Picked up a used set of full length roof rails. Trying to figure out a better way mount the roof rails to be stronger. I don’t like that the rails sit atop of the M10 bolt heads. Any suggestions?

 

They are perfectly fine as fitted, carried way more than the roof is rated for without any issues, the rails actually straddle the roof channel so not supported by the threaded inserts.

 

Pretty sure you can back out the threaded inserts but you will mess up the sealant a little if it runs up to em and around them.

 

My original rails were cracked at the M10 bolt so I placed a large flat bar to distribute more of the load atop of the M10 but the flat bar was a bit too thick. The M10 bolt is about 12mm in height with washer. The height of the perpendicular groove seam, on either side of the M10 bolt is 8mm, so the roof rail doesn’t touch that seam at all. I was debating about adding some strips of 12mm HDPE plastic on either side of the seam to bear some of the load of the rail.

 

The M10 bolt sits high (about 13mm with washer) from the body itself, the vertical body seam is about 8mm in height. I was thinking of adding 12 - 13mm high strips of HDPE plastic about 4” long on each side of the M10 bolt to bear some or most of the load of the rail rather than just the M10 bolt head.