Has anyone built a rack for an 85-88 runner that allows it to remain with the top off? I was thinking of something along the lines of Warrior Products racks for wranglers or racks you see commonly with Defender 90s..

 

thats an excellent idea! i hope to see some pics and/or hear ideas! maybe someone allready makes one?

 

I've never seen one but it probably wouldn't be too hard to adapt something.. Mount to the rain gutters in the front and maybe come down with a bracket to use the top bolts in the back (if you designed it right I think you could probably trim the seal so the top bolts down on top of the bracket).

That is an excellent idea though! Do it!

 

Yeah.. I had thought of that as well. I wanted a rack, but wanted to also take the top off. Let us know what you come up with and don't forget about us '89 Runners. We are still 1st gen also lol.

 

Doh! sorry about that.. I know more about pickups than the runners (not much more).

Ok I'll post something weeks down the road when we get it worked out. Got some great shots of the warrior products stuff and a custom rack setup at SEMA last week, so that should help.

 

my can-back incorporates a roofrack that can be left on when the fabric part of the top is off.

 

i guess this kind of can also be related to exo cages, in a way you could very well just use one of those for a rack. if you do a rack only, while it may be easier, it will not offer crash protection (but could be removable), which really should not matter since you're designing it to use with the top off so no need to take the rack off. hmmm.... i can make anything confusing!

i'd still love to see pics! i've seen full racks under mounted to turcks under their canopies and thought "why could you not mount one like that under the 4runner top"?

 

I'd be interested to what you come up with....I've wanted something similar for my truck for when I removed the fiberglass topper.

Love the picture of the D90, those are great. Looks like my Suzuki Samurai on testosterone.

 

you can see here how the roof rack mounts to the frame of the can back. I could remove the top leave the frame and reatach the rack (i think it would look silly) withno troubles. Im not saying spend $1600 for a can back top with the rack attachment but you could fab something up fairly easily with a tube bender and some welding know how.

 

$1600???

 

yea..they are $$$. rediculous really

 

I have a yakima mounted to the roof