Baja Rack Pt.2 - New Mounting

[mikekey]

After our trip out west, I wasn't 100% satisfied with using cross bars on the Baja rack. For one, the DIY bars weren't holding up well and actually began to rust. Which, pisses me off. Chinese metal. Thanks Home Sucko.

The other problem is that even with the DIY method, I felt the rack was still to high up in the air. So I came up with this mounting idea, that I'm currently working on. Basically it will work like so.

These flares will be welded to the front and rear post on the baja rack.


Here is our prototype welded up.


They'll line up like so.


I'll use a similar plate to the original method to attach these into the roof rack channel. It will be another piece of steel that is tapped allowing us to bolt down using a hex screw cap.

This is how it should look with the rack at it's true height:




Ended up however at the end of the day needing to go back and recut. Even though we made cardboard samples at first, turned out the rack is not square in all four corners, so basing it off one corner was a mistake. Going to recut some steel and then we'll try again.

More to follow after the work week.

On another note, the Baja rack has very minimal flex with a 185lb guy standing in the middle of it, if you where curious.

[Diacom]

Be paitent, the mounts I am trying to obtain and test will work well with the new brackets you have built.

[The Roadie]

I had an issue with the rails on the vehicle bending due to the artistic gap they left open, so I solved that with Unistrut. It's only 3/4" high off the roof, and they make intensely strong rectangular nuts with gripping teeth forged in. I used some Surco rectangular nuts with small serrations in my original rack, and they couldn't be tightened enough to stop the rack from loosening up when full on technical trails. I posted how I fixed that problem using bolts up through the OEM u-channel from the bottom, but wanted something even stronger when I got the RTT, so that's when I did the Unistrut.

[NC_IslandRunner]

I had an issue with the rails on the vehicle bending due to the artistic gap they left open, so I solved that with Unistrut. It's only 3/4" high off the roof, and they make intensely strong rectangular nuts with gripping teeth forged in. I used some Surco rectangular nuts with small serrations in my original rack, and they couldn't be tightened enough to stop the rack from loosening up when full on technical trails. I posted how I fixed that problem using bolts up through the OEM u-channel from the bottom, but wanted something even stronger when I got the RTT, so that's when I did the Unistrut.

X's 2, I switched to superstrut(same as unistrut) stronger hold and a lower profile, dropped the rack ~2". With a rear spare tire carrier and better packing plan I no longer needed my rack and am enjoying better mpg!

[Trail X]

It looks good Mike. If you adjust your mounts right, you'll be able to drop your rack as close to the roof as the unistrut, maybe even closer.

I do worry a bit about it whistling though. Hopefully you'll get lucky.

[JorDaneeKey]

It looks good Mike. If you adjust your mounts right, you'll be able to drop your rack as close to the roof as the unistrut, maybe even closer.

I do worry a bit about it whistling though. Hopefully you'll get lucky.

Hopefully it's more of a hum than a whistle. I prefer the hum. It's like white noise....soothing for those 36 hour drives.