and cleaning up but the angle looks good ( I made a template up for the angle round the roof ) and also bent the retaining plate to go under the roof lip .

so now I know it works I cut all the rest out and I'll bend them up and weld them tomorrow .

Also bent the 2 ends up for the main frame 

and it's been a lovely warm day as well , looks like summer is here .

cheers Ian

[miketomcat]

Looks good watching with interest.

Mike

[ianmayco68]

Cheers Mike .

[ianmayco68]

Well did some more work the last two days till it got to hot to bear in the shed , then had a few beers in the garden so started by forming the shapes up 

Made a little tool like they had on project Binkey , worked well for bending the edges up

Then put the angle in it

all them done turned to the inners

all done

then this morning I fettled the 2 halves so they fitted together correctly , then tacked them together 

Then did some test fitting on the roof to get the angle rite 

Turned out quite well me thinks , I'm thinking of making the frame up with some cross braces welded in but the 4 ones with the feet on making them bolt in , also need to source some type of rubber strip to fit on the bottom of the feet so they don't dig into the gutter .

 

[landroversforever]

Looking great!  

[Ed Poore]

Something like this for the feet?

Are you going to round off the corners of those bent up tabs? They look a bit lethal to me, yes they're on the roof but the whole point of a roof rack is to put stuff on it, looks like if you'd caught yourself on one it'd be a bit painful.

[ianmayco68]

Yes that’s exactly the type of stuff I’m looking for, cheers Ed . The feet /support brackets will be fully welded , trimmed and cleaned up . If you mean bits of plate sticking out from each side of the tube Ed they will be bent up around the tube and fully welded, but I don’t want to do that until I’ve got them in their final position and tacked on , then I’ll bend them up weld and trim .

cheers all 

[Ed Poore]

That makes much more sense.

One thing that's been badgering me is whether there should be a gusset or bracing on the inside of the brackets. Part of me thinks it's strong enough as it is but part of me is thinking if you hit it laterally you might shift the entire rack sideways. A small triangular gusset underneath would be hidden away and provide considerable strength to that bend.

[ianmayco68]

I thought about that myself , the brackets are made so I can weld all round them the tube sits slightly inside the bracket so was going to wait till I’d welded one up then see if they need them but I might still put them on just to be on the safe side .

[ianmayco68]

Well done a bit more over the weekend and today , been a bit hot for welding though especially as I do it all day at work . So tacked all the mounts up then welded them up .

sanded all the welds up

then cut the excess bits off also cut the front flap bit off as it was in the way .

also welded round the tunnel shape in the bottom and cleaned that up .

Then today started the main frame 

I made each end up the cut the side tubes to length , then tacked two plates in the end both ends . It helped line it up and also made it easier to get the length rite and get square with it being on the floor , would have been a lot easier at work on my bench there but it's to big to bring home in the truck   . I then welded straps in each corner to help keep it square .

Then added some internal cross members 

All done , I'm going to make the cross member's with the feet welded on bolt in so that I can remove it by myself if needed . I also made the upstand bits that the round top tube will sit on before I finished , will hopefully have that all tacked on tomorrow and all being well all welded .

[Retroanaconda]

Looks good 👍

[ianmayco68]

Cheers James .

[FridgeFreezer]

Very neat!

Does look a bit on the heavy side to me, any idea how much it's going to weigh when it's finished?

[ianmayco68]

Thank you , no haven’t a clue I did look at Ali but was too expensive as I can’t get that from work cheap  . I might weigh it when it’s finished if I can .

[landroversforever]

23 minutes ago, ianmayco68 said:

Thank you , no haven’t a clue I did look at Ali but was too expensive as I can’t get that from work cheap  . I might weigh it when it’s finished if I can .

I'd be interested to know the final weight..... Bear in mind the 110 roofrack and load is a max of 75Kg from memory? 

 

[ianmayco68]

I will try and weigh it when finished , I can easily pick it up as it is as I have done tonight and turned it over . It will only carry fishing rods and other light stuff when finished as that's what I wanted it for . So if the max load is 75kg how do they manage to load them to the gunnels for overlanding ? I mean I've seen them with 2 or 3 jerry cans up there and they must weigh a fair bit when full .

[landroversforever]

Exactly.... people overload them. 

When i was in Yr10 at school and doing my work experience I went to Frogs Island 4x4 in Didcot. They'd got an overland 110 in from I think Namaste. The tack was that overloaded it had bent the roof and sheared most of the roof bolts off and stretched the ones that hadn't broken. The fork lift struggled to lift the loaded rack off the car! Had to be partially emptied by hand. 

[Snagger]

75kg is the dynamic limit, 150kg static, for a lot of 110s and probably the majority, but some have the same 150kg limit for dynamic and static.  It should be in the specific vehicle's documentation.  I think Series vehicles only had 75 dynamic.  So yes, they are very commonly overloaded, with plenty of legal issues if you have an accident in a first world nation.  It's a good reason why fuel, water and spare wheels don't belong up there, in addition to practicality.