Chevy & GMC Vans

Well, my owners manual said that the OEM rack is "for tie down only", the max load to be distributed evenly on the roof runners. So I ignored that, mounted a basket to it with a High Lift jack. I wanted to put a second spare up there as well.

Well that didn't last long. The vibration from rough roads made quick work of the cheesy mounting screws.

These are the little nut thingys that hold the rack on This is what the roof looks like when one of those thingys pulls through it, The left one is what it's supposed to look like. So now I have no roof rack. Anyone out there ever build one or retro one? I've been eyeing the Xterra racks. Of course I want to do this w/o removing the headliner Any info/ideas welcome!

Yes, I've seen a few built by members over the yrs and some were pretty beastly, If I can find the links I'll post them up.

That would be great, thank you. I did a search but didn't come up with anything.

I've built several and always drop the headliner. I don't know of a piece of hardware that will attatch to or through the sheet metal I would trust. I did see once a rack built with "feet" 4" x "4" squares that were then welded to the body but I think even that would make me want to drop the headliner for the risk of fire. The same could be done w/ rivets or sheet metal screws but besides being weak it's ugly as sin. When I got my safari it had roof mounts still bolted in place but the racks were gone. Just as well, I would have ditched them anyway but I did use the mounts. They were not supported properly and had bent the sheet metal. After straightening the sheet metal I cut hardwood blocks for fillers between the outer skin and framework inside, used PL Premium polyurethane adhesive to glue them in and fill the voids, (stuff hardens like a rock and expands slightly) I through bolted the mounts to these blocks then built the rack to fit. I've had more than a half ton on it a few times in the 10 years since I've owned it and had no problems. Granted,, I wouldn't drive fast or far w/ that kind of weight but it goes to show under normal use it will hold just fine.


sorry, I'm to lazy to resize these just now...
http://aloader.com/files/65/scaffold%20van-1080.jpg
http://aloader.com/files/65/clean%20van%2003.JPG

I'd love to see some home brew roof racks as well. I'm planning on fabbing up an old school Con-Ferr style porthole rack myself in the coming months. Mine will have sizeable feet that bolt to the roof crossbeams. I don't have an interior so that simplifies things a lot.

97CargoCrawler wrote: I don't have an interior so that simplifies things a lot.

A lot!!!!

And Woodbutcher; thanks for the photos and info!

I just submitted my quote request to Industrial Metal Supply for the steel.....I hope it's affordable.

I'll have to make a square tube bender. I could so easily do the rack with pipe but I don't want it to look too amateurish.

I want to make something like this:

Ya! That's what I'm talkin' about! I'm not sure why you think round stock would look amateurish? The one in the photo looks pretty good to me. The round could work well with your grill guard and rock rails WHEN you put those on!

If you have a way to bend tubing you should go for it. And then let me know how much $ to bend some for me I can weld it up myself!

97CargoCrawler wrote:I want to make something like this:

Maybe i'm just tired.
Isnt that picture just of a close up of a remote control toy?

Yeah, it is. And you can bet if I can bend it up and weld it in 1:10 scale I can do it 1:1 as well. The purpose of the photo was to show the style rack I was referring to. Who cares if it's on a toy that I made from scratch or even if it's hand drawn by someone in crayon?

Anyway, I like the way the square tubing looks and it's much easier to weld in cross braces without having to make notches like you would with round tube. It's just my preference.

Round tube is definitely easier to bend considering you could use a conduit bender ($40) from the hardware store. My second choice in rack materials would be 3/4" EMT electrical conduit for the rails and shallow electrical strut for the floor cross bracing. You could build a galvanized steel rack using hardware store materials for easily less than $200. And it could all be assembled with nuts and bolts if you didn't know how to weld. Granted the hardware could add a significant amount of weight. I have welded a whole lot of strut and conduit and I think it could make a very nice roof rack. I have a photo I'll post up later that shows what I'm talking about.

One drawback for square tube, it vibrates at highway speeds. I wanted to use 1 1/2" round for my laterals and 1 1/2" for the linials but the yard only had the thinwall in stock. I don't know if it will make a difference in that type of rack but with a ladder rack that has a bar out front like mine it can be a major PITA on a long trip.

photo_van wrote:That would be great, thank you. I did a search but didn't come up with anything.

Searched everywhere, did not find the project I was looking for. That being the case, I am probably thinking back to the "OLD" AstroSafari days, I'm no longer a member there but if you care to search their site the thread was made by a member who went by the name of (BC astro 4x4) or something very similiar to that, anyways he took his headliner down and showed how he attached the new beefed up roof rails ( believe he used round stock ) might be a worthwhile thread if your search foo skills are up to it.

Thanks AZ, I think I remember BCSuv from the old days, green van I think?? I'll check it out

I want to make something like this but with round portholes. I have the old school Con-Ferr rack on my FJ40 (not the POS pictured) and it's awesome. I hope to duplicate it. Obviously the mounts will be different.

I just got my quote from the metal shop:

160ft of 3/4" X 3/4" 16ga. steel tubing = $96 (I think I have overestimated by 20' or so...but better than coming up short!)

1 sheet 4' X 10' 16ga. steel cut to 6" X 10' = $103 I will cut this down further to 6" X 6" for the portholes.

Total with tax $216

Figure in $20 for welding wire, maybe another $50 for steel to make feet. Not too shabby for a seriously heavy duty rack.

I might start on this as early as this weekend!