spicoli

I'm a fan of the RhinoRack model. It doesn't hold as much weight as some of the frame/body mounted ones, but holds good weight. It attaches to the hardtop solely, so if you like to take your hard top off, it comes off with the hardtop. I think this is a nice benefit, but the low profile design won't have as much wind noise and mpg reductions as others. they also make a shorter one for 2 doors. If you don't have plans to go topless then there are racks that that might work better for your needs.
BackBone for JEEP Wrangler JK - Rhino-Rack

KiwiDave

Three days and 137 pages later I'm finally done reading this entire thread. Holy cow - my head is spinning. Thanks for all the ideas. I'm going to take my time with my modifications as I want to see what my jeep can do and then decide what I REALLY need. Once again, thanks to all on this thread.

Cheers!
Dave

spicoli

Stock is very capable. Only suggestion I would have is get some rock sliders. If you have a rubicon or Hard rock edition then those will be fine for getting your feet wet. If you have the steps or nothing then rock sliders are a cheap piece of insurance. It looks like you have a Sahara from your photo, if you do those steps will crush if you hit them on a rock or log.

Mark Doiron

I know why he recommends this. I've seen the way he drives ...

Kojack

Anyone wanting a light weight low profile roof rack, Check out teraflex's nebo rack. That's the one we are going with this spring. As well as their rear cargo rack to have a place for more organization in the rear. NO sliding trays etc. just a light weight rack mounted to the sport rails.

KiwiDave

Thanks for the tip!

cbraunig

So I JUST finished reading this entire thread and I have so many ideas for my JKU that I did not previously have! My head is spinning with all of the great rigs and overland/ expedition knowledge that is in this thread. I still want to add a few more things before I can comfortably post on this thread lol. I watched this video this morning and wanted to share it with everyone in this thread because even though the guy selling the Jeep doesn't really know what he's saying, this may be my dream jeep. Check it out and let me know what you guys think.

- Cam

http://youtu.be/5zqNta1rTcU

Kargomastersafari

Looks like Eastern Washington hills there... I'm in Eastern Oregon... What mountain range is that?

Jzsquared

So I have finally made up my mind on tire size and installed them today.


i went with 35s on my AEV lift leaving me 7" of garage clearance so I wanted to know some more about what people actually put up on a rack to help me determine if I want one.
Now I must admit living in IL doesn't leave me a whole lot of areas to overland so it's mainly going to be a vacation rig. I have already done far more than I will ever use but hey I don't drink, gamble or otherwise spend money so this is my crack
In all seriousness though what are some of the things a roof rack is used for. I definitly will not buy a RRT simply because that is just too much even for me because it would be stored off the rig 98% of the time. What else do y'all use a roof rack for?

Mark Doiron

First off, good looking rig. I have friends who run and really like those tires.

Second, really good subject for discussion. I used to carry a lot of my gear up on the top rack. This was before organizing the interior with a rack, drawer and fridge slide. To be honest, having gear on the top rack means that instead of getting down the piece of kit you need (say a pot to cook dinner), you ask your trail buddy to just use his. It's a pain in the rear to store almost any gear up on top. On top of that, gear up on top adds to COG, and causes the Jeep to sway quite a bit, especially when driving in windy conditions and at high speeds. It's just not a very good answer. So, I reorganized my interior, adding the interior rack, and fridge slide, and a drawer. Once I did that, almost all of the gear on top came down into the interior, was much more easily accessible, meaning that now I'm that trail buddy who gets asked to borrow a pot. LOL.

However, that does not mean that the overhead rack is useless. First off, it provides support for the windshield lights. Of course, some may argue that you don't need them. However, since I've been known to ford rivers on occasion, rivers that would put my other lights underwater, having a set up high just in case I ever had to do that at night (generally I avoid night wheeling--that's a risk I need not take doing what I do in the remote places I go, so I leave that for the folks who enjoy wheeling in playgrounds instead of the wilderness). While I might not want to night wheel, the situation could come up, and it could involve a river ford. An unlikely combo of unexpected events, but the Boy Scout in me says to "Be Prepared!" The overhead lights sometimes come in useful at camp when setting up late. Just driving down the road or trail, I find the overhead lights a distraction because the hood and hood-mounted gear is lit up.

Second, an overhead rack is a great place to carry a set of MaxTrax. Yes, they could easily fit inside the Jeep somewhere, but they'd probably need to be removed to access other gear, and once used and muddy or icy or whatever, better to have a place to just strap them out of the way outside the passenger compartment. And, something to consider is if you're stuck, can you get such-and-such a door open to get at recovery gear inside the Jeep? Since I rarely need to get at them, having them up on top isn't like it was before with, say a pot, when I needed it at every campsite.

Third, during one run a few years ago I managed to slash open the sidewall of my tire. Here I was on the first 100 miles of a nearly 500 mile off-road trip looking at doing the last 400 miles with no spare. Not a very pleasant feeling. That's when I decided to start carrying a second spare on those trips where we'd be really far away from support for long distances. It goes up on the overhead rack, now secured to a rack that a friend and I fabricated up for it (okay, he did the fabbing and I did the sanding and painting, LOL).

Finally, what do you do if your buddy's Jeep breaks down and you decide that the best course of action is to abandon it? In my case, that buddy may be carry $10-20K worth of camera gear, and along with his personal gear, we're going to try to fit all of that into one Jeep. The overhead rack gives some flexibility in rearranging things. Not ideal to load up the top, but better than abandoning lots of expensive gear temporarily.

So, what do I recommend from all of this?

First priority should be to organize the vehicle interior so that everything you need day-to-day is easily accessed. If it can't all fit, keep working at it, go smaller, delete something or buy a four door (if you own a two door). But, with all that I carry, including a ton of camera gear, I doubt anyone running a four door has any problems fitting everything with a few organizing bits of kit (drawer, slide, etc).

Second priority should be an overhead rack for those just-in-case scenarios. It should not be used for the gear you need daily. Do consider the second spare if you go on extended trips like described above. Do consider overhead lights. And definitely carry a set of MaxTrax up there.

Finally, a few pics (because these threads are always more interesting with pictures) ...











It's a long story, but the wrapped up package on the overhead rack was a bit of cargo (a tent) that I was carrying for a friend from Washington whom I was meeting up with on this trail in Utah. Was light and wasn't needed during the trip, so carried up there so it would be out of the way.