mrloyd

My buddy had an extra surco rack he gave me for next to nothing. It was a touch too big so I drilled the rivets and cut about 5 inches out of it. When it came time to mount I had the option to order the ch100 channel mounts and that was about it. Not only are they overpriced, but the make the rack sit up way too high off the roof, as if its not hard enough to get stuff up there as it is. I read the various threads and nobody seemed to have come up with a good solution. Anyway, I made some custom mounts so read up and hope this helps someone out.
As I mentioned, I had to cut a few inches out of the rack itself, so I had some square aluminum left over. I decided that I could use this to make a mount that would lift the rack just an inch or so over the factory rack rails.
I took the measurements of the surco crossbars and cut the extra aluminum just an inch or so longer on each side. You need four of thes pieces and they need to be at least 2/75" long.
Once I had the 4 pieces cut I then drilled a hole on each end with a 15/64 bit. Then I drilled a hole in the center with a 11/64 bit.


The two holes on the ends will be used to bolt to the factory rail inserts. The center hole will be threaded to allow the surco crossbar to mount to the new spacers.
Once the three holes are drilled, you need to cut threads into the center bolt only. You can use whatever hardware you choose, I used these for the bolts on the ends to attach the spacer to the factory roof rack. They're hex cap screws, m6 1.0x25 from lowes
[IMG]http://i230.photobucket.com/albums/ee206/mrloyd1133/new150.jpg
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And these are for the center bolt that will mount the crossbar to the spacer


Anyway, as I was saying, you need to thread the center hole. If you're smart, you own a tap and dye set. If you're me, you have to do it with the bolt itself. Thats why I used the small 11/64 bit. Then, having the spacer mounted in the vise, I just pushed down on it very hard while threading it in. The hard steel will overpower the aluminum and it worked for me, just alot of effort.


Once you're all done with the drilling and threading of the center hole you will want to put them to a wire wheel to smooth off any rough edges. Here is what the basic mount up will look like outside of the roof rack. I used a piece of crossbar I cut off due to the extra width for these pics.




Anyway, I wanted to paint the spacers so I used rustoleum industrial enamel and the 4 spacers ended up looking like this


So once these are done you just slide the little mounting tabs from the factory rack into the factory roof rails, or if you still have your factory stuff on just remove the rails and crossbars and leave the insert tabs there.
Then I took the new spacers and bolted them to the insert tabs, leaving them loose so that I could move them to line up to the rack.
Next I placed the rack on top and lined up each new spacer so that the crossbars set between the end bolts on each spacer.
Now its time to drill the hole through the crossbar. I used a 1/4" bit for this. Be very sure you have this hole lined up with the existing hole that you have threaded. Also, be sure you don't drill too far and screw up the threads you worked so hard for.
Once these holes are drilled you can bolt up the crossbars to the spacers and tighten everything down.
Here's the finished product




As you can see, it sits much lower than the surco mounts would sit. That and it only cost me about 5 bucks for the hardware. It would have been a few more if I had to buy the aluminum, but these are better looking and easier to adjust than the surco stuff and you won't be dragging your gear though the trees as much.
My only concern was that they wouldn't be strong enough. Let me tell you, I yanked on the rack until I had the truck swaying back and forth and they didn't budge.
All in all I'm really happy with the way this turned out. I hope this helps someone!

BajaRunner

Very nice! Thanks for posting this.

cootees

Nice one. I've been looking at mine for years thinking one day I will make it lower.

Ron Helmuth

that is how I want my rack to sit on my roof-it is the only way it will fit in my garage once I do my body lift.

Thanks very much for posting the pictures.

Could we see a view looking down on the mount and how it attaches to the crossbar?

Would you want to sell these? Meaning make up some more and make some profit on them?

I am sure several folks may have an interest. you certainly have mine.

mrloyd

if someone can tell me where to get some of that square aluminum I could make some. No idea what to charge. Its not technically tough, just time consuming.
If you look at pics 7 and 8 you can see the little tabs/inserts from the factory roof bars attached to the bottom of the mounts/spacers. These tabs simply slide inside the factory roof bars.
I also want to add that I went with the hex caps because it allowed me to have tighter tolerances and keep the spacer smaller overall. Also, due to the design of the surco crossbar, if you use a larger bolt or a washer the bolt sits on top of the cross bar. The problem with this is that as you tighten it it compresses the crossbar and actually makes it spread apart. The hex bolt fits all the way down into the crossbar so it avoids this problem. The only thing I might change if I did it again would be to make another spacer or collar of sorts to go around the center bolt that attaches the crossbar to the spacer. I think this would make it sturdier, but I can't see that it needs any additional reinforcement so far.

CRafferty

I wish I had friends that would just GIVE me a rack lol.