MY12 D4 roof rack bars - how/where do they mount? Do some D4's have roof rails?

[twr7cx]

Looking to get a set of roof rack bars for our MY12 D4 TDV6 so we can throw a surfboard or SUP up there. Had a look through a couple of manufacturers offerings in their catalogues and there seemed to be some variation causing confusion about the mounting system - did some D4's have roof rails? Ours doesn't:

149816

Does that mean my only option for roof racks would be to drill and secure a mounting pad or rail onto the roof in order to fit roof racks?

[DiscoJeffster]

You can add rails and then racks that use the rails. Alternatively you can get racks that mount into the rail mount holes directly, but that means the location of the crossbar is fixed to those mounting points, whereas with rails, the crossbars can be slid up and back.
Make sure whatever you do you use a tap to tap the holes through before you try screwing the mounts into them. They will be gummed up with wax / gunk from manufacture and you’ll snap the bolts before you can get them done up tight enough.

[DieselLSE]

You could option to have no roof rails (like yours), short roof rails or long roof rails that have a sort of handle above the front doors. The roof rails bolt into captive nuts that are positioned under the plastic strips on the roof. You cut the strips to suit.
For your needs, you only need the short rails. There are some aftermarket ones and they come up second hand occasionally. There was one advertised here a month or so back for $100 from memory. As I needed to source a few for the ProSpeed group buy, I can get genuine new, but they're $430. At last count there were a few left in Australia.
Don't bother buying new bars to fit the short or long rails. There'll be heaps of genuine Landrover ones around second hand from people who have replaced them with roof racks. I have a set I no longer need.

[Eric SDV6SE]

You cut the strips to suit.
For your needs, you only need the short rails..

My SDV6SE MY11 had the factory short rails, however under the black plastic strip there's a pair of mounting bolt holes in the section of the roof directly over the driver, I.e. where the roof steps down. I went for the full length Rhino platform with the backbone system. I removed the black strips cleaned out the mounting holes and only drilled through the black strip to mount the backbone side rails. No need to cut as a) looks ugly and b) let's too much water under the strip c) you need to then glue the strip down where it's cut as otherwise it will come off.

I ended up using white silicone under the strips where the backbone rail bolted to seal then up. IMHO a much neater finish than cutting the cover strips as per the platform mounting instructions.

The full length platform is much more versatile than the short option, we use ours for bikes, kayaks and the like.

[twr7cx]

Thanks for all the info - definitely has helped to give me an understanding of it all and sets me up to do some more Googling and reading.

Can anyone advise if the Disco 3 roof rails are compatible with the Disco 4?


EDIT: looks like from the listings that D3 and D4 rails are interchangeable.



Looks like there's a lot of aftermarket options available. eBay has the extended offerings for $200.00 in black or silver. Anyone used them? Is the quality ok? I think I'd like the silver ones for ours. Will the genuine Land Rover cross bars fit onto the aftermarket rails or do you need to buy matching brands? Looks like $360.00 gets the roof rails with cross bars to match.


EDIT 2: Found this thread eBay Roof Racks (https://www.aulro.com/afvb/l319-discovery-3-and-4-a/252170-ebay-roof-racks.html) where someone highlighted concerns with the quality of the aftermarket ones allowing muck into the gutters potentially causing a long term issue. Tombie also commented in another thread about some having a bit of a twist pulling on the roof.

[IndusD4]

My D4 came without roof rails, I bought a set of LR short rails from TR Spares and put them on myself. Easy to do but as others have said you do need to tap the holes as mine had rust in them and I broke two bolts (M6) fitting them. Needless to say the broken bolts were a pain to remove.

Ron

[Macboy]

I’ve got the Whispbar S7W roof racks (K436 fit kit), each can be fitted in about 15 minutes. I originally found that they were fine for longer items but the long span between the two of them created a problem for shorter items (e.g. roof box, shovel holders). As a result I found it necessary to buy and install a third. Not as elegant, or flexible, as factory rails and adjustable cross bars, but perfectly fine.

[twr7cx]

I’ve got the Whispbar S7W roof racks (K436 fit kit), each can be fitted in about 15 minutes. I originally found that they were fine for longer items but the long span between the two of them created a problem for shorter items (e.g. roof box, shovel holders). As a result I found it necessary to buy and install a third. Not as elegant, or flexible, as factory rails and adjustable cross bars, but perfectly fine.

Thanks for sharing. I quiet like that - looks relatively simple and not badly priced - $350.00 on eBay for the kit. Should be perfectly fine for getting a surfboard/SUP up on there!

[loanrangie]

This might suit you -

Genuine Land Rover Discovery 3&4 Roof Bars with rail kit | Auto Body parts | Gumtree Australia Kingston Area - Cheltenham | 1212783457 (https://www.gumtree.com.au/s-ad/cheltenham/auto-body-parts/genuine-land-rover-discovery-3-4-roof-bars-with-rail-kit/1212783457)

[DI5CO]

I had the same thoughts on weather to go genuine or eBay, I ended up going genuine. I didn’t want to take the risk and must have got some runout parts from Brighton LR eBay store. Came to my work delivered from them in the genuine box too! As stated above, tap the thread out as I didn’t and broke a screw and it was a ***** fight to fix it lol.

[twr7cx]

I ended up going with the Prorack Whispbar S17 bar Option 2 - Through Bar S-Wing with Extended Crossbar Option with K436 mount kit < Find Your Car In Our List Of Suitable Vehicles - Prorack (https://www.prorack.com.au/findmycar) >. Installation doesn't require any cutting and can easily be removed and just replaced with new christmas trees. Priced well too and looks good on the vehicle.

Installation was simple enough. The hardest part is removing the factory fitted christmas tree plugs - two out of the four snapped the heads and one snapped half the body in so I had to carefully drill out the plastic. Then cleaning the threads was a pain - the thread chaser cleaner could only get half way down each hole so I had to run an actual tap through them a few times before reusing the thread chaser - even then the studs had to work to be threaded in all the way.

[scarry]

Fitted Rhino to mine when it was new.

Have square heavy duty rails,which went onto legs and a Rhino track that screwed into existing threaded holes on the vehicle roof,under the roof trim.

Easy to do,recently did the front bar and mounts on the lower roof section,as we now have a RTT.

I had all the rails from one of the old vans,so just needed the kit and legs.