Roof Basket Mounting?

[Snapey]

Hey everyone,

I'm looking to mount a roof basket to the top of my 1999 Ford Explorer, however, I don't want it to be sitting too high (avoiding mounting the roof basket onto the cross bars). Has anyone ever made their own mounts for the tracks on the Explorers to mount after market roof baskets?

Thanks!

 

[rasouth]

Do you want this roof basket to be permanent? If not I saw a buddy of mine remove the cross members of roof rack, use a couple pieces of wood to go from side to side and strapped the rack using flat hooks onto the door frame and a couple to the back where the lift gate is. I think he used some short ratcheting straps.

 

[toypaseo]

I thought about spreading the crossbars further apart, and figuring out how to mount a basket between them. My basket would have been just for looks though.

 

[ThreeJs]

Older post and a lot of pics are missing. Made the crossbars and used T-bolts. Maybe the OP will reply here.

New welded roof rack mount

My basket has been mounted to the stock crossbars since 2015. No issues. A pic to show the height with stock crossbars.

 

[BKennedy]

Hey everyone,

I'm looking to mount a roof basket to the top of my 1999 Ford Explorer, however, I don't want it to be sitting too high (avoiding mounting the roof basket onto the cross bars). Has anyone ever made their own mounts for the tracks on the Explorers to mount after market roof baskets?

Thanks!

If you are looking to mount a roof basket as low as possible you could remove the cross bars from your roof rails. Then fabricate sliders that fit in the roof rails to hold your new basket. Remember the roof is not flat, its higher in the center than the sides. My rails were pulling out of the roof sheet metal after many years with a aftermarket rack. I made an entire new rack out of 3/4" EMT conduit that has worked out very well. I wanted something low profile that could carry whatever I wanted, and be just tall enough to mount a Hi-Lift jack inside the basket. The rack is bolted through the roof with "well nuts" in the channels.

 

[gmanpaint]

I just did this a week ago. Made my own basket, and didnt use crossbars. Made mounts, welded them on, and they sit in the tracks.

To do this, it really depends on your basket dimensions. If your basket is close to the width of the roof tracks, you can make brackets out of angle iron, to sit in the tracks. The vertical side flush against the outboard raised edge.

Drill a couple holes for 5/16" T bolts and washers in the track. How you attach those to your basket, is up to you. Can weld them on, or use additional steel to clamp them tight.

If you get that far, here is a tip that I can offer after learning myself what worked well for me.

Be careful with T bolts. If you don't use normal steel, I found that the stainless will snap the heads off as they are more brittle than normal steel. I made some for this purpose out of stainless carriage bolts. They are made differently, and have a stronger head on them. Just had to grind the round side flat is all. Used an 1/2" external toothed washer, then a 3/8" stainless washer on top of that. That 3/8" washer centers the bolt in the track. The carriage bolt heads are round, not T shaped, so it has more surface to hold with. The toothed washer stops it from spinning, while tightening the lock nut.

I'm sure there are other ways for this, I'm just offering up one idea here.

Edit: Bkennedy offered another method, and posted as I was typing! Lol so, yeah, another way mentioned!!

 

[traveler]

Greg, the method you just described is how I mounted the spare tire bars to my roof, minus the toothed washers (good idea!). It works well. It's also how I plan to mount the roof rack when I get it made.