articulate
Expedition Leader
I batted around the idea of selling my Jeep for about a year, but decided it’s been too good of a vehicle, loads of fun to drive, plus it’s paid off, and – well – Jeeps are really cool.
I’m keeping the Jeep. For kicks, I set out to find a way to mount the Eezi-Awn on it, and dove into the roof rack segment of the marketplace. I found 11 readily available, mass produced racks:
Naturally, I needed a durable rack that can handle the weight of a roof tent – not a small chore based on the way such racks must mount to a TJ body tub. But equally important I needed a rack that would not interfere with the snorkel. So the games began.
Based on these two criteria, the Kargo Master Congo Cage and the Olympic 4x4 Sports Rack came out on top as the ones that would work with the snorkel. The odd “hump” on the Congo Cage’s load bars gave me a little pause and concern for the mounting of the roof tent, and the Olympic rack was one perfect plane.
A couple of issues I addressed:
Here she is. Instead of black, I was talked into going with this new "green technology" color they call "Sierra Chrome." Fancy word for gray:
I’m keeping the Jeep. For kicks, I set out to find a way to mount the Eezi-Awn on it, and dove into the roof rack segment of the marketplace. I found 11 readily available, mass produced racks:
- Top Five
- Garvin Wilderness
- Olympic 4x4 Dave’s rack
- Olympic 4x4 Sports Rack
- Bestop Highrock 4x4 modular hinged rack
- Kargo Master Congo Cage
- Smittybilt Rockcrawler Off Road Rack
- Warrior Products Safari Rack
- Off Road Unlimited Defender Rack
- Off Road Unlimited Expedition Rack
- Rugged Ridge RRC Roof Rack (same as Smittybilt, or seemingly so)
Naturally, I needed a durable rack that can handle the weight of a roof tent – not a small chore based on the way such racks must mount to a TJ body tub. But equally important I needed a rack that would not interfere with the snorkel. So the games began.
Based on these two criteria, the Kargo Master Congo Cage and the Olympic 4x4 Sports Rack came out on top as the ones that would work with the snorkel. The odd “hump” on the Congo Cage’s load bars gave me a little pause and concern for the mounting of the roof tent, and the Olympic rack was one perfect plane.
A couple of issues I addressed:
- Drilled out the rack mounting holes in the rear of the Jeep to use larger bolts/nuts
- Olympic's lengthwise bars are not heavy gauge, so they flex under the weight of the tent and person; rigged a support at the roll cage
- For bike mounting with a Yakima SprocketRocket, I had to install Yak load bars. Simple with u-bolts.
Here she is. Instead of black, I was talked into going with this new "green technology" color they call "Sierra Chrome." Fancy word for gray:
