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Lots of opinions on racks. Just offer up my experience. I had both, the Front Runner Slimline II on my Defender 90 along with the factory Expedition Rack. Both have their issues and strong points. So it came down to how obsessed I wanted to appear, the raving lunatic with two racks or the calm dude who made a decisive decision on which one. I ended up shedding the Front Runner, a bit noisier. You could in theory mount more doo dads on it. Most of which have limited to virtually no actual usefulness. I really only really mount my RTT and if needed a gas can and some spare water. I also have a Pelican I mount up there when needed. The other thing I do is mount a platform on the rack for a better view for photography and checking out distant vistas, obscured when close to the road. I also found if you get too much stuff up there, your handling feels like heavy swells in a force 5 gale. Should you want to mount a bunch up there go with the Front Runner, I would recommend Styrofoam replicas of most items as to not affect body roll, until you actually go out in the field. There is no heavy hitting deciding point on the two, kind of why it took me a year to decide to shed one. One small item, the factory rack comes off and on a whole lot quicker with less fiddling to get it positioned and square in reference to the car.
I have the OEM rack and would like to use it for photography as well. What type of platform are you using to manage and distribute the weight properly? Would like to learn about your solution and installation process. Thanks in advance.
I have a whole lot of spare hardwood plywood left over from shipping one of the planes back from India. It is the metric equivalent of about ½". I cut it to be even with the size of the crossbars. You need to get it pretty close to exact, since the rack tapers fore to aft. I scribed the front edge after I had the kind of keystone shape established. Sanded the edges and put a very minor round on the edges with a router. Sanded and primed with a waterproof primer, couple of coats. Sand, then top coat, sand, top coat, about 4 coats. The metal edges are for tile, finishes edges, rather inexpensive, comes in several colors. This was attached with epoxy. The ladder attachment is a trapezoid made from Starboard® and some Front Runner Telescoping Ladder mounts, kind of metal 'U's. Ended up a trapezoid due to spacing on the crossbars and the ladder width. It is attached with some T bolts from Amazon and M-8 Stainless Rings. Four at the corners, two on either side where the ladder goes. The stripy stuff is a non-skid safety material. I also used some ABS 1/8 sheet between the crossbars and the underside of the ply, just to attenuate any potential rattling at highway speed.
I was out at the hanger this morning, since my bud was supposed to pick me up this morning to go get the airplane from the paint shop. Alas, his alternator crapped out. Yesterday was über high winds. So another day's delay. Stars simply do not want me to get the airplane.
I took a moment to get some detail pics of the platform. Realize that everything is reversed for storage at the moment. The little black squares are the items to avoid rattle. You have to remove the rubber strips and since the non-used crossbars still have the rubber, there is a bit of a gap between the platform and the bars. So these allow you to tighten the rings, really tight to keep the whole thing from becoming yet another source of noise.
