roof top tent on a soft top

[Lucky j]

Well, Here is some food for thought.

Mounting a rack to the rear bumper is in deed a good base point. Like a foundation on a house. But to reach de top of the jeep, the vertical bars need to be very long. Witch create a lot of leverage ending up with a lot of movement when you reach the top of the rack. Those tube need to be extremely heavy in order not to have any movement, specialy on wash board dirt road.

Other point is the fact that there is some movement between the frame and the body of a wrangler in twist situation. If you stay on the black top, no problems. But is you travel trough ruff spot where you nee articulation, then the entire rack will twist.

But, is the entire weight of the rack is mounted just on a small surface of the quater panel of the body, you can in deed end up with warp metal.

The answer is somewhere between an exocage and a rack.

I have had an olympic rack on my wrangler since 1997. It was the only company at the time. I add to reinforced a couple of time since then. Thicker top bars, thicker side plate for the window hinges, weld repair the rear corner of the vertical tube. But I never had to rebuilt my quater panel. And it as carried kayaks and weight more that it was supposed to withstand.

I not talling you that they are the best rack out theire, they are really not.

But i just want you to realized that each rack as its good and bads, and that there is many goog ways to install a rack on a wrangler.

But with my own experience, I would never go for a rack that is mounted from the bumper. I have tried it in the past, and I would have to see it to beleived that they finaly made something good out of it.

My 2 cents in 13 year with a top rack on my wrangler.

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[Ford Prefect]

Just had a thought for you...


I WOULD be ok with a Sheet Metal style rack IF You take something like a Poison Spyder Customs, or Gen-right style rear corner crusher. It is basically a 1/4 thick metal slab that wraps around the rear quarter pannel of the jeep.

If you mount into that you will not have to worry about the rack bending the body of the jeep, plus you have added some protection to your rig on top of that.

You know if you get the Gen-right with the added tub rail along the top of the fender I bet you could weld right into that and give you a really nice sturdy mount, and a pretty cool look too.

 

[Lucky j]

Well, a thing is sure. Reinforcement is always welcome when you want to make something realy sturdy. And one thing I don't know, is how the other brand attached to the body. I'know that warrior product stongly advise for the use of theire rear corner protectors.

In my case, Olympics used a 4" x 8 inch plate that would use 6 bolts and a back plate per side. And that as never moved. The problems I got were from the tube of the rack it self. Not the sheet metal.

As for the side mounted rear post, I don't have one of those type of rack, but I do not think that the side monted post would be a probleme. I think it sould even help protect the body work from dammage. If a tree or a branches as to get caught somewhere, It as many other place to do so on a wrangler, specialy with the soft top down. I wheel in the province of québec, and some of our trail are also realy thigh with trees, and I don't think that having the post to the rear or on the side would really make a difference.

 

[outinthewoods]

I mounted mine to the bumper because I the Expedition one bumper takes up the room the frame mount would have needed. (some times your modifications need modifications to fit with your other modifications)

yes the frame will twist, yes the bumper will twist (slightly different angle) yes the body will twist. A good rack will be designed with all the issues in mind:

Remember, when your pricing racks and you see a couple hundred bucks worth of metal and power-coating for a grand or more you may think I could make that for way less, you are paying for engineering not just the materials.


So that is a round a bout way of saying the Gobi materials and design seem well engineered to withstand and react well to what ever you throw at it.

It has never made contact with the hard or soft top, and the rattling on washtub roads is minimal.

 

[TJ Willy]

I also run the BajaRack on my JK. I got with Sergio and we worked on a different design for the front hoop and I am running the prototype now... it allows for a snorkel attachment. If you are interested in running a snorkel, you will want this new version.

Here are a few pics. None are really perfect for showing the hoop but you get the idea.

My only complaint was the rear stabilizing feet - the upper ones. They work fine for the most part but after enough miles in the desert on gravel and "other", the padding wore out and the feet began to rattle against the hard top no matter how tight I adjusted them.

Sergio is working on a new fix for that. I think I may try some of those rubber leveling feet. I believe I saw some at Lowes once.

John and Sergio are really top notch guys. And I am really glad to consider those guys new friends.

I think TNT would be another good choice using BajaRack's basket.

 

[ox4mag]

Just had a thought for you...


I WOULD be ok with a Sheet Metal style rack IF You take something like a Poison Spyder Customs, or Gen-right style rear corner crusher. It is basically a 1/4 thick metal slab that wraps around the rear quarter pannel of the jeep.

If you mount into that you will not have to worry about the rack bending the body of the jeep, plus you have added some protection to your rig on top of that.

You know if you get the Gen-right with the added tub rail along the top of the fender I bet you could weld right into that and give you a really nice sturdy mount, and a pretty cool look too.

Good point and when I had my RTT mounted on my Garvin rack, I also used Rokmen corner guards to add even more strength to the sheet metal and this is something I would definitely recommend if you're using a rack that has a mounting point on the sheet metal. The added benefit of strengthening the mounting points is always a good idea.

On a separate note, the BajaRack photos and other photos look great! Please keep us posted.