Roof racks that don't bend the gutter...

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Author Message   Andy Posted on Wednesday, May 01, 2002 - 12:29 pm:    I am looking for a roof rack to carry gear, kayaks, ect. my queston is for those who have used there disco's off road with a rack. I have a rack now and used it off road loaded with maybe 100 lbs. After I got home I noticed that my gutters on one side where bent, probably from the rack rocking side to side while off road. I want a rack, but don't want to damage anything else. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Thanks Andy 95 D1   Andy Posted on Wednesday, May 01, 2002 - 12:40 pm:    I need to add more ... Are disco gutters just weak? Am I not suppose to use them as a rack mount? If yes are all cage racks on discos just for show? Thanks Andy 95 d1   p m Posted on Wednesday, May 01, 2002 - 01:17 pm:    Andy, I have a BP half-rack with 3 mounts on each side, and used it on and off road with about 100lb of weight without any problems. peter   Wes Legaspi (Wes) Posted on Wednesday, May 01, 2002 - 01:33 pm:    Andy, what kind of roof rack do you have now? wes   Jarrod Posted on Wednesday, May 01, 2002 - 02:18 pm:    Good question - I have seen MANY Discos with bent rails from racks! Is this just what you should expect if you use the rack as it is intended to be used? I have an Adventure rack that should be here any day now and pretty much just assume that my gutters will get bent.   Dee Cantrell (Disco_Dad) Posted on Wednesday, May 01, 2002 - 02:28 pm:    The ARB Rack has a channel that distributes the load evenly across 4 mounting points. It is the beefiest commercial setup I have seen and used. To go one further for large loads get the Safety Devices, Camel Trophy Support Vehicle Rack. That setup is an internal roll cage that provides supports the rack through the roof and distributes the load down to the frame. Very costly but is the ultimate in Safety and protection..   Jarrod Posted on Wednesday, May 01, 2002 - 02:37 pm:    The Safety Devices would be a great idea, but I just don't think that I have reached that level of being a fanatic yet. Give it time though! ; ) The ARB approach sounds like a very good compromise on the issue. Might have to work on fabricating some osort of strip to put in the gutter to distribute the load.   Dee Cantrell (Disco_Dad) Posted on Wednesday, May 01, 2002 - 03:12 pm:    The ARB comes with the Strip, The way the perches are designed it sits in a chanel and the chanel lays in the gutter. Then the perch retainers clamp over the gutter protected by a fitted rubber gasket. Solid system for the money.   Jarrod Posted on Wednesday, May 01, 2002 - 03:26 pm:    I will have to see if I can find some pix of the ARB system. Since I already have ordered the adventure rack, maybe I can rig something up that is similar to ARB's system. Thanks for the info!   Andy Posted on Wednesday, May 01, 2002 - 03:48 pm:    That sounds good, the rubber strip I assume protects against rust? How does an adventure rack work? How does an adventure rack prevent rust? The rack I have is an old used conn-fer I bought from a friend for cheap, I didn't have the conn-fer feet, so I used three pair of yakima hi rise gutter towers and load bars. I thought this was okay as I hauled lots of lumber on it with a lot of weight. But those were all on road miles. After two months of having the rack on and using it unloaded off road, I spent the last two weekends in southern utah and Moab. I guess the stress of harder off roading was to much for the roof gutters as they are now bent on the drivers side. I am just wondering if this would happen to all roof racks. I would love the roll cage/roof rake set up, but my wife all ready hates the lift, arb, etc ... but a least if I did that she may not want to drive it all anymore... ;)   Brad Bradford (Brad) Posted on Wednesday, May 01, 2002 - 04:31 pm:    I have had at least 6 people standing on my Roof Rack and haven't had any bends in the gutter. Brad   Erik Olson (Jon) Posted on Wednesday, May 01, 2002 - 04:44 pm:    I suppose distributing the weight over a larger (e.g. 8 - 12") footing wouldn't help in preventing the bending? Andy, Just do what I did and buy your wife a Volvo V90 or other wagon - she'll appreciate it much more than the modified Discovery! Cheers, e   Jarrod Posted on Wednesday, May 01, 2002 - 05:09 pm:    Brad, OK, now your friends weren't "little people" like that guy from Fantasy Island were they?? ; ) SIX PEOPLE?! I was told that asking those gutters to support much more than 300 lbs was asking for trouble. What kind of rack and how is it attached? Jarrod   Andy Posted on Wednesday, May 01, 2002 - 05:17 pm:    Brad What kind of rack system? Erik Yakima bases are about 8" wide. I think if I did the volvo route that may work, but I think she really likes driving my disco because its modified and looks nothing like a soccer mom suv. She just doesn't want to admit that she likes it. Actually this summer I want to get a 70's to early 80's porsche 911, 912 to set up as a streetable scca solo 1 and 2 racer, so I need to make sure she wants to drive the disco so she'll leave my future porsche alone! lol   Rob Davison (Pokerob) Posted on Wednesday, May 01, 2002 - 05:49 pm:    i just got back from a 5000 mile trip with than 350 pounds on my adventure rack. dirt roads, highway, washboards, offroad.. it's all good. no bending. just sounds like bad luck. kind of like when someones tire snag's a rock and blows and 500 others survive. the guy who blew the tire is often left thinking, his tire must be shit. rd   Brian Posted on Wednesday, May 01, 2002 - 06:12 pm:    Where can one get an ARB roof rack for an affordable(cheapest) price. Brian   Jarrod Posted on Wednesday, May 01, 2002 - 06:33 pm:    Nice anaology Rob! Thanks for the input guys.   