How much weight a roof rack can hold?

[chrisis]

i have a 96 explorer 4.0 v6 4 door.

i'm planning to have a trip in a few weeks and i will need to put 5-6 laggages in the roof rack .

do you know how much weight the plastic stock roof rack and general the roof can hold before it collapse?

 

[DeRocha]

i have a 96 explorer 4.0 v6 4 door.

i'm planning to have a trip in a few weeks and i will need to put 5-6 laggages in the roof rack .

do you know how much weight the plastic stock roof rack and general the roof can hold before it collapse?

You've asked several questions...
1) The roof itself is a structural member and is designed to hold the weight of the vehicle... (yeah that's a lot of weight 2 tons+ ).

2) The plastic roof rack cross bars are only rated for ~100lbs (mine are stamped with a 100lb max rating). By keeping the weight off the cross bars and evenly distributing the load across the center ribs I have easily carried 500lbs on my roof.

 

[tmh6202]

You've asked several questions...
1) The roof itself is a structural member and is designed to hold the weight of the vehicle... (yeah that's a lot of weight 2 tons+ ).

2) The plastic roof rack cross bars are only rated for ~100lbs (mine are stamped with a 100lb max rating). By keeping the weight off the cross bars and evenly distributing the load across the center ribs I have easily carried 500lbs on my roof.

Don't make any quick turns with 500 lbs on the roof....someone might think you have firestones on it...:roll:

 

[BlueOvalProud]

Be VERY careful loading gear up there. The plastic OEM racks can't handle the stress and torque. When strapping down your gear, use some sort of strap, ratchet or otherwise that hooks on to the RAIL, not the cross bar. The cross bar can be adjusted forwards and backwards to "snug up" to your luggage, but that's it. Mine failed, snapped in two. Luckily I was going slow at the time and managed to pull off. Do yourself a favor; spray the rails and adjusters of the crossmembers with some WD-40 or similar so you will have an easier time adjusting!

 

[zhanx]

I carried a full size dana 44 axle up there with a packed cargo carrier and a 33" spare tire, 60" hi-jack. All on the cross bars... was i happy about it. no. but i drove a 1000 miles with it. With a lift its so much fun cornering on the highway becareful.

 

[Willard]

i've had 6 girls on top of mine. yea the roof collapsed, but it popped right out when they got off. i wouldn't drive like that tho.....