Measure twice then measure again five or six times, Cut once.

This was nerve wracking. I've never drilled holes in a car before, least of all a brand new spendy one like the Defender. All went smoothly. To protect paint and glass, a large fluffy blanket was positioned over the sunroof during install of the rack and between ladder and car when positioning the ladder.


3/4" holes




Bring on the quality control team. Kids had fun clambering up and down.


It's a shame it's not possible to have the ladder's lock key-matched to the car's key. That's my only minor gripe. Otherwise I think the ladder and rack look good and will be very useful. Quality seems to be outstanding.

I didn't fit the 1/2" spacers in this picture but my Thule Ski rack will fit in the garage in access height. About 1.25 inch to spare in this picture




The roof rack adds only 2.125" of height to the vehicle.

Not the greatest picture in the dark of my garage. 2" from the tip of the sharkfin to the roof rack platform. Pictured with a weighted card board sheet as reference. There is a small lip of material that sits proud of this plane by about 0.125".



Last rack and ladder install was less stressful.

 

I installed both as well and agree on the stress pre-drilling. However I saw a few that a dealer installed and felt like my ladder prep was much cleaner. Plus I saved at least $1,200 in labor doing it myself.

Now that it’s finished my kids absolutely love it and look for any excuse to ‘have to’ climb up on the roof. Took my seven year old mountain biking last weekend and when we got back to the car it was very important to him that we finish our drinks sitting on the roof!

 

The ladder is an engineering marvel IMO. Genius design and it’s crazy strong.

Just be careful playing on the roof with the rack if you have sunroof.

 

I know. The glass roof terrifies me.

We've not been up there to sit yet.

 

Yeah, I kinda wish I had the hard top because being up there is awesome. But one drop of a heavy wrench and it’s $$$.

 

Yea, we have specific rules when the kids are crawling on on the rack and an adult is always with them. But when they grown up one day they’ll remember playing on top of their parents Defender and that makes it all worth it.

 

Looks great!

I have the frontrunner OEM rails rack and there is no good way to get up there without a ladder...debating this or the lucky 8...I like how the Lucky 8 looks but don't like trimming the bumper. I also think the side is a better access point than rear. Might have to go this way.

Thank you for increasing my confidence.

 

I spent months going back and forth between the Lucky8 ladder be the LR option. Liked the way the Lucky8 looked in pictures, but it didn’t seem as functional compared to the LR one. I was finally able to see and play with the LR ladder in person and realized how sturdy and well built it was. Hard to get a feel for how something will look until you see it in person. No regrets for fitting the LR ladder, super easy to access the roof rack. Simple enough my 7 year old has it figured out!

 

I love the Lego wrap you got for your Defender, looks exactly like a Lego version!

 

@ElVerde - The Lucky8 ladder mounts to the same spot that the Reverse Light Upgrade from PowerfulUK goes. It's an entirely personal view which you might prefer, but if you go with the Lucky8 you can always put the reverse lights to cover up the spot. In fact, I'd highly recommend the reverse lights as well.