IZwack
Moderator Emeritus
- Joined
- February 5, 2003
- Messages
- 21,532
- Reaction score
- 50
- City, State
- Germantown, MD
- Year, Model & Trim Level
- 1998 Ford Explorer
Here are some pix/renderings of my roof rack and how it came about:
My friend, who used to work at a local bowling alley which was right beside a HomeDepot, found one of those Home Depot cart used to haul around long pipes/lumber around. The cart was already in the dumpster because it was too rusty (i guess). I don't have a real-world picture so here's a computer rendering of what it looks like:
The part that I used on the roof rack have been colored red and green. The rest of the cart was thrown away (the white part: the base and the wheels).
The following rendering illustrates where the green and red pipes are used:
The blue parts form the inside platform of the rack. They are 1"x1" square tubing and 1/4" square rod (a local metal surplus store sold them for dirt cheap... rusty though so some cleaning required). The yellow metal parts are flat stock metal (2-3" wide and 1/8" thick) to support the green pipes toward the center. The pink circle roughly estimates where my spare wheel/tire is placed. The green pipes will have open ends, you should cut them off if you don't need them and then weld a metal plug (and grind down) or you can go to your local hardware store and get some pipe end caps. My rack was welded together using an el-cheapo arc welder.
The idea for the interface/strut to the bolt the roof rack to the (2nd gen) Explorer roof rail looks like this:
In the real world, it looks like this:
I machined mine out of 6061 alluminum and mine has that extra little thing on the side 'cauz I had planned on something more but ran out of time on the mill. But the idea is to make struts that will support the roof rack on the square 1"x1" tubing ("cross bar"). A "C" channel will also work for struts. "L" shaped angle-iron is welded on to the 1"x1" square cross bar. The welded angle-iron is then drilled and bolted to the strut . This strut is then boltd onto the little slidding aluminum pieces thats are already inside your roof rail. I used 4 struts total (2 per rail). Note that, at least on the 2nd gen Ex, the roof is curved so take this into consideration when you weld the angle iron onto the 1x1 cross bar or put this angle on top the "C" channel that you use.
The entire rack was painted with a black truck-bed "roll-on" paint found at most "auto" store (pepBoys, AutZone ...). I hold my spare tire/wheel down by using a ratchetting type strap and a bike lock so no1 will steal it. The rack is strong enough so to support me jumping on top of it (and I weigh almost 200 lbs). It has also supported me and 2 other friends sitting up there... so I'm guessing about 450-500 lbs
Here are some shots with the rack on my Ex:
Anyways, I know this writeup didn't really go into too much detail (I have to go ride my bike) but if you have any questions, please post them.
My friend, who used to work at a local bowling alley which was right beside a HomeDepot, found one of those Home Depot cart used to haul around long pipes/lumber around. The cart was already in the dumpster because it was too rusty (i guess). I don't have a real-world picture so here's a computer rendering of what it looks like:
The part that I used on the roof rack have been colored red and green. The rest of the cart was thrown away (the white part: the base and the wheels).
The following rendering illustrates where the green and red pipes are used:
The blue parts form the inside platform of the rack. They are 1"x1" square tubing and 1/4" square rod (a local metal surplus store sold them for dirt cheap... rusty though so some cleaning required). The yellow metal parts are flat stock metal (2-3" wide and 1/8" thick) to support the green pipes toward the center. The pink circle roughly estimates where my spare wheel/tire is placed. The green pipes will have open ends, you should cut them off if you don't need them and then weld a metal plug (and grind down) or you can go to your local hardware store and get some pipe end caps. My rack was welded together using an el-cheapo arc welder.
The idea for the interface/strut to the bolt the roof rack to the (2nd gen) Explorer roof rail looks like this:
In the real world, it looks like this:
I machined mine out of 6061 alluminum and mine has that extra little thing on the side 'cauz I had planned on something more but ran out of time on the mill. But the idea is to make struts that will support the roof rack on the square 1"x1" tubing ("cross bar"). A "C" channel will also work for struts. "L" shaped angle-iron is welded on to the 1"x1" square cross bar. The welded angle-iron is then drilled and bolted to the strut . This strut is then boltd onto the little slidding aluminum pieces thats are already inside your roof rail. I used 4 struts total (2 per rail). Note that, at least on the 2nd gen Ex, the roof is curved so take this into consideration when you weld the angle iron onto the 1x1 cross bar or put this angle on top the "C" channel that you use.
The entire rack was painted with a black truck-bed "roll-on" paint found at most "auto" store (pepBoys, AutZone ...). I hold my spare tire/wheel down by using a ratchetting type strap and a bike lock so no1 will steal it. The rack is strong enough so to support me jumping on top of it (and I weigh almost 200 lbs). It has also supported me and 2 other friends sitting up there... so I'm guessing about 450-500 lbs
Here are some shots with the rack on my Ex:
Anyways, I know this writeup didn't really go into too much detail (I have to go ride my bike) but if you have any questions, please post them.
DC alright ... "bottom" of Georgetown (that overhead bridge is the WhiteHurst FreeWay)... right by the Potomac River.
or when you find yourself in a GHETTTTTTO
it looks pretty good. Like others said, I would have not had the upper part angled, but you did a really nice job and it turned out great 
