CK5
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I never said it was a good one. You have seen the weird sruff i come up with, right?
The idea garnered a few supporters, so it must have been a good one. Besides, the roof rack was always in the plans, this just moved it up on the schedule.
Weird isnt always bad.
I feel like I’m the guy always playing catch up, so this is for my own documentation purposes as I’m sure this isn’t new knowledge for you all.
Focused my limited time today on cutting and coping the legs for the base. My journey in coping has been a good one.
I started out a few years ago with a Woodward Fab tube notcher, and frankly was never able to get consistent reliable copes. It wore out quickly, which made matters worse.
David @AgDieseler then tipped me off to the concept of using a chop saw to cope, which provided better results.
Recently, however, I’ve found that my best results come from a pair of angle grinders: one with a cut off wheel and another with a flap disc to clean the cuts.
Mark the face line. Measure the throat depth (with 1.5” tube, that’s 1/2”). Mark the throat line. Mark the cuts. Cut and clean.
It’s so much easier and so much more peaceful than the janky tube notcher or even the chop saw. It’s my new favorite method.
Tomorrow, I’ll add a smidge of an angle to the bottoms of these legs (to account for the roof shape) then start burning them in.
Today is our family’s Adoption Day, however, so we’ll be celebrating. Back at it mañana.
Andy
Focused my limited time today on cutting and coping the legs for the base. My journey in coping has been a good one.
I started out a few years ago with a Woodward Fab tube notcher, and frankly was never able to get consistent reliable copes. It wore out quickly, which made matters worse.
David @AgDieseler then tipped me off to the concept of using a chop saw to cope, which provided better results.
Recently, however, I’ve found that my best results come from a pair of angle grinders: one with a cut off wheel and another with a flap disc to clean the cuts.
Mark the face line. Measure the throat depth (with 1.5” tube, that’s 1/2”). Mark the throat line. Mark the cuts. Cut and clean.
It’s so much easier and so much more peaceful than the janky tube notcher or even the chop saw. It’s my new favorite method.
Tomorrow, I’ll add a smidge of an angle to the bottoms of these legs (to account for the roof shape) then start burning them in.
Today is our family’s Adoption Day, however, so we’ll be celebrating. Back at it mañana.
Andy
I’ve spent a lot of time thinking about how I’m going to hook the winch cable to the tire rack, and I’ve found a solution:
I’ll use one of these trailer D Ring shackles and weld it to the rack, next to the hitch pin tabs just to the left, slightly forward so as not to interfere with the hitch pin.
I’ll also use this heavy duty carabiner in lieu of the provided winch hook, as the hook doesn’t give me much confidence on its strength and the carabiner is a sleeker more tire friendly design. If it doesn’t work out, I’ll revert back to the hook.
This all should give pretty decent rotational flexibility as the rack moves up and down (that’s me trying to sound like I know what I’m talking about).
And here is my draw-up of my final plans for the roof rack via the poor-man’s BendTech: Paint.
This build is an experimental gamble in attempting weight reduction via thinner tube. The structure I have built so far is built from .095, but I have additional tube coming today in .120 that I’ll use for 3 additional lateral supports (red), as well as, the framing for the winch mount (green). The actual roof mounts (dark blue) are 1/8” thick flat stock and will bolt to the roof via rivenuts. The base of the winch mount will be cut from scrap 1/4” plate (light blue) I have on hand and have 2 - 3 different mounting locations drilled so I can get the offset just right to be able to open the passenger door without disconnecting the winch cable. And finally, I am adding side “risers” (purple) for the simple purpose of keeping me from rolling off the rack when sleeping up top. Since these won’t have any purpose other than general fencing duty, I opted for .065 wall tubing, and that’s arriving today.
Also, I have several of these tiny 1.75” gussets from Summit that I’m sure will add some level of strength in the legs and maybe risers, but really are more for giving tie down points. So between those, the expanded metal that will cover the entire rack, and the extra weld-on D rings that come in the pack that I’ll put to use, I’ll have INFINITE tie down possibilities.
It’s my goal to get all this finished by the end of this weekend for 2 reasons: we are going on a nearby camping trip next weekend and I’d like to sleep up top, but also, Ive committed to 3 other projects for others that are due by thanksgiving, so I need to get to those asap. There’s a good chance though that I won’t get it all done and may need to put this on the back burner until December or maybe even after the new year. But I’m going to be hammering down big time on this for the balance of the week, so maybe I’ll get lucky.
Another step is dealing with the sharp edges of the expanded metal. I could just leave it, but I’d prefer to not do so due to risk of people cutting their fingers. Only sure fire way I can think of is to get the dremel and the grinding wheels and get to work. Talk about time consuming.
Time to get to work.
Andy
I’ll use one of these trailer D Ring shackles and weld it to the rack, next to the hitch pin tabs just to the left, slightly forward so as not to interfere with the hitch pin.
I’ll also use this heavy duty carabiner in lieu of the provided winch hook, as the hook doesn’t give me much confidence on its strength and the carabiner is a sleeker more tire friendly design. If it doesn’t work out, I’ll revert back to the hook.
This all should give pretty decent rotational flexibility as the rack moves up and down (that’s me trying to sound like I know what I’m talking about).
And here is my draw-up of my final plans for the roof rack via the poor-man’s BendTech: Paint.
