Many of you have seen my
earlier DIY roof rack, constructed out of pieces of L-angle steel and bolts. It was a great rack, and served its purpose extremely well. But I began to have an itch to make something better, something that won't rust, something that will stand up to the Minnesota salt & grime!
I initially didn't trust aluminum to be strong enough until I got to see a friend's tire rack made out of 1/8" aluminum - that stuff is STRONG! So I found a place to order some and purchased a bar of architectural aluminum (high corrosion resistance) in 2"x2"x2" C channel.
I also had to re-do the template from the old ones, as they were made for multiple pieces, not single-piece like this. I also got the idea (from Hondad) to make the top holes fit U-bolts in the dimensions of Yakima crossbars, in case anyone had a set they wanted to mount up.
Difficulty: Cakewalk..........Medium......*..Expert
(rated expert for major tool usage/owning)
Things you will need:
Hacksaw & lots of muscle or large chop saw with fine-tooth finishing blade (I used a 96-tooth)
Drill press
Rat tail file (for cleaning drilled holes)
Flat file
12 stainless steel M6 (6 mm) x 20mm hex cap bolts
12 stainless steel M6 lock washers
12 stainless steel M6 fender washers
One 2' piece of 2"x2"x2" 1/8"thick C-channel aluminum sawed to four 4 3/4" pieces
2 cross bars of your choosing (I used 5' slotted square steel tube sawed to 54")
Good drill bits (cobalt reccommended)
Other crap to attach to the rack
I got carried away with construction, so no in-progress pics. I will say it was MUCH easier to work with the aluminum than the old steel ones!
So without further delay, the pics of the finished product!
They're held on with three M6 bolts as before, but this time I put my crossbar on with the aforementioned U-bolts:
Also new this time is fender washers for the lock washers to dig into, since the aluminum of the bracket is quite soft and will gouge easily. The bungee around the crossbars is my patented ghetto anti-howl system.
As you can see, my new rack will quite easily hold up my weight (around 170). It'll actually hold it all on one bar without so much as a wiggle, but I was having problems balancing so no picture. On a side note, aren't you glad I wasn't wearing a kilt?
If anybody feels inclined to make their own, this template is all you need (well and a drill press and saw and file and time and money). The template is sized to be wrapped around the outside of a 2"x2"x2" C channel cut into 4 3/4" long slices.
View attachment RoofRackBracketLayout x 2 NEW 2009.pdf
**WARNING WARNING** If you use this PDF to make brackets, make SURE you turn off all document/image scaling in Acrobat Reader and in your printer settings. When you print the template, ALWAYS verify the stated dimensions are correct with a ruler/tape measure before cutting! I highly recommend using the original CAD file if you wish to make your own. Send me a PM for the file and software used to create it.
So there you have it! Not only is it more weather-resistant, it also adds a healthy dose of blingitude to my already pimpin' toaster!
