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Thread: Discovery 2 Adventure Kings (Tigerz11) Roof Rack

  1. #1
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    Apr 2017
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    Discovery 2 Adventure Kings (Tigerz11) Roof Rack

    Hi Guys,

    I bought a Discovery 2a TD5 about 6 months ago and have mostly been doing maintenance and fixing the common problems.

    The time has now come to start getting it ready for the occasional camping trip.

    I wanted a roof top tent so needed a roof rack to mount it. I also want to still be able to fit into car parks so the rack needed to be as low as possible. Due to the stepped roof Discovery's also look weird at the front if you mount a flat rack too high.

    I priced up the usual quality brands but they are super expensive so I settled on the flat steel rack from 4x4supacentre.

    I did a lot of searching on the internet but struggled to get info on these racks getting fitted to D2's, so am sharing this to help others out.

    The prices often fluctuate so keep an eye on it for a week or two to get the best deal.

    For the Discovery you also need to purchase the extension legs to mount the rack higher. They recommend the 11" legs which mount over the factory front roof rails but to keep the rack as low as possible I chose the 9" legs. I paid $229 for the rack and $80 for the legs.

    There are a few different tutorials online about removing the roof rails. You need to drop the sides of the head lining to access the bolts. I was given the run around trying to find grommets that fit into the holes left by the rails (35mm) but eventually found these ones from Rare Spares:



    They are about $8 each. Its hard to get them into the holes given the large external diameter but it lets you fill it up with silicone. I haven't had any leaks yet, even with some really heavy recent storms.

    The rack goes on fairly easy, but is very heavy so you will need some mates to help get it on the roof. In the end the rack sits very low on the roof and looks pretty good. It does sit so low that I have difficulty getting my hands under the rear to mount the tent (need to lift it off the roof). In the future I will make a bracket so that the mounting points are closer to the edge and I can reach them easily.





    The rack is about the quality you would expect at the price point. It is sturdy but you can tell they have saved money with the final finish, mesh and welds. One of the 9" legs had a hole drilled in the wrong spot so wouldn't mount properly, they have since sent out a replacement. Be warned their customer service post sale is pretty poor. I would however recommend the rack to people, I saved about $1000 over a brand name item so can't really complain. It should stand up to all of the abuse I will throw at it.

  2. #2
    Join Date
    Dec 2016
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    Perth
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    D2a Roof rack

    Thanks for sharing...

    I am also a recent owner of a D2a and am looking at the options for a flat roof tray.

    I have been contemplating riveting some canopy style rails (see below) to the raised rear section of the roof and then mounting a 3/4 length tray to that. I'm not sure if anybody else has tried this so don't know if the roof will take the load or not. Although I don't plan on putting anything more than 100kg's so I think it should be ok.


    rt-track-00_lrgroofrackworldsa-400x214.jpg

    Also high on the list of mods is a double din head unit install. It will be a lot of experimenting with that though...

  3. #3
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    I'm not sure how much weight the roof would be able to hold. From memory the little factory rails which are mounted to the roof are only rated to about 30kg.

    I've used the rack with my ARB rooftop tent a few times now and it works well. I have had a couple of problems though:
    - I can't get my hands under the back of the rack properly to bolt the tent down. Instead I ended up bolting the front and tying the back with rope until I make some sort of bracket.
    - The mounting brackets for the tent didn't fit over the cross bars in the roof rack so I had to grind the opening bigger and buy longer bolts.


  4. #4
    Join Date
    Sep 2010
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    Branxton NSW
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    I have roughly cad'd a Rhino Backbone style roof rail that picks up the center mount and the rear-most factory roof rail points. I'm yet to get a prototype cut and folded tho. Keeps getting out on the back burner.

  5. #5
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    Hmm, rhino backbone style would look great... Keep us updated on how you get along with that.

  6. #6
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    I got mine for my D1, but the same as D2.

    Quote Originally Posted by MkII View Post
    .....

    The rack goes on fairly easy, but is very heavy so you will need some mates to help get it on the roof. In the end the rack sits very low on the roof and looks pretty good. It does sit so low that I have difficulty getting my hands under the rear to mount the tent (need to lift it off the roof). In the future I will make a bracket so that the mounting points are closer to the edge and I can reach them easily.

