My plans for a homemade roof rack

My plans for a homemade roof rack *DONE*

I missed out on the Coleman roof rack so I'm thinking about making my own. Here's a ms paint drawing of what I'm thinking about doing. The top and bottom rails will be 3/4 EMT. I'd like to make the side supports and bottom slats out of aluminum to save weight, but depending on cost and strength, it might end up being steel. Basically, I'd just bend two pieces of EMT into a squared off "C" for the sides and have one straight piece for the front and back. I don't have access to a welder so the joints will all have to be bolted together. I'd use the connectors for the emt that basically butt the two pieces together and screw down. Make another identical one for the bottom and use pieces of sheet stock to bolt the two together. Then bolt the slats on. Anyone see any problems with this idea? Obviously, the drawing is not done to scale. The width and number of the bottom slats and side supports has not been decided on yet either.

Looks good. I was thinking about making my own also. Not sure if I will yet of not.

i don't know about the roof rack but you are damn good at MS paint

trj360 said:

i don't know about the roof rack but you are damn good at MS paint

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Excited to see how this goes, might try something similar myself.

Sounds like a plan! Good luck and take pics!

here's some shots of what I've come up with so far.

this is the bottom part of the frame with the slats laid out. Due to cost, I decided to make the slats out of EMT rather than 4" steel stock. I'll have three three strips of either 2" or 3" x 3/16"steel running across the bottom of the frame. One in the middle and one towards either end. They'll be screwed to the bottom of the frame and each slat will be attached with screws from the bottom. The ends of the slats won't attach directly to the EMT frame. This way all the weight on the rack will be supported by the steel cross bars. You can see the top part of the frame leaning against the wall. It will be attached to the bottom just like in the original plan with 4" x 6" x 3/16 steel. One it's finished everything is going to be coated with spray on bedliner.

this is a close up of the connectors holding the frame together. There is one set screw for each side. I plan on running a self tapping screw through the other side to add some strength.

Just had a thought. Anyone think 1" square tubing would be a better idea for the cross bars that the slats will be attached to?

What is EMT?

Letsride said:

What is EMT?

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Electrical metallic tubing.

It's done! Well, almost. I've still got to get it sprayed with bedliner and fab up some kind of spacer to mount it to the roof. The curve of the roof, side to side and front to back, causes the rack to touch in the middle but none of the corners are down. I've also got to figure out how I'm going to attach it. Right now I've got the factory cross bars off and I'm planning on picking up some screws that fit the existing sliders. This way it won't be sitting way up in the breeze on top of the cross bars. Here's some pictures. What do you guys think?

this is the bottom after I just finished screwing on the slats (don't know why the picture came out so blurry):


All done for now:

that looks really good, mount about 8 lights on it and it'll be even better :

Got a few questions for you....any close-ups of how you mounted the slats...ie screws from the bottom? What is the overall dimensions of the rack and what do you have into it for materials etc?

You did a great job.......

that is sweet how much did it cost you to make it?

9 sticks of 1/2" x 10' EMT tubing and connectors - $25
Steel 1" square tubing and 2" x 3/16th x 5' flat bar- $25
Screws - $5
2 cans spray on bedliner - $20

I need one more can of bedliner to touch up a few spots and about 1 foot of square tubing to make some brackets to mount it to the roof. I've got an idea to use the mounting feet from the factory crossbars. I've removed the feet from the center piece of the cross bars. The tab that slid into the crossbar will fit inside the square tubing on the frame. I'll cut a short piece of tubing for each foot, mount the foot into it, and then bolt the tubing/foot assemblies to the front and rear square crossbars on the rack. This will allow me to quickly remove the rack if needed. Here's a shot of the rack after I sprayed it today:

Letsride said:

Got a few questions for you....any close-ups of how you mounted the slats...ie screws from the bottom? What is the overall dimensions of the rack and what do you have into it for materials etc?

You did a great job.......

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The picture on post #9 is the only one I have of how the slats are mounted. You are correct, though. I ran self tapping screws through the bottom of the square cross bar and into the EMT. I had to drill the holes through the cross bar and then a small pilot hole through the slats. There's no way the self tappers would have made it though the steel. The overall dimensions are 50" x 42".

trj360 said:

that looks really good, mount about 8 lights on it and it'll be even better :

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I've already got my $10 light bar with four lights across the front. Although, I do plan on mounting some rear facing lights on the rack.

convict 1997) I live in Greenville, NC about 3 and half hrs from you and I was wondering could I give you a 150 dollars to make me one of these next month? thx for the help I would love something like that on mine

any pics of it installled yet?????

WOW. Very nice job. Two thumbs up.

Wow, that is some excellent work. Very nice job!

It's looking really good! Also, nice MS paint work. Props for that.