Double Cab Roof Rack

[keithjh]

Hi All,

Having finished (sort of) the Double Cab i am going to fit a full length roof rack, basically the rack is a old brownchurch one so, it will have 4 legs on the roof either side, i am going to support the back with 2 ladders, the only thing on the rack will be the roof tent at the front (forward opening) and the spare wheel at the rear. Question does anybody think the rack at the rear will flex to cause a problem, and should i fit some more support at the rear, i.e. box section struts.

Regards Keith

[BogMonster]

Brownchurch do a double cab rack, it just has 2 supports down to the back, similar sort of idea to the Commercial that I have on the 90 I think, but a bit stronger. I must admit I didn't think it looked up to the job (unusual, for Brownchurch) and your idea of 2 ladders should be better (as long as they are the old-style ladders made out of box section steel and not the rubbish new ones they supply just made out of steel bar).

There's a couple of people here who have done a brilliant "solid double-cab" conversion, basically threw the canvas away, got an old upper cab & roof off a Series 3 or something, cut it to fit and put a false front in it with a window, this means you can put a proper 110 rear door in, complete with wiper, heated window, lock etc etc it also means you can fit a normal 110 roof rack with all the feet in the right places

It really depends on what sort of roads you will be using it on but a spare wheel on the rear section might not be a good thing if you are using it on a lot of rough roads, I wouldn't do it here anyway, it is one reason I went for the Commercial rack with the stays down to the body, because standard roof racks break the roof on a normal LR without having 4' of the rack sticking out with relatively little support. The crewcab upper cab is relatively weak because it doesn't have any big panel sections, there's only the windscreen frame, B pillars and the thin rear curved section none of which are very strong, and I think that a big "tail" wagging it would soon cause problems. Having seen one that rolled and landed on its roof I wouldn't like to have been in it.

Basically though, I would say the stronger you can make it the better, or go for a "solid" rear cab section as described above which brings all sorts of other benefits.