I have been asked by a couple forum members to give a write-up on my roof rack. I searched and searched for a roof rack that "looked good" while still served it's purpose and I couldn't find one that I thought still looked cool and would serve a purpose so I decided to build my own. I must give credit to another forum member (forgot whom it was) as I saw something similiar on a pic of his jeep and that is what inspired me.

I will try to do this from memory, so here it goes:

Materials Needed:

Warrior Roof Rack
2-Ford Explorer 4-door roof track mounts (got mine for $25 at junk yard)
4-Pieces of metal strips from Lowes (approx. 2" x 24"x 1/8" thick)
Drill
Silicone
Bolts, Washers and Nuts

I measured the distance between the two longitudinal bars on the bottom of the warrior rack, I think they were like 36" apart or something. I then measured entire width of roof rack, did the calculations to ensure I put the roof rack in the center of the top. After lining this up I placed the rack as far back as I could (more on this reasoning later) so the ends of the Explorer roof tracks were basically by the edge line of the back of the hard top.

I placed the unmounted tracks where I measured them to be then I put the warrior rack on top of them, the size of the longitudinal bars of the Explorer tracks was the perfect width for the bottom bars of the warrior rack to rest perfectly on. At this point I picked my locations to drill my holes. What I was trying to find (and did) was locations where I only had to drill through the longitudinal bars of the warrior rack. Another thing that I "lucked out on" and I would advise you do is measure to make sure one of the holes you are going to drill lines up on the inside of the hard top (right around the middle of the hard top there is an "depressed area" area about 2.5" wide and about 28" long (from memory probably not exact). I thought of this area of a great place to put one on my metal "cross members" so I made sure one of the holes I drilled through the top came through this "depressed area".

After drilling holes, 4 on each side I placed the bolts through the holes and through the roof and got underneath the top to do next step. I took the pieces of metal, made sure that they are long enough to reach both holes and I marked locations to drill holes in these metal sheets. My thinking was that these will act like HUGE washers and when I am pulling UP on the top it will spread the force throughout the entire top and not just a concentrated area around the bolt. I did this at front, back and 2 middle locations (one of the middle being the depressed area mentioned before). Now everything was in place I removed the bolts and siliconed the crap out of the holes and put the bolts back through (from top, through warrior roof rack, through explorer track racks, through hard top, through metal "cross members") and put a large washer and bolt on the bottom. Did this at all locations, tightened everything up, Re-bedlined the interior of my top....and I was done.

Took me about 6-8 hours over the period of two days. I have had it on for about 8 months, took a 5000+ mile roadtrip with over 250 lbs strapped up there. I have been offroading with it on, and it has seen PLENTY of rain.

The only issue I have is that on the road trip with front freedom panels off and rear (with roof rack) still on I could hear a loud whistle (wind noise from around the front of the roof rack from going about 60 mph). With front freedom panels on I cannot hear it AT ALL...even with the radio off. I have had no leaks to date (knock on wood) and when I remove my top I actually remove it by lifting from the roof rack.

I now carry my spare tire (35") up there, with a shovel, axe and gas can and still have no issues.

 

this is what i will do also great job looks very clean..

 

Thanks... Work's well for me!

 

Looks good, thanks for the write up

 

Thanks so much for the write up. I may have missed it but why did you place it as far back as you could?

I have a rack waiting to be mounted like this but I don't have
the acorns to drill my top.

 

Sorry... Forgot to add that part... My idea is the center of my rack is directly above the rear roll bar. So when I put extremely heavy things up there I wedge a 4x4 or something else between the top and the rollbar. This would let 80-90% of the weight from the rack Be transferred to the roll bar Instead of the hard top.

This works extremely well as I have had A LOT of weight up there ... Maybe 500lbs+....with no issues at all. The plan is to purchase some black hard plastic blocks and permanently mount them to the rollbar leaving about a 1/16 th of an inch between top and hard plastic so there will always be something there to transfer the weight from the top to the roll bar.

 

If you tied you interior cross pieces to the sides of the top, you would probably redistribute the weight down the sides of the top. Since the sides are tied to the body of the Jeep, this would provide a more even distribution of weight than you could achieve by compensating for the sag with a 2x4.

Of course, if you started out using the sides as the focus points for the weight distribution instead of trying to spread it out over a wider but weaker area, you would be better off and you could have gotten away with using well nuts to fasten a track that you would then use to attach your rack to.
All weight placed in the rack would then be distributed to the strongest part of the top instead of the weakest.

Just an observation...

 

I'm likeing it

 

I don't know if I missed it, but what basket is that?

 

You missed it! It's in the title (Warrior).