    ......
    The one thing I wanted was as low weight as possible, so I go an all aluminium version.
    Found an ebayer located in Cambellfield went up there, got it there and then.
    They had them for $600 at the time, but for no reason the lady in the showroom simply offered it to me for $550. Strangely I didn't go in to get a discount, just that I wanted it mounted for the camp trip in a couple of days time, at the time, back in Jan.
    Obviously the hard part was getting it home!

    Because it was aluminium tho, I fitted it myself. can easily lift it off(and on). But to be sure I didn't slip, fall or damage anything, I used some old rags and jackets and a blanket, and let the rack rest on the padding, resting on the roof, and slid it from the rear towards the front.
    Same issue with it being so low, and close to the roof, no access to the mounting nuts underneath. Could have used an open-ender to try to hold them, but that could have meant slipping and rounding. So as you did, I left the legs unattached and lifted it just enough to get sockets underneath, lined everything up and then tightened the legs to the gutter rails.

    For all intents and purposes, mine ended up looking the same as this one ended up. I prefer the low line look too.

    Gotta say too, the hardest part of it all was getting rid of the large cardboard packaging waste .. needed two loads of my small recycle bin.
    Arthur.

    '99 D1 300Tdi Auto
    '03 D2 Td5 Auto

  7. #7
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    Yatala Vale, Adelaide, SA
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    I fitted one of these today, a few extra tips.

    1/ The pack includes a stainless and passivated washers, i.e. silver and gold. The gold are slightly smaller and to be used for the rack to mount fittings on the underside.

    2/ You may as well go and tighten the 9" legs at the max height, you could sneak it lower, but once loaded you may start to touch the roof.

    3/ The disco is right at the upper width of the rack. There are 3 set of slotted holes in the rack to take a bolt in each slot. They don't exactly match up, i.e. with bolts in a pair of slots you can see that one slot still has play whereas the other is at max extension. You will need to use the mounts inner bolts only in the middle slot of the rack with all 4 bolts in the same slot. It's not ideal and drilling a hole for the second slot would make it better at a later date

    4/ Even at this max max width it's still tight, it needs to be lifted above the roof and then lowered down at the right point, it won't slide along the gutter very well.

    It's a decent weight too, glad I have my doofer to lower the air suspension to make it easier for lifting above.

    The top of the rack at this full extent is about the same height, maybe a little taller than the roof rails which have to be removed.

    An easy place to get a filler for the roof rail holes is Clarke Rubber, they have a 38mm plug, which actually works out at about 34mm and my holes where 33mm, so a bit of silicon and they are solid fit and shouldn't leak. Roof rails may also be the cause of some water leakage, my front right rail didn't look water tight after I got it off.

    I'm not sure you can reach the rear nut for the rails with the headlining held up by the rear trim, you can get to the front ones, so you may expand the job as I did and take the headlining out for a re-line or paint at the same time.

    Cost was $300 for the rack (local outlet) and $80ish for the 9" mounts, my bill was $398 total. but I can probably get the disco in the garage again now!

  8. #8
    Join Date
    Sep 2010
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    Quote Originally Posted by AWC View Post
    Hmm, rhino backbone style would look great... Keep us updated on how you get along with that.
    Prototype cut, slight mods needed.

  9. #9
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    Jun 2020
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    Standard rails

    Great thread, plan to do the same to my disco.

    Do you know if you can use the 9 inch gutter mounts and still keep the standard rails on the roof? Want to try avoid removing them, I kind of like the look.

    But also want the rack as low as possible.

    Could using the 9 inch rails with some kind of spacer on top to get extra height work?

    Cheers in advance.

  10. #10
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    Feb 2021
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    AU
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    Holy thread revival batman!

    A question for the op, what size flat rack did you end up getting? I've got a 4wdSupacentre gift voucher burning a hole in my pocket!

    The rack looks awesome by the way mate Discovery 2 Adventure Kings (Tigerz11) Roof Rack

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