Has anyone here ever reinforced their roof to increase the load limit? I don’t want to reinvent the wheel if this has already been done well. Some searches online haven’t shown much fruit.

I imagine running thick, wide steel bars along the interior ceiling at six inch intervals (or something like that), attached to thick steel pillars on the side. Maybe even running a steel mesh along the interior ceiling in between these bars and then plastering the mesh with… I don’t know, welding is my weak point, but some sort of metal equivalent of plaster? Is this even remotely in the realm of possibility or sanity?

 

Why not just get a roof rack?

 

Sorry, was implying to increase load limit with a roof rack. Which I guess leads to the question, what would be beneficial to reinforce in that case?

 

@za105 nope the Disco use gutter mounts, there is also the whole center of gravity to consider that that point. You add that much reinforcement weight you have changed the COG so much you can not put anything on top anyway

 

Use the gutter mounts, remember the roof is designed to be strong enough to survive a rollover and you won’t ever get near (or want to get near!) putting that much of a load up there.

 

Don’t the gutter mounts determine the weight limit of the roof rack, since it’s tied into them?

Actually, for that matter, what IS the load limit if you have a roof rack? The poundage mentioned in the manual is strictly for the roof rails I think. And obviously tipping and center of gravity are legitimate concerns but I’m focusing on load weight limits here, with a roof rack attached to gutter rails.

 

@za105 I could never find an actual answer but I have 150 ish up there rack & tent. It seems to be about 160 dynamic, from everything I can find

 

Not all roof racks are tied to the gutter mount system. The factory rails certainly aren’t. I think that if you have a sturdy rack supported by gutter mounts the effective limit is “whatever you are put up there.” Rack manufacturers will probably have their own limit based upon their quality and any dynamic testing they may have done but also they want to reduce liability. Putting a large amount of weight on top of an already tall truck isn’t going to end well once the truck is in motion. However, just for some context, I have a RTT on top of mine (125 lbs) supported by the factory extended rails plus a gutter mount system I cobbled together plus another 25lbs of stuff on a forward mounted rack (lights, antenna, and power drop) plus a rear awning (5lbs?). At night (vehicle stopped, obviously) when my kid, wife, myself and all of our crap is up on top I would say we have about 500lbs plus up there and its been no problem.

 

Whoa, 500 pounds, that is impressive. I have long wondered how roof top tents could work safely if maximum loads were supposed to be in the low 100 pounds, but I misunderstood that was a roof weight limit and not roofrack. Those are some strong gutter rails. In my other Disco in Africa there’s a basket roof rack on top, tied to the gutter rails, and I’ve crawled around up top with some heavy loads, but probably max 250lb total weight at one time.

So the bigger concern seems to be center of gravity rather than weight.

 

@za105 you can put a lot up there if you are stationary. The loading is based on moving and sudden changes direction or hard braking. Most people assume 3 times the dynamic load when stationary so a Disco is between 300 and 600 lbs depending on racking.