Thread: DIY Roof Rack

I'm thinking of similar action. I'm planning to use aluminum. Front section where roof is lower I'll do raised edges, back part where roof is higher I'll leave just flat so it comes to one height overall. I'll leave front a bit longer so I can mount some lights on the rack so they are hanging down, same at the back. Even tough I'm not gonna carry anything heavy, I reckon this will give me good versatility to carry lot of different stuff on top. It might look a bit awkward tough

I was also tossing around the idea of leaving the rear section without sides, leaving a flat overall profile, similar to the pic.
In the end decided that the sides can sometimes be handy to tie stuff against tho. Will probably end up the light bar transferred to the rack, and LED work light at the rear.


My main need is somewhere to hand an awning from, and somewhere to put a soon to be purchased Oztent, or get the swag out of the back.

What i would do (and possibly will ) is to get a full length rack off another vehicle and step it in a way that leaves the rear high section as a flat rack so that it sort of matches the height of the front lower section - just like the pic above.

Where did you get the pic? I was trying to find one for ages to reference to! Thanx

I still have to check out some aluminium ones ti see what material profile is best to use.

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I have mesh full length and I love it except that every tie down or strap I use has a hook that doesn't fit through the mesh without forcing it. I wish the grid spacing (what is it called?) was 5mm bigger. Also the side rails are incredibly useful for both tying off points but also pushing objects against to aid in securing. I naturally end up filling the edges and leaving walk space in the middle which has made me realise how valuable the side rails are.

DIY. This is mine that I made for myself a few years back and is now showing its age paint wise as you may see from the not very good photos. Its kind of a prototype and I always mean to make one out of aluminium that looks and fits better but never get around to it. The gutter clamps are just 50x3mm steel flat bar bent up and welded to hide the stainless fasteners that hold it in place.The frame is all welded steel tubing - 50x25 crossbars with 25x25 perimeter bars, capped with raw aluminium to stop the paint being scratched off constantly, the open bars make it easy to strap things on.

I incorporated a waterproof (also home made) 100mm high storage box in the dip that I keep all my spares in - hoses, bearings, bulbs, stuff I don't need till I need it, which fits under the straight line of the 3 rails. The rack is strong, I use it all the time to carry work materials. I kept it as close to the roof as possible as I need to use parking garages quite a bit, so this can fit into 2.1m clearance buildings.

When off on an all too rare trip, its easy to bolt on the roof top tent, also pictured, for which I also made a removable air dam thing out of aluminium - I found it helpful to have one after encountering severe headwinds on the way north out of Adelaide once (made the original out of plywood from Mitre 10 in Alice), but man it saved fuel - roof top tents can be fuel theives.

Very nice!

This is what I ended up with. Still not 100% happy with it and may make a few mods to it later.


I did add a few extra threaded mounting tabs while I was going. Plan is to have a jerry can holder, gas bottle holder and holder for 2 x 10L water containers that can be simply bolted in when needed.


Happy with the overall weight, as I can easily pick it up by myself.