Well I gifted myself two sets of Hella 700's for Christmas with the intent of trying to build a roof rack. The design goal is to end up with a rack similar to the BajaRack, but with the front light support area of the Voyager Racks because I like the stepped look they have with the middle lights higher. I decided to use 1" EMT (I know it's galvanized) for the outside. I'll probably use 3/4" for the floor rails. Tonight I did a test to see if this is even feasible and it seems like it will be. I will say that I will need to grind the zinc coating off the pipe and open the garage door with a fan.

It droops a little in the middle, but I think I can fix that. Here's the first section. I figured this was going to be the hardest part to make so I tried it first. I hope to get this thing done in the next week since I have off work.

 

Errrm.....you realize you won't be able to get in and out of your garage with a rack, right?

 

If you get a headahce from welding galvanized drink milk!

"Experienced welders that have had metal fume fever will tell you that drinking milk before, during and after welding galvanized steel will help eliminate the galvanize poisoning."

 

Yea I do I have a short garage door. The best I could do is buy a weather connector to quick disconnect the lights. It only sees the garage when broke, which is a lot.... however my want for a roof rack and lights trumps the inconvenience of removing the rack.

 

The roof rack may whistle in the wind in the summer and irritate you.
Plus taking it on and off you may scratch the rover..

I would reconsider.
Or you are then resigned to parking outside.

If you are hankering to make something on the holiday - weld up a bad *** front and back bumper.

Those will fit in the garage.

 

Go for it man! It looks awesome so far I'm really excited to see how this works.

I was going to try and build one for myself too, but I don't have a 1" die for my tubing bender. Buying that, and all the tubing, and paying for it to get powdercoated, and trying to rig up a sturdy mounting system, and then trying to get all those bends to match... it got a bit daunting. And suddenly that $900 for a new BajaRack didn't seem so bad. So I pulled the trigger on that yesterday. I like the stepped light look too, so it may yet be modified.

That being said, I still like the way the BajaRack light mounts sit. So it'll probably stay that way. The only thing I'd really like to do is get the front fairing off and re-powdercoat it so I can get rid of that god-awful white logo.

 

Reminds me of watching the guys in Florida build a custom aluminum tower for a 50' Bertram. If the welds are good that that rack should be bullet proof.
Nice that you can build it exactly how you want it.
Finished pics by the end of the weekend? LOL... don't rush it, we'll wait for the final product photos.

 

I have the OME Heavy Duty suspension and a Baja Rack. I park outside. Furthermore I've given up parking garages and the Green Lantern car wash. My sunroofs are very noisy at highway speeds almost to the point of needing ear defenders.

 

EMT isn't suitable for structural loading so keep that in mind when loading it up and heading out on the road where there are other drivers.

 

Well apathy got the best of me and when I was working it wasn't very fast. In any case I have the bottom outer frame worked out. I'm thinking this was the hardest part to get done as the rest is just adding onto it. I'm going to add 4 posts from the top to the bottom and replace the front ones with notched tubes instead of flat ones.

As far as using EMT, I do understand the concerns and have researched this quite a bit. 1" EMT is .059 wall thickness. This is 16 guage, same thickness racks like Defender will use. This is replacing a Surco that came with my Disco that I gave to my buddy. That thing if loaded would probably have flown apart if I slammed the brakes on. I think this is going to be pretty stout in comparison.