Seeking Recommendations on Roof Rack Brands

[Zaphod]

I have a 2000 Isuzu Trooper that I would eventually like to mount a roof rack on. The intention of the rack would be to carry Pelican-type cases, soft luggage, etc. I would also be mounting my driving lights on it, my jack, and an axe and shovel. I will NOT be carrying heavy items such as a spare tire, gas cans, etc., both because the CG of the Trooper is high as it is and because I am not strong enough to lift that sort of weight onto the roof.

As you may know, after-market support for the Trooper is not the best. For reasons that confound me, Isuzu seems to have shipped most of these without roof-rack rails despite having six bolting points built into the roof. Go figure.

Anyway, Surco makes a mount for the Trooper, and both Thule and Yakima offer towers that seem to fit, although not as securely as the Surco.

What are your opinions of Surco, and if not the best, what brands would you recommend?

I'm assuming that even if I am convinced to go with, say, an ARB rack, that I can install the Surco mounts, add the crossbars, and then drop the ARB on top. Am I wrong?

Thanks!

 

[Crikeymike]

You might as well keep the rack system light if you're only going to put light stuff up there. I knew a guy that had a Surco, and it seemed ok. I think that would probably suit your needs. My only complaint about his Surco was that the mounts put the cage pretty far up off the roof, so it looked a little doofy.

Yakima/Thule would be fine, then either a roof box or some kind of basket on top, but not easy to mount some lights onto. Those Packasport roof boxes look really nice.

The ARB rack isn't recommended because the roof couldn't safely support the weight of the rack up there and the gutters started to fail in testing. Needless to say, you wouldn't want to put too much weight on that roof.

 

[Zaphod]

The ARB rack isn't recommended because the roof couldn't safely support the weight of the rack up there and the gutters started to fail in testing. Needless to say, you wouldn't want to put too much weight on that roof.

What testing was that? :Wow1:

FWIW, here's a Surco on a truck like mine:

 

[ExploringNH]

The Surco is lightweight and looks great. I used custom mounts on mine to get it to sit lower.

The rack is a bit flimsy out of the box, and after 2 years of use, all of the joints on mine are loose. Its assembled with rivets and they have all loosened up after a lot of vibrating around. The screws that it ships with have also been replaced with larger, self tapping screws. The factory ones all worked themselves out, one at a time. One day I might get around to drilling out all the rivets and putting in stronger screws.

An addition of a sturdy floor kit that covers the entire base of the rack is also something that I would like to have. You cant really put things in the rack with the two floor strips that it ships with. I would imagine that a sturdier floor, either home made or the floor kit thing, would sturdy the whole assembly up quite a bit.

With all that said, I would buy it again, but I would add a floor at the start and I would use larger screws from the start.

 

[Crikeymike]

What testing was that? :Wow1:

FWIW, here's a Surco on a truck like mine:

Real world testing. One was mounted to a vehicle and hardly used and the gutters started to fail. The trooper gutters just weren't made strong enough for that style of mount.

 

[Zaphod]

Real world testing. One was mounted to a vehicle and hardly used and the gutters started to fail. The trooper gutters just weren't made strong enough for that style of mount.

Wow. That's good to know. Thanks. :Wow1:

Well, it looks like Surco will be the way to go, then. One thing I'm looking at is using a slightly smaller version. The website selection tool comes up with the mounts and 53" crossbars supporting a 50" x 60" basket. I'd rather have the 48" crossbars and a 45" x 60" basket. Anyone know of any reasons why I SHOULDN'T do that? If I measured correctly, the gutters are 45 inches apart.

It's interesting about the hardware coming loose. Not the first time I've heard that. I suspect I'd be using better bolts/screws and some Lock-Tite to put the thing together to avoid that problem. I would definitely be getting the floor kit, which I don't think existed back in 2003 when I first got the rig. In the photo above, the owner went out and bought some extra tubing to reinforce the floor of the basket.

 

[Crikeymike]

It's possible that their application section doesn't show every possible combination you could use. I think a longer rack would probably be ok. Maybe they're concerned about a customer putting too much weight on one end or the other and it putting too much stress on the mounts. You might want to give them a call.