Oregon law requires a 9' orange pennant flat for OHV sand driving, one of my favorite off-road activities. I got the flag, now where and how to mount it? The roof rack rails are so big that any adapter I've seen is too small. I looked at Yakima and Thule gear, no luck. Brophy hitch extenders won't work. A CB antenna bracket comes closest, but won't accommodate the ~½" mast bolt. The local ATV/motorcycle shop was clueless, as was a Google/Froogle search. Any ideas, except drilling, from the great deep well of YotaTech wisdom?

 

How about making a bracket that'll work in conjunction with the rear tire carrier?

 

Funny you mention it. I looked at that, but am all bleeding thumbs when it comes to fabricating anything. I asked the guy at the motorcycle shop is there was such a thing and he said no, but make some and he'd sell them there. Is there something like that available somewhere now?

 

What do you mean by brophy hitch extenders? When I used to go to the dunes in Wa I used a 0" drop hitch, bolted a 2x4x1/2 piece of aluminum to it, and drilled a hole in the alum for the flag..worked great.....

 

Yeah I'm curious about this too.

Crude and temporary, but what I've done before is simply duct tape the flag pole to one of the roofrack towers. Hey, it works...

 

For door mounted spare clearance, the flag carrier would need to be at least 18" long prolly reducing departure angle. I'm going to Home Depot to try cobbling something together. Otherwise, I'm thinking of sticking it in the passenger door pocket, then inside the grab handle and out the nearly closed window to hold it in place.

 

Remember that these flags carry a HUGE force when wheeling. I have broken several from driving at speeds less than 40.... the mount takes a beating... whatever you do make it secure..

 

Check here for some pics of what some folks around here have done:
http://www.midiwall.com/4Runner/dirt...MosesLake.html

The flag I have has a "standard" CB antenna thread on it, so I have a simple mount on the left front fender lip, just above the bumper. I run a STIFF spring to combat the flag wanting to tear the fender off. If you run too soft of one it'll just lay the flag back and get in the way.

Use stainless screws and a stainless mount when you do this - anything non-stainless up there will end up rusting through the fender. It'll also help to use a liberal dose of silicon sealer in the holes and on the back of the plate.

 

Thanks for the suggestions. What I'm going to do is drill one or two (of four) roof rack cross bars. I'm not sure if one cross bar alone, a hollow aluminum wing-like cross section, can withstand the force (mainly due to plastic end pieces under torsion), so the plan is to secure the ½" bolt to the lower bar and rubber grommet the upper bar for additional stress relief. The photo below shows two bars stacked vertically. The adjustable ends clamp to the round main tubes. Now I need to find a place locally that can do a clean job.

 

Please use a spring in there... You won't believe the amount of stress that the flag can exert. I'd hate to see you trash that roof rack.

 

Good idea, Mark, kind of a hybrid design...I like it. That way I can just get the upper rail drilled and mount a CB antenna holder, then the flag to that. I saw a bunch of the CB brackets at GI Joes. How to get the stiffest spring? Bigger is better?

 

Bob, what about mounting it like the way I use to have my CB antenna before I moved it to the ARB?



Get yourself a quick disconnect as in the 2nd pic, and you can put it on and off in 2 seconds or less.



I have never ever ran dunes before, but it intrigues me ever since seeing Mark's rig fly through the air in his pics.

Now of course you would have to get another antenna mount for the other fender for your CB.
I would mount that on the drivers side, and keep the flag on the right.

 

I dont think a fender can take the force from one of those flags.... I have seen them rip cb mounts out... You really need a good strong mounting point

 

Nah, they're different spring rates just like on shocks. They're rated based on the height of the mast that you'd be running, so a stiffer spring would be for a longer mast.

The best thing may be to wander the Firestik catalog online and get some ideas. You don't have to go with Firestik of course, but they have SOOOOOO many mounting options for antennas that something should come to light for ya'.

http://www.firestik.com


I'll admit to being freaked out for a while when I did it to mine, but it really did hold up, and a year later there's no sign of rust. Granted though, I only went out that one day so I don't have any real data.

All-in-all, I'd probably put it somewhere else if I did it again.

 

I wound up going with a bracket bolted to the safety chain loop on the factory hitch. Best of all, NO DRILLING. The law doesn't specify mast length or flag type, just 9' above ground level. I went with a 7' mast and standard orange pennant. Still looking for a pirate flag.

Static angle is a little funky, but it'll bend back in the breeze anyway. The long bolts on the knurled bracket contact the hitch and will keep it from rotating. The spare cover will keep the mast from contacting the body (I hope). It's a Firestick whip with stainless spring ($30 @ motorcycle dealership) bolted to an aluminum bracket ($4.45 @ GI Joe's). Prolly get some corrosion. Just hope alu bending strength is up to the job, no steel brackets available locally.






Ready for the beach, woohoo!

 

is there anything wrong with just putting some type of orange flag on a cb antenna and calling it a day?

EDIT: n/m, i guess that would only work if you had a 9' cb antenna...

 

I think it might become a short, expensive day. The CB antennas look much thinner, prolly couldn't withstand the leveraged force. Never tried it though...

 

Final answer: Plug an inverted ball mount from a Tacoma into the receiver, bolt flag spring on using some washers, voila, taller vertical flag. Nice thing is that the top of my 7' flag is now 9' off the ground, compliant with state law. It was always in the back of my mind that some lawyer on a quad would hit me and sue for the bracket only being 8' off the ground. Still looking for a pirate flag.

 

Very nice Bob.
What are the dealers getting for the Taco shank there?
Most trailer shop/installers should carry one like that too.

 

I put an orange badlands flag (just the flag not a flag & mast) on the top of my 6' wip CB antena. thats mounted on my toolbox in the back. prob 10' off the ground. While standing on the ground I grap the antena bend it down, slip the flag on, couple of zip ties later im done. 30 sec tops.

To remove, grab antena, pocket knife, slice zip ties, toss flag into tool box for next time.