Rack Fab in progress
Posted: Mon May 28, 2012 3:10 pm
I thought i would share the progress of the 10' aluminum roof rack that im working on.
Since i bought the H1, i always wanted a roof rack on it, it just adds to the rugged look of the truck, plus its a great place to mount all the fog lights ive been itching to add to the truck. I also wanted one that was removeable (i dont want to have it on all the time), and be lightweight (i wanted a fully aluminum rack)
There was always a catch on the hunt for a roof rack for the truck, either one showed up, smoking price, but too far to purchase. Or one was resonably close by, but was steel and not aluminum.
About 2 years ago i build a really fancy dock for my parents cottage to park some of the seadoos beside, i made it all from 2" aluminum tubing with tig welded triangulation reinforcement. Since then we have upgraded to a larger dock and the old dock was sitting around the yard colecting dust.
We did a bit of cleaning up this spring around the yard, and it finaly hit me, i could use some of the dock trusses to build my roof rack from. It would save me $1500+ in material, save me lots of time. And should fit the look im looking for.
So the fab and teardown began. <img src='http://www.canadianhummerclub.com/forum ... rgreen.gif' class='bbc_emoticon' alt=':mrgreen:' />
These are a few of the pieces that the dock was made from.
The tubing was relively thin gauge, trying to bend 2" thin wall tubing 1/8" or less is very hard even in a mandrel tubing bender (that i had built)
To fab the 90deg corner braces i had to get some 2" 3/16 wall tubing, the metal supplier only had some polished tubing in stock, but it worked fine for my application, i am planning to go with a semi gloss/matt powdercoat/paint on the entire rack.
I cut down the original couplers i had made, and machined them down so one half would fit into the new 90deg corners.
After a bit of measuring, triming, cutting.. the rack came to 120" long by approx 74" wide. Just about the perfect size to fit on the truck. I plan on making a stepup ladder for the back that matches the contour of the roof and truck profile. It will be attached to the rack and bumper using rubber isolators for vibration and frame flex.
I ran out of room on the shop floor, so out to the lawn it whent for "Stratigic" test fitting <img src='http://www.canadianhummerclub.com/forum ... rgreen.gif' class='bbc_emoticon' alt=':mrgreen:' />
Here it is on the truck, just pieced together. Length wize its perfect, width wize, it looks like it will over hang, but its actualy about 3" in on both sides of the gutters, i need enough overhang so i can attach the gutter mounts. Once those are installed it should fill in the void.
Right now im at a standstill. Im trying to hunt down some premade gutter mounts. I dont have much time to fab up my own set at the moment, plus the premade ones out there are more sleek looking.. I need 8 in total. <img src='http://www.canadianhummerclub.com/forum ... /blink.gif' class='bbc_emoticon' alt=':blink:' />
I found Thule has something that will probably work perfectly for my application.
http://www.thule.com/en-US/CA/Products/ ... -Foot-Pack
But at 200$ for a set of 4.. 400$ for 8.. Ouch. I found some used sets on the market right now, just trying to get my hands on them.
My plan is, once i put the cross bars in, ill just bolt the top of the thule bracket to the bottom of cross bars and ill be set.
Then... I can start fabbing up the 1-1/2"curved front light bar to mount my 6 ( or <img src='http://www.canadianhummerclub.com/forum ... >/cool.gif' class='bbc_emoticon' alt='8)' />, 7" 100w hid offroad lights <img src='http://www.canadianhummerclub.com/forum ... SMILEY.gif' class='bbc_emoticon' alt=':woot:' /> cant wait to try them all on at once.
So far thats where she stands.
In the next week. Ill start tig'in up the rack so its all once piece.
Since i bought the H1, i always wanted a roof rack on it, it just adds to the rugged look of the truck, plus its a great place to mount all the fog lights ive been itching to add to the truck. I also wanted one that was removeable (i dont want to have it on all the time), and be lightweight (i wanted a fully aluminum rack)
There was always a catch on the hunt for a roof rack for the truck, either one showed up, smoking price, but too far to purchase. Or one was resonably close by, but was steel and not aluminum.
About 2 years ago i build a really fancy dock for my parents cottage to park some of the seadoos beside, i made it all from 2" aluminum tubing with tig welded triangulation reinforcement. Since then we have upgraded to a larger dock and the old dock was sitting around the yard colecting dust.
We did a bit of cleaning up this spring around the yard, and it finaly hit me, i could use some of the dock trusses to build my roof rack from. It would save me $1500+ in material, save me lots of time. And should fit the look im looking for.
So the fab and teardown began. <img src='http://www.canadianhummerclub.com/forum ... rgreen.gif' class='bbc_emoticon' alt=':mrgreen:' />
These are a few of the pieces that the dock was made from.
The tubing was relively thin gauge, trying to bend 2" thin wall tubing 1/8" or less is very hard even in a mandrel tubing bender (that i had built)
To fab the 90deg corner braces i had to get some 2" 3/16 wall tubing, the metal supplier only had some polished tubing in stock, but it worked fine for my application, i am planning to go with a semi gloss/matt powdercoat/paint on the entire rack.
I cut down the original couplers i had made, and machined them down so one half would fit into the new 90deg corners.
After a bit of measuring, triming, cutting.. the rack came to 120" long by approx 74" wide. Just about the perfect size to fit on the truck. I plan on making a stepup ladder for the back that matches the contour of the roof and truck profile. It will be attached to the rack and bumper using rubber isolators for vibration and frame flex.
I ran out of room on the shop floor, so out to the lawn it whent for "Stratigic" test fitting <img src='http://www.canadianhummerclub.com/forum ... rgreen.gif' class='bbc_emoticon' alt=':mrgreen:' />
Here it is on the truck, just pieced together. Length wize its perfect, width wize, it looks like it will over hang, but its actualy about 3" in on both sides of the gutters, i need enough overhang so i can attach the gutter mounts. Once those are installed it should fill in the void.
Right now im at a standstill. Im trying to hunt down some premade gutter mounts. I dont have much time to fab up my own set at the moment, plus the premade ones out there are more sleek looking.. I need 8 in total. <img src='http://www.canadianhummerclub.com/forum ... /blink.gif' class='bbc_emoticon' alt=':blink:' />
I found Thule has something that will probably work perfectly for my application.
http://www.thule.com/en-US/CA/Products/ ... -Foot-Pack
But at 200$ for a set of 4.. 400$ for 8.. Ouch. I found some used sets on the market right now, just trying to get my hands on them.
My plan is, once i put the cross bars in, ill just bolt the top of the thule bracket to the bottom of cross bars and ill be set.
Then... I can start fabbing up the 1-1/2"curved front light bar to mount my 6 ( or <img src='http://www.canadianhummerclub.com/forum ... >/cool.gif' class='bbc_emoticon' alt='8)' />, 7" 100w hid offroad lights <img src='http://www.canadianhummerclub.com/forum ... SMILEY.gif' class='bbc_emoticon' alt=':woot:' /> cant wait to try them all on at once.
So far thats where she stands.
In the next week. Ill start tig'in up the rack so its all once piece.