This build is an experimental gamble in attempting weight reduction via thinner tube. The structure I have built so far is built from .095, but I have additional tube coming today in .120 that I’ll use for 3 additional lateral supports (red), as well as, the framing for the winch mount (green). The actual roof mounts (dark blue) are 1/8” thick flat stock and will bolt to the roof via rivenuts. The base of the winch mount will be cut from scrap 1/4” plate (light blue) I have on hand and have 2 - 3 different mounting locations drilled so I can get the offset just right to be able to open the passenger door without disconnecting the winch cable. And finally, I am adding side “risers” (purple) for the simple purpose of keeping me from rolling off the rack when sleeping up top. Since these won’t have any purpose other than general fencing duty, I opted for .065 wall tubing, and that’s arriving today.
Also, I have several of these tiny 1.75” gussets from Summit that I’m sure will add some level of strength in the legs and maybe risers, but really are more for giving tie down points. So between those, the expanded metal that will cover the entire rack, and the extra weld-on D rings that come in the pack that I’ll put to use, I’ll have INFINITE tie down possibilities.
It’s my goal to get all this finished by the end of this weekend for 2 reasons: we are going on a nearby camping trip next weekend and I’d like to sleep up top, but also, Ive committed to 3 other projects for others that are due by thanksgiving, so I need to get to those asap. There’s a good chance though that I won’t get it all done and may need to put this on the back burner until December or maybe even after the new year. But I’m going to be hammering down big time on this for the balance of the week, so maybe I’ll get lucky.
Another step is dealing with the sharp edges of the expanded metal. I could just leave it, but I’d prefer to not do so due to risk of people cutting their fingers. Only sure fire way I can think of is to get the dremel and the grinding wheels and get to work. Talk about time consuming.
Time to get to work.
Andy
FYI those d-rings will rattle quite a bit if you are going to weld them on and have nothing putting tension on them all the time. They will work work good for the tire cable.
I’ve thought about that, and will probably zip tie or twist tie them in place when not in use.
Just in case you were ever planning on running a roof top tent to camp in. Depending on the style of tent having the second raised rail on the rack will not fly with the tent. I'm talking about the style that folds out from the side. Your rail will be right in the way. If you go to a hard shell style that goes straight up or just pivots on the front edge you would be ok, provided the tent is narrower than the rack.
I like the design for sure. I just couldn't remember if there was a plan for a roof top tent down the road.
I like the design for sure. I just couldn't remember if there was a plan for a roof top tent down the road.
Appreciate the feedback. A rooftop tent is quasi in the plans, but probably not anytime soon. Current plan is to simply use my pop up tent up there, which fits completely within the envelope of the rack. The attached photos illustrate the idea proven on top of my wife’s truck.
Good news is, if I ever do want a roof top tent years down the road, Steel is easily manipulated and I can just cut off the risers and do something else.
Cool. That tent looks perfect on the top.
My thoughts exactly
Note to self: .065 is too thin to bend.
That’s okay though, I have a game plan ready to enact later this afternoon.
Andy
That’s okay though, I have a game plan ready to enact later this afternoon.
Andy
Additional lateral supports are burned in.
My solution upon learning that .065 is too thin to bend without packing with sand.
I had already planned on splicing two 4ft pieces together anyways, because ordering four 4ft tubes as opposed to two 8ft tubes saved me $30 on freight charges from Summit. When I discovered the hard way (because how else am I going to learn?) that .065 is to thin to bend, I decided to splice in bends from thicker tube.
The 90s for the rears were recycled from the Rev0 front bull bar that I had already scavenged the rear roof/latch bar from. The 30s up front were donated from what was left of the .120 wall I had ordered and was going to use to frame out the winch mount. There’s enough left of that to frame one 16” side of the winch mount and I have enough scrap tube laying around to splice together the other side.
So these risers turned out to be an interesting blend of .120 DOM in the rear, .120 HREW up front, and .065 HREW on the straight aways. I guess that makes it stronger?
Tomorrow, I’ll blend these welds, notch the ends, and burn these risers to the rack.
Andy
I had already planned on splicing two 4ft pieces together anyways, because ordering four 4ft tubes as opposed to two 8ft tubes saved me $30 on freight charges from Summit. When I discovered the hard way (because how else am I going to learn?) that .065 is to thin to bend, I decided to splice in bends from thicker tube.
The 90s for the rears were recycled from the Rev0 front bull bar that I had already scavenged the rear roof/latch bar from. The 30s up front were donated from what was left of the .120 wall I had ordered and was going to use to frame out the winch mount. There’s enough left of that to frame one 16” side of the winch mount and I have enough scrap tube laying around to splice together the other side.
So these risers turned out to be an interesting blend of .120 DOM in the rear, .120 HREW up front, and .065 HREW on the straight aways. I guess that makes it stronger?
Tomorrow, I’ll blend these welds, notch the ends, and burn these risers to the rack.
Andy
Nice save. When we were discussing tubing, bending the thin tube never really crossed my mind.
I did not catch that you were going to try to bend the Oh Too Thin tube. I would have said something. I thought it was being used for the cross supports.
No worries. I generally have always been the kind of person who learns the hard way. Even if someone warned me, I probably would have tried it anyways out of pure hard-headedness.
Risers are burned in. They’re not perfectly straight, but you have to look real hard to notice. @ktmoutfront will surely spot it right away, every time.
Andy
Andy
Also, I’ve discovered that something like undercoating covers the sharp edges on the expanded metal PERFECTLY. I may use rattle can truck bed liner for the final product, think it may cover even better, but this is good news because this saves me tons of time over individually grinding each and every sharp edge.
Rubber dip the whole thing like they do to playground benches.
