AEV JK rack is up on Quadratec

[thetanningman]

I do all the time here in Oregon. My first JK I owned about 8 months and the panels were off whenever it was nice out, whole hardtop was never removed. My current JK which I have owned for a little over 3 years has only had the whole hard top off once for a total of about 3 months. During that 3 months about half of the time the softtop was on it. Lots of inclement weather here plus you need storage for a full top. Then you need someone around to help get the thing off or have a good hoist system. In under 2 minutes I can have both panels off and they fit nicely in the back behind my rear seat.

Do many people actually use the Freedom Panels?

 

[AFSOC]

Gulp...that's tough to love, even for those of us who are confirmed AEV fanboys

 

[gpwpat]

I was reading up on this rack on AEV forum. They stated you can remove the freedom pannels with it on. and one of the resons to keep it short is it keeps the front of the rack out of the wind and it keeps the noise and drag down. I was looking at this rack and a few others. I want to haul a canoe and other things if I run out of room or need a place for fire wood. Gobi being one of them. but my jeep gets driven daily and now I am waiting for a sound report form one of the first buyers. It would be cheaper to buy an aluminum ARB rack and fabricate my own bolt thru to rollbar mounting system though.

 

[Jorsn]

From the pics I have seen it looks like you have to unbolt and remove the rack to take the freedom panels off. Have you heard that the freedom panels are easily removeable with the new Front Runner rack?

If you go to Front Runners facebook page you can check out the new rack. It attaches to at A pillar so you can still access the freedom panels.

 

[Longtallsally]

$1k for that? Um, I'll spend another $500 and get a gobi or get a Yakima or the like for a good bit less. I really want to like ARV stuff, but when they charge Rover prices for their stuff, it turns me off.

 

[TexasTJ]

You guys saw that AEV dosen't make this rack right? Its licensed from another company. If you read the quadratec add it says so. It is also brought up on the Roof Rack thread over on there page and from the look off the footing in the pictures Im not so sure it dose tie into the sport cage.

Biggs

 

[GravelRoad]

$1k is only for the flat rack. It's another $300 for the side rails.

 

[voodoojk]

Per dave at AEV, this rack does indeed tie into the roll bar.

 

[TexasTJ]

Per dave at AEV, this rack does indeed tie into the roll bar.

Dave did say that about the rack that AEV was Designing. However AEV did not make this rack, it is made by Rhino Rack with the AEV textured black paint. Dave has yet to comment on if the Rhino Rack designed rack that they are selling will mount in to the Sport cage. I for one hope it dose tie into the cage. I love all AEV's equipment quality and so far on my 2012 Wrangler I have only used there aftermarket items. Until we get some inside shots of the mounts or AEV makes a comment on there board about it we just really don't know. I was only saying that in the Pictures that Quadratec has in the catalog it look to not tie in.

Nate

 

[thetanningman]

AEV Dave's post reads "We were on our way to making all of our own extrusions when we met up with the Rhinorack guys and discovered they already had what we had also come up with, hence the partnership to save tooling costs. The rack is different than anything they make in terms of size, hole location, coatings and mounting system, all of that is done here in the US by AEV for the requirements for the JK. The rack is as big as we could make it, while still allowing the freedom panels to be removed easily. The mounting system goes through to the roll-bar as most people have already seen on our prototypes."

 

[MattScott]

I am wondering why the AEV risers are so tall. Looking at the Overland JK, it most only be 1" or less from the hardtop. I'm guessing that is make so people can use the freedom top. Does anyone know what Overland JK used to mount the ARB rack? I thought it was stuff from AEV.

Pretty sure it's the same as we're using on the J8. They're aluminum mounts from that extend through the roof from the roll cage. They require drilling into the top.

 

[thetanningman]

Pretty sure it's the same as we're using on the J8. They're aluminum mounts from that extend through the roof from the roll cage. They require drilling into the top.

Post #25 in this link, http://forum.aev-conversions.com/showthread.php?t=3180&page=3 shows the mounts that I think were used on the Overland JK. Does it look like this on the inside MattScott?

 

[TexasTJ]

AEV Dave's post reads "We were on our way to making all of our own extrusions when we met up with the Rhinorack guys and discovered they already had what we had also come up with, hence the partnership to save tooling costs. The rack is different than anything they make in terms of size, hole location, coatings and mounting system, all of that is done here in the US by AEV for the requirements for the JK. The rack is as big as we could make it, while still allowing the freedom panels to be removed easily. The mounting system goes through to the roll-bar as most people have already seen on our prototypes."

There we go.

 

[mb2xs]

Just ordered mine from Quadratec today (base rack, no rails), apparently they were expecting them in stock yesterday but now expect them in stock and to ship out late next week. I'll be mounting my Camping Lab RTT up there and might have to add a fairing, we'll see how the wind noise is... I'll post picks when it arrives and post install for those interested.

 

[Beowulf]

Wow, the new Eezi-awn rack looks a lot like the AEV rack.