- Joined
- July 26, 2004
- Messages
- 4,982
- Reaction score
- 24
- City, State
- Willow Grove, PA
- Year, Model & Trim Level
- '97 XLT
The backstory:
I've had my spare 33'' Kumho mud tire sitting in my roof rack on top of my truck for years. This is a heavy sumbitch. It has to weigh close to 80 pounds. I nearly killed myself getting it up in the rack basket the first time. I also have a hill in my township that had a lot of lights. As you may already be familiar with, any hill with lights causes excessive hard braking and over time, distorts the pavement. The result of years of this is what we call "The Willow Grove Paint Shaker" - the roadway is basically a giant washboard, and a horror to drive.
The Problem:
It just so happens that I have to, very frequently, come down this hill at an elevated level of speed. With my stiff suspension, it it particularly brutal on my rig. I think you can see where this is going. The washboard has, over the past 2 years, shaken apart my stock support cross-members. I had added 2 additional cross-bars from a member here (total of 4), but it still wasn't enough. The cross-bars were cracking and failing, and constantly, no matter how hard I tightened them down, inching forward and bumping into each other. I could feel the rack going up and down as the cross-bars flexed under the weight of the bouncing tire and rack. It was a hazard to myself and others on the road in the event of catastrophic failure, not to mention an eyesore and constant source of worry for me. See pictures below of how the old cross-members moved and were a general mess.
The Solution:
I trashed the old cross-members and removed the whole rack. I bought some stock steel from home depot and designed a basic roof rack base that would sit directly on the stock roof rails with 4 cross-members for the rack to rest on. 1 1/4'' square tubing for the main rails and 1'' square tubing for the cross-members.
I laid it all out to plan it out, and cut the steel to the right dimensions. I had never welded before, so I brought the steel to a buddy of mine with a wire-feed welder, and we set to work getting everything together. We placed it on the roof first and tacked it together to account for the curve of the roof before finishing the welds. Here is the rack all welded up:
Test placement:
I then drilled out the rack to screw down into the stock roof rails. Once it was all set, I brought it to Bonehead Performance, powder-coating specialists near me (www.boneheadperformance.com). I had the rack powder coated, brought it home, sealed and capped it, and had my finished product. Those guys do great work.
Finally, tonight I bolted it up and re-mounted the rack. It is perfect. Lower profile, infinitely stronger, and built to last. I couldn't be happier. Drove the truck to dinner tonight and there is NO play up top. No bouncing, no moving, nothing. I am very pleased with the results, and suggest the same thing for anyone having similar issues with the weak stock cross-bars.
I've had my spare 33'' Kumho mud tire sitting in my roof rack on top of my truck for years. This is a heavy sumbitch. It has to weigh close to 80 pounds. I nearly killed myself getting it up in the rack basket the first time. I also have a hill in my township that had a lot of lights. As you may already be familiar with, any hill with lights causes excessive hard braking and over time, distorts the pavement. The result of years of this is what we call "The Willow Grove Paint Shaker" - the roadway is basically a giant washboard, and a horror to drive.
The Problem:
It just so happens that I have to, very frequently, come down this hill at an elevated level of speed. With my stiff suspension, it it particularly brutal on my rig. I think you can see where this is going. The washboard has, over the past 2 years, shaken apart my stock support cross-members. I had added 2 additional cross-bars from a member here (total of 4), but it still wasn't enough. The cross-bars were cracking and failing, and constantly, no matter how hard I tightened them down, inching forward and bumping into each other. I could feel the rack going up and down as the cross-bars flexed under the weight of the bouncing tire and rack. It was a hazard to myself and others on the road in the event of catastrophic failure, not to mention an eyesore and constant source of worry for me. See pictures below of how the old cross-members moved and were a general mess.
The Solution:
I trashed the old cross-members and removed the whole rack. I bought some stock steel from home depot and designed a basic roof rack base that would sit directly on the stock roof rails with 4 cross-members for the rack to rest on. 1 1/4'' square tubing for the main rails and 1'' square tubing for the cross-members.
I laid it all out to plan it out, and cut the steel to the right dimensions. I had never welded before, so I brought the steel to a buddy of mine with a wire-feed welder, and we set to work getting everything together. We placed it on the roof first and tacked it together to account for the curve of the roof before finishing the welds. Here is the rack all welded up:
Test placement:
I then drilled out the rack to screw down into the stock roof rails. Once it was all set, I brought it to Bonehead Performance, powder-coating specialists near me (www.boneheadperformance.com). I had the rack powder coated, brought it home, sealed and capped it, and had my finished product. Those guys do great work.
Finally, tonight I bolted it up and re-mounted the rack. It is perfect. Lower profile, infinitely stronger, and built to last. I couldn't be happier. Drove the truck to dinner tonight and there is NO play up top. No bouncing, no moving, nothing. I am very pleased with the results, and suggest the same thing for anyone having similar issues with the weak stock cross-bars.