Emergency Element roof rack for $20

[bestdogever]

What were you hunting Clark?

Cindy

[Clarkm]

Male deer, but we found only females stupidly staring at us stupidly staring at them.

The locals made a joke that the only way I could find a buck is to be inside the city limits at midnight, but don't get caught.

Then I traveled 1,000 miles and heard the same joke in Republic WA:(

[Clarkm]

I made the rack bigger with some scrap wood in one day, and put a 360 degree rotating bench rest on it.

I drove 50 mph between ranches with the whole bench, but the 1,000 miles I drove with just the tri pod section on top.

The shooting rest is from Varmint Masters
http://www.varmintmasters.net/

[Edpsx]

Nice! Does it hold the weight ok? or does it bend some under the added pressure?

[Clarkm]

It hold the weight just fine.
There are two problems:
1) No access to rack via sun roof, when Element is full of cargo.
I had to climb with passenger door arm rest as a step.
2) When the wind is blowing snow, the roof is the coldest place to be.

[RobfromLI]

nice job.
i have never shot from atop a civilian vehicle.

i may pick up one of those benches. the ones we use are really ratty.

here's my little girl with her Ruger 10/22 on a cold April afternoon.
she was zeroing the optics that day.

[Clarkm]

What?
A teen ager shooting a real gun, and not one in a video game?

[jrt]

Originally Posted by paulj

I bought an extra set of plastic covers, and trimmed those to fit around my brackets. Since I don't have many power tools (just an electric drill), I used a sheet metal nibbler to cut the plastic.

One thing, when cutting the plastic covers, note the difference between the right and left front ones. They appear nearly identical - but aren't.

paulj

You can use a drill to trim the plastic- one of those step drillbits works very nicely- almost as good as a side mill.

I had angst over the differences in the cover sides- after looking at them, I decided the only real difference is a small tab on the (aft?) end. Take that tab off, and the covers should be interchangable.

[zimbop]

Originally Posted by paulj

Just to clarify, you drilled the holes for the 6 mm bolts in the angle steel, matching the threaded holes in the Element's brackets, right?

Here's an early version of my roof rack bracket, made from 1 1/2 aluminum angle

and a more finished version:
[

Great ideal. What are you using to attach the yakima bars to your aluminum angle? Also, it looks like you have a lot of racking built onto the bars, for my own curiosity can you provide a pic of your whole rack system? Thanks.