2013 Toyota 4Runner, Equipt Edition Build

[CuStOm]

Hi Paul,

Im interested in purchasing one of your K9 Racks for my 2015 4Runner trail. You mention in your post you elected to go with the 60mm legs but that 40 mm legs are available. I'm not going to get the table and I am interested in mounting the rack as close to the roof as possible. However I don't see the 40mm legs advertised on your site.

How would I source those?

I exchanged emails with Paul about this. Just phone your order in and he can take care of you. Just know that you need to remove the shark fin antenna on the back that is for the satellite radio. It will not affect your GPS navigation if you have it. The antenna for that is under the clock on the dash.

 

[Honu]

cool to hear as I could not find that out

I exchanged emails with Paul about this. Just phone your order in and he can take care of you. Just know that you need to remove the shark fin antenna on the back that is for the satellite radio. It will not affect your GPS navigation if you have it. The antenna for that is under the clock on the dash.

 

[Honu]

how has this held up ?
I would want the longer rack for sure
with a new 2015 TE 4runner looking at this for my rack

Eezi-Awn K9 Roof Rack System

Eezi-Awn is one of the brands that I import from South Africa. Last fall, Eezi-Awn officially launched their own line of roof rack systems in the US market. We are very excited about this system for several reasons. It's a very light weight, very strong, low profile, fully welded,utility based expedition grade platform. But most of all is the versatility of its mounting system. Between the several leg and feet heights, and the gutterless rail system available, you can virtually create a rack for any vehicle out there. Eezi-Awn has a list of standard applications, but there is also a section on our site for creating your own rack system. The 4Runner is not a model available in South Africa, so it was up to me to create my own application. Here is what I came up with.

The OEM roof rack on the 4Runner is sufficient for a couple bikes, or kayaks or perhaps a couple duffle bags. Not bad, but not up to what I envision the vehicle doing. My goal is to be able to load a roof top tent on there, add an awning, and have a bit of space left over for miscellaneous gear like fire wood or a storage case or two. I took a little unorthodox approach to the rack mounting system, partly to see what was possible and partly because I wasn't that jazzed about drilling holes in a truck with a little over a thousand miles on it. I wanted to see if I could install a full length rack utilizing only the factory mounting points.

Removing the OEM Rack

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There are four locations on the roof that the OEM rack is attached. Each location has two 8mm bolts holding the OEM rack in place. There are locations on each side of the vehicle roof close to the rear hatch and another pair just behind the sunroof in the pinch line connecting the roof to the side of the vehicle. A Torx bit and about 10 minutes is all it took to remove the existing rack. If any of you SR5 or Limited owners are interested in a black OEM rack, let me know. The rack was very light weight and I could remove it myself. This left me with 4 mounting points per side of the truck in a straight line. As I mentioned, there is a pinch line of the roof of the 4Runner that runs from the rear hatch to the windshield on both sides of the roof. They are straight and about an inch wide, with a black plastic insert covering up everything but under where the OEM rack mounts.

Installing the K9 Rail

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Eezi-Awn has developed a gutterless mounting systems that allows you to mount an aluminum extruded rail along a roof line and add feet and a platform to it. It is about an inch tall and an inch wide, and has a centering indent in the extrusion to assist in centering your holes for drilling. It can be mounted to existing locations like the 4Runner offers, or you can create your own for examples like pickup canopies or JK roofs. The 1" width is just right for my application, covering the entire width of the pinch line. I used a 1950mm long rail, which is about 77". It runs from the back edge of the roof up to about 3/4s of the way forward along the side of the sun roof. Almost 18" past the forward mounting holes that Toyota so kindly left me. I drilled four 8mm holes in the rail to match the OEM thread, added spacers under the rail at the thread locations to level out the rail with the roofline, and mounted the rail to the roof on both sides. I added a little clear silicone at the thread locations and the thin gap between the rail and the open section of trim where the OEM rack had been. That is just in case water wanted to find its way in there. Now, if it does, it will find its way out the back of the trim and not into my truck. The rail sits very low in profile on the roof. You could remove the platform and feet, and leave the rail up there and few would notice it there at all. With both rails now in place, it was time for feet.

