New to Offroadtb

[M_C_U_02]

Hey everybody.... I'm new to ORTB and new to forums in general.
I've been on the outskirts of this site and can't believe the wealth of knowledge and info for our platform. Much respect to the off road founders and early pioneers of the 360s...
I'm looking short term for about 3-3.5" suspension lift and 32s. I've already purchased '87 springs (up from 83) for the front, tahoe springs for the rear and just ordered the 2.5" S.L. The truck has 160xxx on it, so HD shocks for the front, and hopefully Fox 2.0 for the rear, just want to do a little more reading. While she's apart, going to do ball joints too (already did both hub assemblies and one C.V. n seal).

I also tried my hand at a roof rack. I'm an electrician, and novice welder at best. I bent up some EMT rings, cut some vertical stanchions, welded a front air valance and sone vertical plates for lights... sprayed it with some black hammer finish Rusto and I think it's not too bad.

Before the plates were welded in...

[mason10198]

Welcome! Sounds like the beginning of something good! Love the roof rack too by the way. Great job!

~Sent from Tapatalk for Android~

[TBYODA]

Welcome, nice job. Were you from?

[DirtyBacon04]

Welcome! I like your fab skills on that rack

[Cable810]

Welcome!!

[Trail X]

The rack looks real good James. How did you mount it to the roof and to your cross bars?

[cerealbyter]

Looks nice!! Welcome!!

[M_C_U_02]

Thanks for the greetings and compliments!

(I'll figure out quotes later)...

TBYODA- I'm from Western Suffolk County, Long Island.... right in the middle.

TrailX- The roof rack was secured using 3/8" kindorf nuts (that actually are made to fit inside the kindorf strut that I believe you used to mount your half rack and tent to your roof). Their rectangular shape allowed me to fit the nut inside our stock "C-channel" rails and then spin them long ways to tighten down a piece 1"x1" steel square stock. Pipe clamps secure the rack itself to the stock. It's a little hard to see while installed but I'll take pic of just the nut and bolt. The assembly clamps down very tight and is not going anywhere.
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The rack also has a little more to it... If you notice, there are three pieces of 1" stock with flat Furniture caps on them; these hold the rack to the roof. The two pieces with round outter furniture caps have a 3/4" sq. And 1/2 sq. stock within them. I drilled through all three pieces with a 1/4" bit and inserted a threaded turn knob with a plastic washer, and wing nut underneath to keep inner pieces from sliding out on the road (wing nut also keeps it within the channel.
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The metal is just shy of 4' so if I extended the 3/4" and 1/2" out fully, I'm a little over 7' of coverage. I keep two 10x10 tarps on board. One covers the extensions, the other I drape and tie off over the tailgate....
I will also post a pic when setup.... just getting this rig going!
All wiring is temp for now... Also replaced the old fog/spot lights with 27w LEDs

[M_C_U_02]

And now you can see my snotty welds....haha. I just wanted it to be strong... still need to weld on a plate on the back side for rigidity.

[M_C_U_02]

This pic of AlekG was undeniably my inspiration.....
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My rack is a little narrower than most, and plan on carrying some things; fishing pole, poles, maybe jack on the outside of rack. That's why I went with the telescoping sq. stock to catch my shade.... I just need a few more inches of head room.... and I'm getting 3 more inches coming soon!

This TB is starting off a daily driver/beach-goer for sure, but hopefully I'll get up some trails and mountains eventually...

[M_C_U_02]

The rack looks real good James. How did you mount it to the roof and to your cross bars?

Here's a picture of the spring nuts (k-nuts/kindorf nuts) that secures my rack to our stock rails.... a few different shapes and sizes. I drilled right through my crossbars, used bolts and lock washers to lock them down tight (with the square stock secured right to the rail, it leaves only about a 1/2" between my rack and the crown of the roof).

Spring nuts

They are extremely sturdy. I really like the small tolerance, but would love to get a solar panel underneath the rack one day that can extend out...
Can't a man dream??? Haha

These typically attach to Kindorf struts, which I had mistakenly said you had used on your half rack and RTT (which is amazing). It wasn't you, but someone else who had done some major work up top.

You can kind of see the strut (gold color) in this pic, it's what I used to mount my fog lights inside the rack and set them back a bit from the air valance.
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