Roof Rack with a soft top?

[goathearder]

Hey Guys,
I have a softopper top on my 73 full convertible and I really want to get a roof rack. I have a roof top tent that I use on my other car and it sure would be fun if I could get it mounted to the blazer somehow.

I have seen old pics of people with holes in their soft tops to mount a roof rack but I don't want to do anything like that. I was thinking of using something like this:

http://www.rackwarehouse.com/vanguard-cab-height-shell-cap-truck-rack.html

And modifying it to fit under the soft top frame rail. Do you guys think that would work? Anyone ever done anything like that?

Softopper even sells something similar but kinda pricy:

http://www.softopper.com/us-truck-cap-rack-details.aspx

 

[Jessie James]

Seems like a sound idea, but personally I would want something that had a "bed" between the bars. One slip and that ladder or whatever you are loading goes straight through your $800 soft top!

 

[goathearder]

Oh yea, for sure. If I did something like those racks I would for sure fab up two bars to connect the front to the back. Thats what the roof tent needs to mount anyway.

 

[Irish1941]

Built one before for a soft top.
It fit on the bedside, under the soft top mount rail. 4"x2" angle length of the bed top with two hoops the followed the window angles, up and over with cross rails on top between them and also ran out over the cab for little extra storage.
Worked like a charm but it wasn't a roll bar as the guy I sold it to found out.
REAL simple. I'll see if have a picture of it somewhere. And it fit under the hardtop as well.
edit:
had a look but must be on another drive. Did find this picture on here and looked kinda like this.

 

[Blue85]

Can-Back had a method of mounting a rack on top of their soft-top. I've never seen a picture of how that was accomplished without leaks. I don't think the softopper frame could hold enough to make that worthwhile anyway. I think the exo rack is your best bet, especially if it's just for temporary use when your RTT is on. You could probably buy/build one that can be stored inside the vehicle when it's disassembled.

 

[cwn anwyn]

Not a K5 soft top, but here are some pics of the can-back setup. It may give you some ideas on how to mount things.

Note the bars linking the front, middle and back hoops. Those bars have a tab for the roof rack bars to mount. (I don't have a good pic of them but next time I dig this out I can snap some more.)

Then the canvas is stretched over and a square rubber gasket mounts between the canvas and rack base onto the tabs. You can see the none faded spots where the rack mounted.

(Pic of the rubber gasket)

Z

 

[goathearder]

Thanks for the ideas guys! I definitely have an idea of how to fab this now.