Andy Posted on Wednesday, May 01, 2002 - 07:00 pm:    Well bad luck I must agree with. But I think I did over side load my towers. The action of the truck rocking side to side off road with camping gear strapped to it must have been to much. I am ready to buy conn-fer feet, I just wonder if the Adventure/ARB design is the way to go instead of clamping to gutter without spreading the load. So in other words, should I buy an Adventure or ARB rack, or fabricate a clamp system like that for my conn-fer? Andy   Rich Lee Posted on Wednesday, May 01, 2002 - 09:44 pm:    Hey Andy, As I hear it, the early ARB racks are very similar to the Kaymar roof racks. If I had to buy a rack now, I would probably go with the Full-length Kaymar model with the mesh floor. It also has "footing strips" which lay in the raingutters and help distrubute the weigh of the feet ofer a much wider area. I have made a similar arrangement by bolting long sections of 1/2" x 1/2" steel "L-stock" to the 8 feet of my Garvin Wilderness rack. I don't own a Con-Ferr rack, but I used to carry a Thule box and Yakima Basketcase on the high-rise towers. This was NOT a solid setup for off-roading as the bolts that hold the high-rise towers together loosened with a few miles of off-roading, causing the rack to collapse onto my roof. Although it is not a level rack (I like to sleep on mine at times), the LR Adventure rack is probably the most solid and secure setup you can clamp to yoour raingutters. The Kaymar rack for Land Rovers is sold locally by John Clelland's Toyota supply place called Acme Outfitters, at www.acme-outfitters.com . The prices on the Kaymar racks from him are even less than the Garvin Wilderness Rack, but the shipping may be more as the rack is a 1-piece unit. The dimensions for the full-length model are about 84" long by 53" wide. Prices are $517 for the mesh floor and $472 for no floor (just add grass-carpet covered plywood). The $112 "clip-on ladder" is a nice touch, as you can hang it on the rack from either the back or side of the truck (don't need to close the back door). Check 'em out at: http://www.acme-outfitters.com/products/kaymar/roof_rack.html http://www.acme-outfitters.com/products/kaymar/roof_rack_pricing.html   Marc Posted on Thursday, May 02, 2002 - 11:18 am:    Brian, Check with Steve at torasport.com or [email protected] for pricing on the ARB - tell him you are from DiscoWeb.   cartner Posted on Thursday, May 02, 2002 - 11:26 am:    Does the genuine parts Expedition rack (from la ruta maya) have a tendency to bend rails?   Tom P. Posted on Thursday, May 02, 2002 - 01:24 pm:    > Does the genuine parts Expedition rack (from > la ruta maya) have a tendency to bend rails? No. They just break welds on the feet. Avoid this rack unless you're good with a welder and can beef up the feet. Tom P.   cartner Posted on Thursday, May 02, 2002 - 02:06 pm:    really? whats the best way to strengthen the welds?   Brad Bradford (Brad) Posted on Thursday, May 02, 2002 - 02:58 pm:    You can check out my rack in the Photo Gallery. The rack itself is very stout. And all of the people that were on it were over 130 lbs. If the weight limit is 300 lbs, i think I just must have been lucky.   jerry quintana colorado springs co Posted on Sunday, May 05, 2002 - 01:45 am:    i used to live in britan i seen a rack there for a discovery that attached to the body like the exterior cage on a defender does. it was designed to help in the event of a roleover from damaging hard to fix body parts and they do from what i seen support a very heavy load. they cost about the same as the racks you can buy here in the states and the company does ship to the states. they are also listed in land rover mag britans land rover magazine. im at work right now ill try to find the add tomarrow when i go home and ill post more info.   jerry quintana, co springs Posted on Sunday, May 05, 2002 - 01:07 pm:    the company web site is www.bettaweld.co.uk   kennith Posted on Tuesday, May 07, 2002 - 12:27 am:    Sir, I am now working on a design for a roof rack that should eliminate your problem completely. I have come to the conclusion that all racks compromise to an extent and I want for myself one that dosen't. One that is light, strong enough to hold way more than you will ever need to put over your roof, attractive, and durable. I will fill you in if you want. Any one else that is interested can e-mail me at [email protected] the site is under construction, so don't laugh when you see it.