I'm also curious about the weight limit for the spare. I've been considering the front runner spare wheel step as a cheap alternative to a rear ladder. Should work using the rear recovery eye as the first step. I would think it's fine with door closed, but who knows if that voids the warranty.

 

Agree @zac431 - there's likely two limits: door closed and using the door.

 

I have no idea what the limits are honestly. I'm already running a heavier than stock tire so I wouldn't want to do jerry cans or even a step, really. The backpack is the SLK Utility Bin it had a small bundle of firewood and some kindling on the way up and just some trash on the way down, so it shouldn't have stressed the mounting point. At least, I hope! I really like the SLK bag, btw. The straps are a little hard to get tight which is why the bag had slid down so far by the time we got to camp but it is very heavy duty and well made.

 

love to hear about the angle of your fairing. i waited for awhile before they came back in stock and lone behold it didn’t make much difference. there are a million ways to mount the thing and angles. i thought it would make a much bigger difference

i haven’t paid attention to gas mileage but sure it’s worse. my larger k02 and weight of the rack and all the other stuff i attached to the truck isn’t helping

but if you care not to crank up your radio i would be hesitant on the rack. it’s really noisy for me.

 

I have the OEM rail version of Front Runner and I have jammed it all the way to the back of the rails. The placement has reduced wind noise in the cabin dramatically as the wind is broken up already by the front top. I have the fairing angled so the bottom sits flat on the roof limiting the air movement under the rack and tight to the rack. The only thing you hear on it is the ROAM box that I have running the length of the Defender

 

any pics of the settup. i have the oem rail rack also.

 

I hope this helps explain how i have the rack set up

 

I have the voyager rack with full fairing and it results in about a 2-3 mpg hit, though that’s at 78 on the highway. Doesn’t impact city mpg at all. I think any roof rack will drop it at least by a few mpg. If you want to minimize the hit, get some bars and just take them off when not needed. My voyager takes five mixtures to remove, but I’m lazy and leave it on.

 

this is helpful. my front of my fairing starts on the beginning of the rail. looks like you have a good 6-8 inches compared to mine pushed back

 

I also have the fairing at a hard angle, less blunt. That way there really is little room for air to go under and it pushes the air up and over