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Installing the K9 Feet

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There are several heights of feet available for the K9 system. There is a 40mm foot designed for a very flat, very low profile application. This is what is used on the LR4. And there is a 60mm foot that is the workhorse of the line. The majority of the applications use this foot. And there is an 85mm foot that is used on unique applications such as the FJ Cruiser where the back profile is dramatically lower than the center or front. Another concept to consider is utilizing the bottom side of the roof rack for storage, lighting, etc. I am interested in the future use of an Eezi-Awn K9 table being mounted bottom side, so I chose to go with the 60mm foot. Each foot is designed with both vertical and tilt adjustment integrated into them. This helps with fitment on roofs with a little arc in them from front to back, as most do. There is typically a slight crown in most roofs. The base of the foot is designed to slide into the rail and tighten into position with two stainless button head cap screws. Spacers are provided to avoid over tightening. You can mount the feet any where along the length of the rail, and align the feet to mate to the platform at your preferred front to back locations.

So here is where things get a little unorthodox on this particular application. As I mentioned, I wanted a full length rack but didn't want to drill the roof. The mounting locations for the rail set up much nicer for, say, a 3/4 length rack somewhere in the 60-64" length. A 1600mm length is what we would traditionally use here. My rack is 87" long, and will extend roughly a foot and a half ahead of my forward rail mounting locations. How to make this work? Here is my logic, and time will tell if it is flawed or not. I am treating the rack as a complete system working together as a whole. By installing extra feet along each side of the platform I am increasing not only the dispersal of weight applied to the rack over more locations, but I am also increasing the stability of the connection of the platform to the rail and roof. A typical rack system has six legs, three per side in a rack of this length. If I were to use only six legs, that would put one leg well out in front or the forward roof mounting point and only two feet per side to counter balance the load and hold the front down. That didn't seem sufficient. The K9 platforms have 5 cross braces on the 2.2M length. By increasing the feet from 3 to 5 per side, I now have 4 feet within the rail set mounting points. 80% of the feet per side are either between the rail mounting points or within an inch of them. There is one foot forward on this system, mounted to the rail that is resting in the pinch line. It is secure to both the rail and to the platform, but is only managing managing vertical weight dispersal. I am confident this application will work. The significant majority of the load on the roof will be in the rear 80% of the rack, with occasional forward use. The platform is more than ridged enough to handle the task. An experiment of sorts, I guess. So we shall see. 10 feet on a rack is a bit more money. A couple hundred bucks more. But I would say it is worth it if I don't have to drill holes in my roof to get a full length rack.

Attaching the Platform

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The final part of the installation is attaching the platform to the feet and rail. Eezi-Awn offers their platforms in two widths, 1250mm and 1400mm. That is roughly 50" and 55". The 1250mm width is perfect for the midsize vehicle, namely the smaller SUVs and pickups. The 1400mm width is just right for the larger SUVs like the Toyota Land Cruiser line, Land Rover, and JK. There are several lengths available, and more adding with each container. We offer 1.4M, 1.6M, 2.0M and 2.2M lengths. Ours on the 4Runner is a 1250mm by 2.2M platform, measuring 50" wide and 87" long. It is wide enough to manage a RTT, and lines up with the profile of the vehicle. Attachment is pretty straight forward. There are two 8mm bolts per foot, and the match to the slotted cross braces on the bottom of the platform. I have found the easiest way to attach a platform is to set it up on the feet, insert the bolts in the slots on the platform bottom, align the bolts with the feet holes and secure with the appropriate washers and nuts. A little adjustment for centering laterally and front to back and then tighten into place. We double checked all hardware for good measure and we were done.

There is a wind deflector that comes with the K9 Roof Rack System. It is a strip of metal bent length wise with two 45 degree angles. It mounts under the front edge of the rack, traditionally facing towards the back of rack. Its job is not to deflect oncoming wind up and over the roof rack like a fairing would, but to create a disruption in the wind traveling under the rack to reduce wind noise. I chose to turn the deflector around and mount it as far forward as possible to direct wind up and over the roof line. Another experiment, and it seems to work just fine.

