Right now I have a load warrior yakima rack, however mounting lights to the front is a task so usually the lights to to the top which looks a little ugly and creates height and wind issues.☺ I also think it sits a little tall with the incorporation of the crossbars.☺ I have been looking at the land rover discovery expo racks for ideas



this is what im shooting for which will attach the rack at the rain gutters of my runner.

this is what my runner looks like and how much metal im about to have put on top




I welcome all opinions on whether I should do this later on or shoot this idea while its flying in the sky.

Also I wont be using square tubing, more of the round tubing that you see made from the load warrioer but a little bit bigger in diameter and smaller in diameter in sections.

 

I definetely think it would look cool. I don't know how good of an idea it is per say.

 

Off topic, when and why did you swap wheels w/ Ric?

 

I like the 5stars and it was the 16th of march? i think. he wanted the trds, he finally found a 5th

 

im gonna get a drawing, i think it would look sick on a solid axle 3rd gen too, cuz i keep having it in my head lol.

 

yakima makes a kit where the lights can be on top or inside the rack.thats the way i have mine ill try to get pics if needed

 

Less is more when it comes to weight on the roof... more weight on roof = more tippy.

That said it will be interesting what you come up with. I'm thinking about doing something different with my setup too...

 

Little tippy would not be my concern. My concern is ripping your roof off with the weight. Build an exocage or internal cage and connecting it to it.
The XXX-pedition jeep charokee touring Austrailia in offroad adventure mag has a big rack and actually ripped a hole due to the excess weight.
There is a reason that there are no roof mounted tents for the Prados in austrailia.


3rd gen roof racks are only good for snowboards and lights.

 

Here's my "full blown" roof rack on my 2nd gen. Its the Yakima load warrior with two extensions. The front half rests on the Yakima bars, the rear rests on the stock roof rack. Works pretty well so far. Kills gas mileage though. It's only on for multi-day wheeling trips.

 

id use part of the crossbars to pay the load down and the gutters in the front, it wouldnt even touch the roof half the time. Plus I had me my bike and my snowboards along with the load warrior on the rack. I stood on my rack so I dont think this rack is going to exceed 250 pounds by itself. Im sure it may come in around 100 but not anwhere 250.

 

I really like the idea of having it hinged at the back so it can flip upside down and create a canopy over the rear. I've seen a couple, but don't have any pics handy. anyway they use two telescoping legs to hold up the end away from the vehicle. Pretty trick, and makes a good place to cook and get some shade. For a 3rd gen you'd probably have to have a subframe under the rack that stays in place though which would add wieght. The ones I've seen were on fj40's and jeeps, so the rack is attached to the rear bumper and the sliders or windshield frame.

edit: it might also be sweet to have it tip sideways and create a awning over the side of the rig.

Also idea if your custom fabbing one would be to make it hang from the garage lid in such a way that you could drive in and drop it on, kinda like a hard top lifter. So it would probably have to lift off near vertical. The cool part about this would be that you could leave all your excursion gear in the rack suspended and not have to put it all away just to get it out again for the next trip.

 

garage idea would save a lot of heavy lifting, except my 4runner wont fit in the garage without everything taken off the roof. so that probablly wouldnt work.

I kinda like how the defenders have a little bit of a small exo so that would be an idea as well

 

If you go with the new rack you gonna sell your old one?

 

WOW - That would definately be a rof rackk at that point. When you get those drawings post 'em up for some feedback. I'm intereted to see how it's going to turn out.,

 

Can I have your load warrior?