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Just installed my roof rack and wondering what everyone is putting up on theirs and how you’re strapping or bolting them down.
Thinking of grabbing a few Roam cases and maybe a roof tent 🤷🏼♂️
I recently went a little crazy with roof rack accessories for an overland trip to Colorado, but everything stayed put and the rack remained solid despite a total weight of 225 lbs of "stuff" on the rack. I didn't notice any issues off-roading with center of gravity and everything was solid and quiet on the interstates at 80mph. I installed the following: roof top tent (clamps around the bars with provided hardware), Waterport tank with quick release bracket (using T-bolts), Awning (using provided hardware and some T-bolts), jerry can (with Front-Runner mount and T-Bolts), ROAM box with ratchet straps.
Probably didn't really need the Jerry Can even being "off-grid" for days, I found the Defender didn't use nearly as much gas in 4 low. My friends Ford F-150 drank gas in 4 low. I would probably get a larger ROAM box in place of the Jerry Can for better storage. The WaterPort was brilliant, as I would refill from a creek or other water source in the morning, and the sun's heat of the day made for a nice warm evening shower each day.
I used a lot of different hardware (mainly t-slot bolts from Amazn ) to secure everything.
Enjoy ! Its a great rack!
Amazing looking setup. Pretty much exactly what I had in mind as well 👍🏻👍🏻
Originally fabricated a tray for the Wolf Boxes to sit on. ….then added the recovery boards…. Fabricated tray Relocated the recovery boards to the rear wheel for quicker access, and mounted the shovel up there now.
Looks nice! Can you share a link to the t-bolts you used?
Not sure what others are using, but Thule t-bolts fit perfectly. Too bad LR wasn't smart enough to make normal M8 bolts fit.., like the front runner. I've seen someone use carriage bolts to mount accessories. The small square section of the carriage bolt fits into the slot, but had little material to prevent stripping. Which 90% of them did when I took them off.
I have found that M8 bolts work well. You just need to grind off about 1mm from the head to make them fit. I just turn over my belt sander and sand them down a bit and then they fit. If you look through the accumulation there in the pic, you see one before grinding and one after, not too much material needs to be removed. You can also get actual T bolts in 8mm from Amazon, you need to trim them to length.
I was going through my big box of accumulated nuts I tie downs. I officially have way too many now. Just for comparison, there are some Thule nuts, the black ones, the one short silver one is an actual Land Rover one, but from a Military Wolf model Defender's track system. I have found those to be kind of short, the Thule to be too small. If you use things that are adapted for Front Runner Racks, kind of common, the bolt holes are all for M8 bolts. So the M6 size kind of rattles around and the load will eventually move a tad, to one side of the bolt hole or the other. Your milage may vary on how they work for you and your installation. While its load bearing on all of these will not fail before the load bar fails, I just like things to be a bit spot on in sizing.
I recently went a little crazy with roof rack accessories for an overland trip to Colorado, but everything stayed put and the rack remained solid despite a total weight of 225 lbs of "stuff" on the rack. I didn't notice any issues off-roading with center of gravity and everything was solid and quiet on the interstates at 80mph. I installed the following: roof top tent (clamps around the bars with provided hardware), Waterport tank with quick release bracket (using T-bolts), Awning (using provided hardware and some T-bolts), jerry can (with Front-Runner mount and T-Bolts), ROAM box with ratchet straps.
Probably didn't really need the Jerry Can even being "off-grid" for days, I found the Defender didn't use nearly as much gas in 4 low. My friends Ford F-150 drank gas in 4 low. I would probably get a larger ROAM box in place of the Jerry Can for better storage. The WaterPort was brilliant, as I would refill from a creek or other water source in the morning, and the sun's heat of the day made for a nice warm evening shower each day.
I used a lot of different hardware (mainly t-slot bolts from Amazn ) to secure everything.
Enjoy ! Its a great rack!
I'm curious, did the expedition roof rack pose any challenges when mounting the awning? I have a 130 on order and I've been trying to figure out how best to get a 270 awning up there. I may splurge on a Bush Company one but it seems like the expedition roof rack doesn't let you get a mount right to the edge of the rack, meaning a longer bracket is needed. I may be grossly embellishing this problem in my head but curious to hear anyone's experience mounting an awning to this roof rack.
08-19-2022, 07:11 AM
