Thread: Military Roofrack??

It's the first time I saw these racks and 'in love'... So much so that I contacted a professional manufacturing company to get an idea of what a one-off / custom rack would cost. Of course not having the exact detail or requirements they're not able to provide a quote but gave an estimate of cost for consideration. One off items will obviously always have a price, but I couldn't justify spending $3k on a roof rack as example...
Anyway, they said between $1 - $2k depending on the complexity

Since it's a custom job I could let the imagination run a little maybe add some custom 'fold out' brackets for solar panels, shower attachments etc etc

How much would you be prepared to pay??

I will be making a rack very similar to what is pictured for both my 110 and 130 out of alloy, they are simple, to make it as simple as possible we plan to use, 30x30 round edge sqaure tube, cut the front corners in at 45dg, just cutting the tube at angles, it will look neat and wont require a bender, for the mesh we will use 5-6mm thick alloy mesh like used on screen doors but raw with 25x25 tube for cross bracing sunk down to the bottom of the 30x30, the mesh will sit in flat on top of that sitting around the level of the top of the 30x30.

Legs will be similar to what is pictured in 6mm alloy bent to the right profile or a long peice of 3mm running the length of the rack with some sections cut out, i would prefer several legs as it looks better but the long peice would be better for weight distribution and avoiding damage to the roof.

As for following the roof line, this should be simple but i may not do that with my 130 as the rack will meet up with the front of the new canopy which is 50mm higher then the cab roof line, with the canopy and rack i will have a nearly 4meter long flat surface area and wont really need the slope, i will probobly mount a light bar or small spoties across the front too. But with the 110 will definetly be sloped front, and i might actually use checker plate instead of mesh as well, almost like a safari roof.

We made something similar for my prado, it was out of round tube though, i didnt like this as the mesh edges sat higher then the tube and rubbed through some of my camping gear, also we followed the roof shape which for what ever reason gets narrower at the back of a prado so we had to cut the mesh to that shape making the rear section sit a bit weird on the round tube... heres some pics of it - forgive the toyota on the LR forum
This is when we were making it, the corners got cut off and welded up at angles - next rack will have about 100mm of tube at a 45 degree angle for corners to look neat, this one was bolted down directly to rhino sports bars and worked very well considering how we knocked them up in a hurry, with different legs you could get this almost 10mm above the roof line and wouldnt touch the roof under load.



in use on fraser island.

I generally try to make equipment capable of dual roles, maybe 99% of time used as primary role but also capable to be used on the odd occassion for something else.

With this in mind, I have often thought that it wouldn't be a bad idea to build a roof rack out of two or three alloy loading ramps that would be used 99% of the time as a roof rack but in an emergency situation could be unbolted/dismantled and used as sand ladders or bridging planks.
Something like these ramps or maybe a bit lighter.





I'd be interested in your thoughts on this and/or if anyone has actually done it.

Many possibilities here http://whipps.com.au/alloy-lightweight-ramps and I believe they will do special orders at a reasonable price.

Originally Posted by Xtreme

I generally try to make equipment capable of dual roles, maybe 99% of time used as primary role but also capable to be used on the odd occassion for something else.

With this in mind, I have often thought that it wouldn't be a bad idea to build a roof rack out of two or three alloy loading ramps that would be used 99% of the time as a roof rack but in an emergency situation could be unbolted/dismantled and used as sand ladders or bridging planks.
Something like these ramps or maybe a bit lighter.

http://www.aulro.com/app/data/1202/medium/WP_000565.jpg

http://www.aulro.com/app/data/1202/medium/WP_000566.jpg

I'd be interested in your thoughts on this and/or if anyone has actually done it.

Homemade Roofracks. - Page 2

DIY Roof Rack: The H-Moose!

Originally Posted by Xtreme

I generally try to make equipment capable of dual roles, maybe 99% of time used as primary role but also capable to be used on the odd occassion for something else.

Great 'philosophy' and a good idea too.

I have a dual cab and limited 'roof space', but also thought of dual purpose although for leisure rather than for emergency use.
When you camp you usually need what's stored on the roof rack, and thought to have the 'floor' detachable which has foldout legs to become your camping table.
(And if you wanted to, have two foldout benches to match from the front section)

As for the legs, totally agree with cal415, legs look much nicer than a long strip.
Hannibal safari has the perfect design i think - basically legs which are attached to a long 'strip' at the bottom which spreads the weight on the gutter

Has anyone had any luck prying one of these military racks away from their vehicles? I think I’ve offered every person selling one of the Army TD5s at the moment a fair amount for the rack alone but no one is willing to part with them.

I need a very low profile rack otherwise my Defender won’t make it into my apartment complex, and I’d rather keep it off the street than store stuff on top of it. Does anyone know of any extremely low profile roof bars? Only things I’d ever need to carry can sit on rails (awning, surfboard, snowboard, fishing rods).

I may have to get something fabricated up with a similar pair of legs to the military ones which simply extend across the span of the roof as a pair of rails. I’ll get it powder coated white to match the roof too, assuming its profile is sufficiently low that it won’t look odd.

***Edit - I've just seen that Wind Cheetah do rails - they may be the answer***

Originally Posted by DeeJay

I took some pics of some 110's at the Melb auction.

Nice rack and spare wheel covers (I could do with two of them )

What are the models though as are they still classified as Perenties although td5? They had galvanised chassis and weird welded on triangle pieces so a recovery vehicle could hook straight up. Plus hardtops were few in between.

Sorry I keep having green flasbacks

This style roof rack did used to be available from rovacraft, or at least VERY similar, It was/is in one of there catalouges on there website. I'm looking now but my Internet is slow...

I priced one for my 90 and it came in at $1650 so I went for the Hannibal

Sam