I like most people that build their own roof racks looked at some of the racks on the market, seeing what they cost decided to make my own.
first off my metal working skills suck so welding anything up was out of the question. I used mostly hand tools and all materals where purchased at local hardware stores and metal shops. For the railing I used 3/4" precoated aluminum tubing that is part of a deck hand railing system (ballisters). I'll get back to the railing later.
My idea would have been dead in the water if i could not find a way to attach everything together so i designed a jig to make up some brackets.
Here i used 1/8"x2" aluminum flat stock. It took a couple of tries to get the lenght right but after that it went pretty fast
To mount the brackets to the roof track I made roof mounts that where made with 12ga x 2" steel flat stock that i bent in vise with hammer and cut 1" barrels and used 3/4" angle iron that where cut 1' wide and used 1/4"x2" steel flat bar cut the width of the roof track drilled and tapped to mount the brackets to the roof.
This is how the assembly came out, the brackets where sent out for powder coat.
To the railings.
Theres alittle story how i came up with the idea to use the ballisters but I wont bore you with that one. To make the railings I first had to evenly space all my bracket assemblies to the roof track about 18" or so, then measure center to center of the brackets this gave me the length the tubes would be cut. to assemble the railings I used 5/8" dom tubing cut the over all length of the rack which fit perfactly inside the aluminum tubing. Slidding the aluminum tubeing onto the inner tube to the center of the bracket then butting the next tube up then clamping down the brackets I Used the old school sand in tube mythod and a harber freight tubing bender to make 8-90 degree corner pieces.
I liked how the gobi rack looked so i made a jig out of some plywood and boards i had laying around. Laying out the actual width of the rack using a weight i got from work I bent 2 of the corner pieces for the bump up.
Useing the same assemble mythod as the side railing i made the front and back railings slidding onto the side inner tubing as one piece and clamped them down. The inner tubing was cut as close as possible to the corners. There was no inner tubing in the corners the railing section was finished
For the floor i used 9ga. 3/4" expanded metal cut to the inside of the railing and 1/4"x 2" steel flat bar as cross rails cut to width of the rack to attach to bracket to bracket. The mess was welded to the 2" cross rails I primed and painted with rustolium bedliner.
To put everything together first the floor section is layed on top of the roof mounts and the railing is placed on top of the floor and everything is bolted down, i used stainless steel bolts and nuts through out. the wind deflector was made with 16ga steel flat stock and the light bar from 3/4' aluminum angle
Thoughts about the build.
All along the build i was thinking about weight, the rack maybe weighs 70lbs. I was very surprised how well the aluminum brackets clamped down, they actually deformed the spacer tubing on the jig which made the even tighter on the finshed rack. I did put small bolts on the ends of the side rail tubing for security reasons ,i did not want anything to slid apart which they could not anyway. The floor i minimized cross rails to save weight.The floor is very strong as is for its intended purpose mainly light campimg equipment maybe 200lbs max. The rack came out better than i could have ever expected. I have had the rack on the truck for almost 2 yrs without issues. The most weight i have hed on it was 3 of my xd wheels and 33" toyos im guesing 100lbs ea. The rack cost me $300 give or take and was spread out over a few months.
I know this build was alittle unconventional some will like it some will not, but it works for me. It most likely was the only way for me to have the style of rack i liked and it was a
lot of fun to build.
I hoped you enjoyed the build!
first off my metal working skills suck so welding anything up was out of the question. I used mostly hand tools and all materals where purchased at local hardware stores and metal shops. For the railing I used 3/4" precoated aluminum tubing that is part of a deck hand railing system (ballisters). I'll get back to the railing later.
My idea would have been dead in the water if i could not find a way to attach everything together so i designed a jig to make up some brackets.

Here i used 1/8"x2" aluminum flat stock. It took a couple of tries to get the lenght right but after that it went pretty fast



To mount the brackets to the roof track I made roof mounts that where made with 12ga x 2" steel flat stock that i bent in vise with hammer and cut 1" barrels and used 3/4" angle iron that where cut 1' wide and used 1/4"x2" steel flat bar cut the width of the roof track drilled and tapped to mount the brackets to the roof.

This is how the assembly came out, the brackets where sent out for powder coat.
To the railings.
Theres alittle story how i came up with the idea to use the ballisters but I wont bore you with that one. To make the railings I first had to evenly space all my bracket assemblies to the roof track about 18" or so, then measure center to center of the brackets this gave me the length the tubes would be cut. to assemble the railings I used 5/8" dom tubing cut the over all length of the rack which fit perfactly inside the aluminum tubing. Slidding the aluminum tubeing onto the inner tube to the center of the bracket then butting the next tube up then clamping down the brackets I Used the old school sand in tube mythod and a harber freight tubing bender to make 8-90 degree corner pieces.

I liked how the gobi rack looked so i made a jig out of some plywood and boards i had laying around. Laying out the actual width of the rack using a weight i got from work I bent 2 of the corner pieces for the bump up.

Useing the same assemble mythod as the side railing i made the front and back railings slidding onto the side inner tubing as one piece and clamped them down. The inner tubing was cut as close as possible to the corners. There was no inner tubing in the corners the railing section was finished
For the floor i used 9ga. 3/4" expanded metal cut to the inside of the railing and 1/4"x 2" steel flat bar as cross rails cut to width of the rack to attach to bracket to bracket. The mess was welded to the 2" cross rails I primed and painted with rustolium bedliner.
To put everything together first the floor section is layed on top of the roof mounts and the railing is placed on top of the floor and everything is bolted down, i used stainless steel bolts and nuts through out. the wind deflector was made with 16ga steel flat stock and the light bar from 3/4' aluminum angle
Thoughts about the build.
All along the build i was thinking about weight, the rack maybe weighs 70lbs. I was very surprised how well the aluminum brackets clamped down, they actually deformed the spacer tubing on the jig which made the even tighter on the finshed rack. I did put small bolts on the ends of the side rail tubing for security reasons ,i did not want anything to slid apart which they could not anyway. The floor i minimized cross rails to save weight.The floor is very strong as is for its intended purpose mainly light campimg equipment maybe 200lbs max. The rack came out better than i could have ever expected. I have had the rack on the truck for almost 2 yrs without issues. The most weight i have hed on it was 3 of my xd wheels and 33" toyos im guesing 100lbs ea. The rack cost me $300 give or take and was spread out over a few months.
I know this build was alittle unconventional some will like it some will not, but it works for me. It most likely was the only way for me to have the style of rack i liked and it was a
lot of fun to build.
I hoped you enjoyed the build!





