Thread: Fitting Roof Tracks - Suggestions please

I ended up building my own rack. Weight came in at 22kg so I can put 50 kg of stuff up there without affecting the recommended roof load specs. It is mounted to LR roof tracks

Here is picture from when I was building it.

I noticed that most people tend to have the shorter track rather than the full length track; is there a reason for that? I was thinking of optioning the D4 with the full length track.

Brad, that is one hell of a front overhang it will give lot of lift at the back.

Originally Posted by CaverD3

Brad, that is one hell of a front overhang it will give lot of lift at the back.

There are brackets on the front that go down to the roof but they weren't fabricated for the photo above. All up there are 4 mounts per side.

Nice looking rack.

Originally Posted by brad72

I ended up building my own rack. Weight came in at 22kg so I can put 50 kg of stuff up there without affecting the recommended roof load specs. It is mounted to LR roof tracks

Here is picture from when I was building it.

Nice looking rack, pity the spare bed has gone though!

Brad72
Do you have wind noise issues with the roof rack?

I've got a Tradesman Oval Alloy rack .... I'd post a piccie but I haven't worked out how to set that up yet... I've only been on this forum for 2.5 years....LOL!!!

It runs the whole length, is relatively low and is rated at 150KGs (which is a lot more than all the others I was interested in). It has rails all round, a front deflector, cross bars and metal mesh, so plenty of tie down points.

The manufacturer went away from individual legs and now supply a one piece per side, length of alloy that has four mounting points that screw into the D4's tracks. This set up looks a little strange at the front, it could have been made a little prettier (it may be just the sloping roofline that accentuates the mounts) but isn't too bad and would be a lot quicker than installing eight individual legs I think...plus a lot stronger.

It's rigid and as strong as hell and I walk all over it when loading. You do notice the wallow when you have weight up there, so you just need to consider corners a bit more and slow down and keep it smooth.

I had to fluff around a bit to get the mounts to fit easily....apparently should have been done by the guys that fitted the rack. But only needs to be done once, then they are very easy from that point on. You just bolt the mounts to the LR roof tracks....one piece, four bolts (each side) and then drop the basket/rack on....eight heavy duty bolts with a locking lug for each hold the rack to the mounts.

I've set up ratchet straps from eye-bolts on my garage ceiling so that I can suspend the rack there when not in use (I don't drive around with the racks normally). Mounts on....back up under the suspended rack...lower onto mounts and bolt on. Dead easy. Two guys, 15 mins. One person can easily fit by themselves, just takes a little longer.

They do make some noise from about 60 onwards but it's not too bad and doesn't get proportionally worse with speed.

Hope this helps.

Cheers,

Kev.