it hasn't been rainning here in L.A. for about a year, we got the first down pour on saturday, you guess it, i went to the local junk yard as i planned to do so. well, not a wise choice, everybody was in a pizzed off mode.

anyhoo, i want a roof rack for my 4Runner since day one, mainly to carry my fishing rods and my bike on the top. i noramlly take 5 or 6 rods on a trip, couple 8 footers and 9 and 10 footers for the rest.

i tried to find a set of Yakima/Thule, but to be honest, they are bloody expensive. finially settled down a cheap paif of the old Yakima SST towers but never could get the clips to work. called up yakima, i was told i needed Y6 clips for the front, Y13 clips for the rear. ok, found a pair of Y6 clips, still won't work.

now, i'm only going after the oem rails/crossbars bolting directly on to the roof, it's cheap and durable.

couple questions:

1.) should i look for 2nd gen roof racks only or, 3rd gen racks will fit, too? i'd have better chance to get one if i'm looks for both.
2.) would anybody recommend some junk yards which specialized in 4Runners or Toyota's in general in LA area? the place i went to is on Alpha stree near Irwindale. not too many choices to my knowlage.
3.) if any one have one, please let me know.

by the way, i do NOT have a sunroof to worry about.

thanks.

 

I had the stock roof rack, bloody weak if you ask me. I have a thule roof ack now.. much better. You can find them cheap on EBay.. although I only spent about 200 for a new one at some discount websites.

 

IF, i have some one to fab few brackets just weld the Coleman basket on to the roof directly, would that be a good idea? it's kinda cheap and easy. there are plenty muffler shops around, they wouldn't mind to do it at a cost.

even more, i can ask them to weld the brackets on the roof then bolt the basket on to the brackets. am i getting somewhere?

 

Theres never a wrong day to go the local junkyard.

I've been there when it's 104 above [ don't lean on fenders ] too hot.

And when it's been 14 above [ no time to lean on fenders ] gotta work fast to keep warm.

 

it's kinda ironic, junk yards here loooooove rain. that's when people( nuh.... southern californians) wreck there cars like no tomorrow, which get them new inventories and people(nuh... southern califronians) need parts to fix their wrecks.

i remember about 6 or 8 years ago, we had a very wet winter down here, there was one day from 6am to 6pm, there were over 400 accidents within Los Angeles county, on the freeways alone!!. lot of US, we don't know crap about how to drive wet. there were a couple from Seattle being interviewed on TV, laughing their azzes off on how angelenos drive.

 

They shouldn't be laughing.....that just mean's that their weather sucks...And our weather in Cali is great, so when it gets crappy, we don't know what to do.

 

Look up rancho recycling. they are from rancho cordova but are GUARANTEED to have everything you need, and they will ship.