I am thinking hard about making a roof rack. A big one.

 

30" x 60"

 

Anyone done something similar to this?

 

I'm trying to decide what to use a slats. maybe wood?

 

I appreciate all ideas. Even the ones that say dont do it. I'll ignore those

Ok ignore me.

 

 

Why reinvent the wheel?

 

What are you planning to carry on the roof. there is a limitation as to how much you can put on the roof, and where you need to put the supports.

 

 

nipper

My brother in law and I made a small one for my hatch a long time ago, we mounted it using Yakima bars... It was used a lot, as a hatch doesnt have much room inside

 

-Jaren

Redneck roof rack:

Strap a pallet to the crossbars!

Seriously, though, I'd keep it as light weight as possible. Something like the old VW bug racks with the wood slats, would be killer. 1X3" teak or oak, wet sanded with teak oil...

I want something big enough to hold 2 28" tires. and i have all the stuff i need just laying around waiting to be used

my rescue wagon roof rack is that big, or bigger. Had my 2 SVX tires up there all the way from Chicago back home.

Its gonna be mounted on 4" Thule racks. anyone have a fairing sitting around they don't need?

I had a change of plans and now I'm going to build a roof mounted tent.

something along the lines of a frame made of small square tubing welded together with a decently strudy metal mesh floor would work... may be heavy though. Size it to be the size of the base of the tent size. You may need a place to lean a ladder up against the car.

I was going to use an old bed frame and beef it up.

I'm a wood guy and I like the wood rack idea. Teak is rather expensive but the price of Jatoba fluctuates a lot. $3.30bf to $5.50 range. A little heavy but way strong. Teak is like $18bf. Clean vg cedar w/o knots Kiln dried, oiled well will have the lightness and the strength, weather ability to do what you need, it will ring if its a good un-damaged piece. All my racks have been cedar but I just scored a 5/4 rippled stick of figured jatoba for my next rack. I broke my last rack, I used home despot green undried knotty cedar mounted to the factory rails. It broke when I loaded a carpet roll on the top, I let it land too hard. It split right on a knot. I should have known. Still using it with a replacement stick.

i hauled a sectional sofa on mine last night. the corner piece was half way out the tailgate too. sorry, no pics.

I am going to use a piece of painted plywood as a bottom with 4 supports equal lengths apart. The plywood will be attached to the metal somehow... then i'll figure out sides and a roof.

HAHA!!

 

it's been six months but i finally have a cargo rack!

its the same size as the roof of the car so i have plenty of room for stuff like 2 full size spare tires, high jack, cooler, lawn chair, BBQ, etc...

 

 

its almost finished. i ran out of paint and daylight

 

 

and for when i have more money:

 

i put 4 light tabs across the front :cool:

 

so when i install all of them, my car will have 12 headlights

 

wal mart has some decent ones for 22 buck for 2

Edited November 4, 200916 yr by Markus56

You can have a party on that thing!!!!

 

lol

 

 

I like it......lets see it installed...

I wanna see that thing mounted.

 

Remember center of gravity, the lower the better. You dont want it 6" off your roof sitting ontop of thule x-bars. Not only is it high and looks real goofy, but your gonna need a ladder to load & unload it.

Is that a Bed Frame? I spy bed frame ends. Dont worry I use bed frames for a lot of stuff. They are cheap if not free.

where would one get free bed frames like that.

I got a plan to fence more of my yard in for the dogs, and that would work real nice attached to posts along the yard perimeter

 

Looks like you got a little of the shop pantied too...........

 

Jeff

all painted up!

 

 

and it is made out of a bunk bed frame that i got for free!

WIth that last pic I thought to myself, dang that looks familiar. Then as I read, a bunk bed frame! Ive got the exact bunkbed for the kids. And I am going to be taking out the lower bunk. Now I know what I can do with it. Thanks for the idea. Are you going to put any walls around it?

Mike

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i built my rack out of an old hospital bed frame... i can put my 29x8.8 super swampers up on it just had to do alittle welding and grinding but i put a few pictures up..... but it shouldnt be to hard to build one or you can get a yakima one....

finished!

 

looks good. Motivates me to hurry up and get mine built.

That looks pretty slick man! Plenty of room too. How did you end up mounting it to the roof??