 | Home > Modifications & Maintenance (L663) > Roof rack |
 
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| chpsk8 Member Since: 26 Sep 2023 Location: Midwest Posts: 44  
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What's a real roof rack?
There are many different roof racks for the Defender to choose from. Everything from a basic set of thule bars all the way to full blown racks with bolt on bits for anything you can think of. |
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18th Jul 2024 10:29pm |
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| Oldyellar Member Since: 04 Sep 2015 Location: Central Posts: 391  
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Brownchurch style.
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20th Jul 2024 7:00pm |
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| Lightwater Member Since: 28 Jun 2020 Location: Sydney NB Posts: 72 
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A few roof setup design ideas which make a roof platform look like a joke.
I did buy a roof platform originally, basically a panic urgent buy for outback trip. Probably the most useless product ever designed. I even totally rebuilt ours to fit exactly. Great for taking photos from an elevated position... or sipping champagne... if you have rebuilt the decking so you don't fall through aluminium gaps. 
Custom built 4 x 10L anodised aluminium & 316 stainless in roof rack captive channel to tap M6 Allen bolts into. All anodised aluminium 3 x 40 & 3 x 50mm was tapped M6 on the first layer. Nyloc nuts used everywhere (sand flag mounding, not perfect position, but leaning forward, & a bit on the right of car). Click image to enlarge Click image to enlarge M4 bolts also tapped on first layer of aluminium, then also Nyloc nuts. Click image to enlarge Click image to enlarge North South cross brace to clamp down second spare wheel to. Drilled to reduce mass where possible. It is 10 x 50mm 5083 alloy aluminium cut lengthwise with rolling milling aluminium grain structure. With hindsight would have gone with a piece of 12 x 50mm & drilled a few less holes at pivet point. But it is just ok for 255/60r18 spare. Screwed into a block of aluminium inside the crossbar, so not bolted to the actual bar itself. Click image to enlarge
Click image to enlarge Behind the spare wheel, 6 x 20 watt highly custom modified solar panels. Click image to enlarge Click image to enlarge Fuel tank holder inside rim of second spare wheel on roof, 2 x 5L, effectively the same design as for 5ge 4 x 10L setup. Click image to enlarge
The base supporting beam, bent aluminium, better 2nd & third LR cross bars is 10 x 50mm aluminium. P.S. If you really do need a roof platform, get it laser or abrasive cut out of say 10mm aluminium 5083 alloy. All the holes, gaps & tapping points machined. Visitor - Freelander owner Last edited by Lightwater on 21st Jul 2024 1:27am. Edited 1 time in total |
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21st Jul 2024 12:49am |
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| BadgerWaz Member Since: 15 Jul 2024 Location: Linconshire Posts: 92 
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That looks decent, like a lot of man-hours to acheive the end reult, well done.
One thing I'd say about a permanent full rack is the noise at any decent speed. Depends if you have a full roof often or not, if it's just infrequent I'd suggest some aero bars as they are almost silent. I have had a Prospeed rack before with wind deflector (based in York) and that was beautiful. No noise at all. Not cheap though considering a pair of bars are less than £400 from land rover, providing you have the roof rails of course, and they will add nearly £800 on top if you don't. |
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21st Jul 2024 1:19am |
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| Lightwater Member Since: 28 Jun 2020 Location: Sydney NB Posts: 72
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Zero noise on our roof rack setup.
But like Burj Khalifa building, or our simple set up roof rack with no dodgy edges, spills wind like 70,000 years ago. Aboriginals had an in depth understanding of aero dynamics. Silent & returning boomerangs. An outgoing noisy boomerang to knock of the head of kangaroos was a failure & didn't provide dinner. The Germans, not the Wright Brothers, who first had western flight, could have learnt a conga line of aero dynamics from "savages"! Not difficult stuff to have a silent roof rack. A few things by todays generation who have forgotten about... basic stuff like a bit why watches go 'clockwise'. The dumb don't know why. If you have a noisy roof rack. You are the first point of failure. Sort out the aero dynamics. Visitor - Freelander owner |
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21st Jul 2024 2:27am |
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| BadgerWaz Member Since: 15 Jul 2024 Location: Linconshire Posts: 92
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I'll write to Frontrunner and say they need to redesign all of thier rack systems then
Don't you think the shape of the vehicle/windscreen rake/position of roof rack on the vehicle affects air resistance as opossed to just the rack being poorly designed? You can wrap rope around to lessen the noise too as this affects the air stream. I've also used wind-deflectors in the past too to great effect. |
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22nd Jul 2024 8:31am |
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| Lightwater Member Since: 28 Jun 2020 Location: Sydney NB Posts: 72
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If using tie down ratchet straps. Put half a twist in the strap to stop it "singing". Same process at tall structures to always spill wind one way. Visitor - Freelander owner
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22nd Jul 2024 8:51am |
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| BadgerWaz Member Since: 15 Jul 2024 Location: Linconshire Posts: 92
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 I actually do that with cable-ties funnily enough when towing the race car (strapped on the trailer) as they used to buzzzzzzzz |
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22nd Jul 2024 9:05am |
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| Oldyellar Member Since: 04 Sep 2015 Location: Central Posts: 391
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That's some very smart work that. |
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23rd Jul 2024 8:39am |
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