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Rack Options

Our choice for the 4Runner was a little out of the box. The K9 system is designed to allow its user to create whatever configuration is necessary. Roof top tents, to securing a ladder. Whatever it may be, it can do. It has a forward to back slot system that holds 8mm bolts in the center slats, and 6mm bolts in the edges. That allows for hard mounting equipment or the use of tie down rings as mounting points without having to drill your rack to secure things. And it allows for the addition of accessories. Eezi-Awn has developed a roof rack adapter for the side of the rack to securely attach an awning or other accessories. They have a dual can holder available later this spring, and will be launching more accessories over the next year or so. Or you can create your own. That is the goal. Versatility. We will be showing you just how versatile this rack is very soon. I like how it turned out. Very low profile, and only adding about 50 lbs to the truck. I have no doubt we will be adding to it soon.

If you want to learn more about the Eezi-Awn K9 Roof Rack Systems, you can see them here.

http://www.equipt1.com/companies/K9...-awn-k9/1075369-eezi-awn-k9-roof-rack-systems

Cheers,

 

[coulter6]

Composite Drawer System

I am really happy with how the build went together. I owe Mario many, many thanks for his expertise and long hours. This was the proto-type for a system that both AT Overland and Equipt will be offering sometime soon.

Cheers,

Are you offering the drawer system yet?

 

[carbon60]

Are you offering the drawer system yet?

+1

 

[ohanacrusader]

Any issues with the spidetrax wheel spacers?

 

[marshal]

Any issues with the spidetrax wheel spacers?

Why would there be?

 

[Dalko43]

Why would there be?

Has the OP been busy as of late? A few people have been asking questions about his build, but he hasn't responded in some time.

 

[Krytos]

2 Meter Install

I installed the 2 Meter HAM radio equipment the other day. I chose this unit as a compact, cost effective solution that would mount discretely in the center console. I've owned Icom before, so there is very little learning curve on it as well. The radio model is a IC-2300H, and will do exactly what I need. Here is a couple photos of it installed in the console. Notice the groove that Toyota put in the front of the center console for cable recess for the mic line. It's as if they knew my plan.

Have you had any issues with heat dissipation in the center console? 65Watts seems like it would heat things up pretty quickly.

Thanks.

 

[just eric]

Bump - Anyone know if Paul is stateside?

 

[Equipt]

Hey Guys,

Yep, I am stateside. Geez, I feel bad for not keeping on top of the thread like I should. I have a bunch of stuff to share as well. Just running ragged on the business side of things. We opened our shop in SLC in March and it has been non-stop since then. Sorry for not answering questions. Let's see what I can tell you.

Ryan, I would stick with 6 unless you feel a need for more. We added legs to the gutter mount systems to add structural integrity, and I use 10 on the 4Runner because of the cantilever thing we are doing there. So we decided to make it even across the board with a foot or leg at every cross brace, for strength and better distribution. But 6 is fine. If you think more is better and you need them, yes they are compatible.

The 2.2M rack has worked flawlessly. 2-1/2 years and 70K miles fully kitted and run on one heck of a lot of dirt. No rattles, no cantilever issues, no wear marks. It has performed incredibly well under extreme pressure.

I don't run skid plates. Sorry. Never really felt they were necessary. Didn't run them on the 100 either. I agree with Ace, the aluminum stuff is sticky most of the time.

The 2 meter has displayed any heat issues in the console. I think that has worked out to be a great place for the radio.

40mm feet are definitely an option, but not with the shark fin. Won't work with it there. When I had the rack on the truck with the shark fin antenna still attached there, I didn't have any issues with reception of XM at all. I have only heard of one exception to this. I moved the antenna to the hood and used an XM magnetic mount. Does great!

If I missed anyone, please let me know. If you need me, call or write through the contact page on our site. I will be adding more to the thread as soon as my feet hit the ground.

Thanks for your patience.

 

[Equipt]

Oh, also, the Spidertrax spacers have done great!

When ordering the 5th Gen 4Runner rack, specify the shorter 40mm legs and we will send those instead. Same pricing.

Thanks

 

[Yuman Desert Rat]

Thanks, Paul. No worries. I completely understand.

 

[hedmisten]

Hoping when we trade the wife's 2014 highlander in, we will pick up a 5th Gen and build it like this.

 

[JPontheMountain]

Hey Paul,

This is JP. Spoke with you this morning on the phone about the Eezi-Awn Jazz RTT. Really enjoying the build you have here! Can't wait to meet you in person. Thanks for the advice!