Homemade Roofracks.

[Rbertalotto]

I've built lots of roof racks with electrical conduit. I find brazing with a high strength brazing rod works better than trying to weld thin wall tubing. I've never had one fail yet.

 

[RenoRacing]

Well I got it finished up today! Came out pretty good. The conduit is a little tough to weld so some of them are a little ugly, but they'll hold. I was very aware of the danger in welding galvanized metal. So, I used a grinder to clean the conduit prior to welding it, and wore a nice 3M respirator anytime I was grinding or welding on it. Only weighs 34lbs and yet is strong enough that I was comfortable standing on top of it. Will more than do the job that I'm looking for it to do. Measures exactly 4'x6'x6 1/2" tall w/ flooring every 6". Has about 3/4" clearance underneath it. Opted to only use 4 of the gutter mounts that I have, and think it will be plenty strong enough(to distribute the load of the mounts, I welded angle iron to the mounts, then the angle to the tubing so it sort of "cradles" the tubing).

 

[ExpoMike]

Well done!

 

[mudbutt]

Well done!

^^^ What he said!!

 

[R_Lefebvre]

Beautiful workmanship on that rack. How did you do the bends? Just a shame about the galvanized tubing. I'm not a fan of using that stuff in a weldment at all.

 

[RenoRacing]

The bends were done with your typical conduit bender.
Today I finally got around to getting a full sized spare and built a mount for it to the roof rack. Stole the design of the Yakima spare tire mount. Cost about $20 to reproduce it and it works great! Hard to tell from my photos, but I too used a "J bolt" which is super convenient cause the nuts don't have to be removed all the way, just loosened, to remove the tire. Which will make it easy to throw in the back of the rig to save gas when I'm not planning on any trips. It's double "nutted" with a nylock nut to keep it on there, if it loosens eventually I bought a small hari/cotter pin that I can drill through the bolt and insert. It's definitely on there securely. Although I'm gonna run a small cable with lock through the wheel as a safety precaution and theft preventative.
Yakima one:

Mine:

 

[Every Miles A Memory]

Nice work on the spare tire mount! That thing looks very professional!

 

[bobDog]

I've built lots of roof racks with electrical conduit. I find brazing with a high strength brazing rod works better than trying to weld thin wall tubing. I've never had one fail yet.

A pal of mine owns 'Co-Motion Cycles' they build custom tandem bikes. He told me that a good braze joint is actually stronger then a weld. I totally plan to braze my next rack. I hadn't thought about conduit tho. Are you using 3/4 or 1" and is it thick wall? Looks like 3/4

 

[RenoRacing]

Correct, I went for 3/4" main frame, with 1/2" cross bars and supports. I went 3/4" rather than 1" so that tie down hooks, and bungee cord hooks will still fit over the tubing. And that they do, perfectly in fact. I also don't plan on hauling anything too heavy up there, so the 1" seemed like overkill. As it is, the rack supports me walking on it with no problem.
Just picked up a new Hi-Lift jack yesterday and all the hardware I'm going to need to mount it. I'll throw pictures up here when I get that on there.

Also picked up two of these at Summit when I was buying the jack. Got one looped through the spare, and will be using one on the hi-lift. They're great. I know they're not "theft-proof" but they'll keep the average joe from walking off with something! And I love that I don't have extra keys to worry about losing.

http://www.summitracing.com/parts/ONG-5061/

 

[R_Lefebvre]

A pal of mine owns 'Co-Motion Cycles' they build custom tandem bikes. He told me that a good braze joint is actually stronger then a weld. I totally plan to braze my next rack. I hadn't thought about conduit tho. Are you using 3/4 or 1" and is it thick wall? Looks like 3/4

There's a big "It depends" on that one. It depends on materials and workmanship, and then you need more contact area for the braze joint. It would be harder to make a simple T-joint with a braze and have it be strong.

If it was easy to make a strong braze joint, that's what everybody would be doing.

 

[Backwoods Rambler]

So you just thru bolted it to the roof?

In a nutshell, yes. But not before reinforcing the roof. Read more HERE

 

[desertrover]

This was my first welding project, just a simple roof basket. Stock is 16ga wall 1" square tube. This shot was taken in Twentynine Palms the day before xjmike's Thanksgiving DV trip, during which my mounts failed where they met the rack itself. The design lacked any shear bracing to deal with lateral forces, so a year of trails with a few gas cans, a tire, some pierced steel plate, and a Hi-Lift caused enough metal fatigue to rip holes out of the sidewall of the square stock. The permanent repair involved welding 1"x3"x0.125" coupons over the damaged areas, re-welding the mounts, and adding diagonal shear braces. Thanks again to everyone on the trip who helped me "rearrange" my gear!

 

[ExpoMike]

I was glad you were able to get some welding done with your portable unit and got some of the gear hauled by others. Sure was a fun trip!!!

 

[Box Rocket]

Not going on the roof but here's the rack I started today. Bit more to do but it might give a few ideas to others.

Box Rocket Tacoma Bed Rack

 

[R_Lefebvre]

Nice, I like it. Just using the angles makes it look good even though you're using box tube and miter joints instead of bends.