toobladink
Elite Explorer
- Joined
- August 29, 2023
- Messages
- 106
- Reaction score
- 88
- City, State
- Spokane, WA
- Year, Model & Trim Level
- 2000 4WD XLT
Hey all, I just wanted to share a little project I had the other weekend over Father's day with my dad. I took some inspiration from this old thread.
Backstory: I bought an awning for my car to use while camping, and I needed it for the weekend of June 21-23 because I am driving from Eastern WA all the way to Monterey CA to watch the Indycar race at Laguna Seca. Unfortunately, the factory crossbars are too curved and too wide to use the included brackets. I pretty much stole the idea from that thread I linked and decided I'd make my own crossbars instead of a basket. This timing is important, and unfortunately meant I had to use what I had. However, it let me get some extra practice with something I've never done before!
So after I learned the factory crossbars were too wide for the mounting hardware, I decided I'd buy some steel. Here's a piece of 1.5 x 0.75 inch steel, fitted to the U-bolt that the awning bracket uses. There are also other ways to mount these. I think the most common would probably be to use the T shaped bolts that are included and insert those into some sort of T slot profile. Fabricating my own thing also leads for other possibilities.
That's not all the steel I bought - I also bought a 0.125 x 1 inch piece of flat stock, and 0.75 inch square tubing to make a mount that would create a sort of "clamping" mount similar to the factory crossbars. If you can't tell already, getting square tubing thinner than the flat stock was the mistake I made. I bought this steel from a local metal shop in my city, and the stuff I saw online at Home Depot wasn't as thick. This meant the mounts were going to have to be a little shorter, and I'd just cut little pieces of the flat stock and weld them to the bottom of the square tubing. It also gave me the extra clearance I needed to have the crossbar not touch the roof of the car. So for anyone wanting to do this in the future, just get 1 inch square tubing. The 0.75 inch is too small and it nearly fits in the gap in the rails, which is 0.5 inches. That means you basically have an eighth of an inch on each side making contact on the top. I wasn't comfortable with that at all.
The flat bar was a tad to wide, so we have to grind down a little bit of it. Like the width of a normal sharpie pen.
With all that said, here's the mount we came up with:
The bottom plate is tapped for 1/4 inch bolts. The whole thing is about 4 inches long, giving us a little over an inch on each side once the crossbar gets welded on. So after putting all the mounts in place, putting some towels down, tack welding the crossbars, finishing the welding, and then finally, touching up and painting... we got them mounted on the car. Of course, got some lock washers where we could use them to hopefully make sure they stay in place. Here's how it looks!
Felt like this was the best solution, especially since I live in an apartment that requires a parking garage. This design is really low profile and lets the awning sit as low as possible. This was super important to me because I still plan on lifting a little more and getting larger tires. The only thing I need to do now is order some plastic end caps to prevent water from getting on the inside and having it rust from inside-out.
Was fun to learn how to weld. I'm sure the welds will break when I'm driving down the highway one day, but until that day comes, I'm pretty happy with how it turned out and I'm glad I got to spend time with my dad over the weekend.
Backstory: I bought an awning for my car to use while camping, and I needed it for the weekend of June 21-23 because I am driving from Eastern WA all the way to Monterey CA to watch the Indycar race at Laguna Seca. Unfortunately, the factory crossbars are too curved and too wide to use the included brackets. I pretty much stole the idea from that thread I linked and decided I'd make my own crossbars instead of a basket. This timing is important, and unfortunately meant I had to use what I had. However, it let me get some extra practice with something I've never done before!
So after I learned the factory crossbars were too wide for the mounting hardware, I decided I'd buy some steel. Here's a piece of 1.5 x 0.75 inch steel, fitted to the U-bolt that the awning bracket uses. There are also other ways to mount these. I think the most common would probably be to use the T shaped bolts that are included and insert those into some sort of T slot profile. Fabricating my own thing also leads for other possibilities.
That's not all the steel I bought - I also bought a 0.125 x 1 inch piece of flat stock, and 0.75 inch square tubing to make a mount that would create a sort of "clamping" mount similar to the factory crossbars. If you can't tell already, getting square tubing thinner than the flat stock was the mistake I made. I bought this steel from a local metal shop in my city, and the stuff I saw online at Home Depot wasn't as thick. This meant the mounts were going to have to be a little shorter, and I'd just cut little pieces of the flat stock and weld them to the bottom of the square tubing. It also gave me the extra clearance I needed to have the crossbar not touch the roof of the car. So for anyone wanting to do this in the future, just get 1 inch square tubing. The 0.75 inch is too small and it nearly fits in the gap in the rails, which is 0.5 inches. That means you basically have an eighth of an inch on each side making contact on the top. I wasn't comfortable with that at all.
The flat bar was a tad to wide, so we have to grind down a little bit of it. Like the width of a normal sharpie pen.
With all that said, here's the mount we came up with:
The bottom plate is tapped for 1/4 inch bolts. The whole thing is about 4 inches long, giving us a little over an inch on each side once the crossbar gets welded on. So after putting all the mounts in place, putting some towels down, tack welding the crossbars, finishing the welding, and then finally, touching up and painting... we got them mounted on the car. Of course, got some lock washers where we could use them to hopefully make sure they stay in place. Here's how it looks!
Felt like this was the best solution, especially since I live in an apartment that requires a parking garage. This design is really low profile and lets the awning sit as low as possible. This was super important to me because I still plan on lifting a little more and getting larger tires. The only thing I need to do now is order some plastic end caps to prevent water from getting on the inside and having it rust from inside-out.
Was fun to learn how to weld. I'm sure the welds will break when I'm driving down the highway one day, but until that day comes, I'm pretty happy with how it turned out and I'm glad I got to spend time with my dad over the weekend.
