wanakena

We just purchased a 2013 JK with a three piece hardtop. I would like to carry two ultra light canoes on top ( total weight 45 Lbs ). Can I use simple bracket and crossbars mounted directly to the rear portion of the hardtop? It would seem that the weight of snow on the roof in any given storm exceeds the weight of these canoes. Any suggestions?

arjeeper

It's not the downward weight, it's the pulling and tension of wind forces and bouncing around that you'd have to worry about.

That said, lots of guys do the hardtop rack thing with all kinds of gear with zero problems. I gotta say, I'd never use a hardtop for bearing weight myself, but I've not heard of anyone having a hardtop failure because of it.

I guess, given very affordable options like the Kargomaster, it just doesn't seem worth to to me.

bfschor

Here's two types I've been considering..... I believe the 1st one if from Off Camber Fabrications and the 2nd one is from Thule. I found these through a Google search "2-door JK roof rack" and just scroll through the images.

sitting duk

What year is your jeep? I was looking into the off camber fab, and they have not made a roof rack that fits the newer hardtop (2011+ 2-door). I emailed them, and they told me they're not working on one at this time. Maybe if they get enough interest they might?

bfschor

Mine is a 2013.....I haven't dug deep enough to find out what fits, so this is news to me. I figured the one in the picture looks like a 2007 or better and as far as hardtops go, I thought the only difference was the size of the back glass??

I wonder why they (off camber) wouldn't be working on one for the 2011 and current? Can't be that much of a design change, but maybe like you say, there's not enough demand. Or maybe they're not that strong.

Blksilverado

I was looking at the off camber fab rack also, and emailed them.. It sounded like if they got enough demand they would fab up a rack for the newer 2 doors. Send them a email and ask..

bfschor

Email sent. I just wonder what the real differences are between the 2 hardtops when looking at how that's mounted.

Blksilverado

They made the windows bigger on the newer hardtops, which make the mounts not work.

sitting duk

As blksilverado said, the windows grew and now interfere with the current drill points.

Range_Time

I used a old Cherokee XJ roof rack on my hard top.


I cut the cross bars shorter so it would ride on the ridges of the hard top.


Held it all together with tie downs to get everything mocked up and mark the pilot holes.


Drilled the hard top in the 8 spots where the orignal mounting points on the rack were. We used a shop vac as we drilled to stop the fiberglass going all over the inside of the jeep.


We were going to used 1 inch wide strips of aluminum on the inside of the hard top to act as a load spreader along the length of the install, but ended up just use large fender washers.
The load or downwards force is well spread out from the rack itself and we did over 400 miles with it loaded last weekend including a few hunderd at highway speeds and 140 off road on the Mojave trail with zero issues so am happy with the fender washers on the inside.

Now its no Gavin or Gobi rack but my total investment was about $4 for the hardware and $30 for the rack form a pick and pull. i would think you'd be good with 75-100lb up there (depending on off road conditions and driving style) as that is what we must have had in the end and works great until i can save up for a Gobi Stealth. I think i keep my eye open on Craigs list for a THUL basket that i can put on and off just to reduce the time it takes to strap everything down.





make zero noise at 80mph unloaded, is low enough so i can still get in my garage and looks almost factory. You could make a 2 door version just by cutting down the rails that run front to back for length.

Dave