really_good_guy

Here are some pics of the Kargo Master Roof Rack that I installed.





This is a great quality rack. IMO Kargo Master did a great job in making a quality rack that is durable yet still light weight. I installed the rack by myself and am able to put it on and take it off alone which makes it really handy. These pictures come directly after driving 1,900 miles from Riverside, CA to Fargo, ND (non-stop by the way - 36 hrs in the Jeep, talk about some good quality time spent with the JK!). Both cases on the rack were completely full. I am estimating total weight on the rack was around 200lbs. I had no problems at all during the trip.

Putting the rack together is pretty straight forward and only takes about 20 minutes. I found that putting the rack on the Jeep was a different story. Here is where it gets fun....

Ok, to start off....the foam padding that goes around the roll bars and is underneath the black covers makes it impossible to mount the rack. The foam increases the diameter so the mounting brackets wont work properly. You could probably fab some custom mounts, but instead I just ripped a section of that foam out. You dont need to rip all of it out just the part around the area you are going to mount the brackets. After you zip up the black covers you cant even tell the foam is gone except that they dont fit completely tight around the roll bar. That is all you have to do to mount the front brackets.

The rear roll bar (section past the sound bar) is bigger in diameter than the front roll bar. Because the roll bar is bigger, the brackets wont fit around it even if you rip the foam out. To combat the problem I lined the brackets directly up with a hole that is already put in the roll bar for the softop window frames. I then got a long 5/16 "eyelet" bolt and put up through the hole so the bracket is held on. (You can find the hole i am talking about if you look for the cutout on your roll bar covers) The brackets have hinges on them which on a TJ would wrap around the roll bar. Since the JK roll bars are bigger I just sawed the part of the bracket from the hinge on down off.

I know that sounds confusing, but it really is self explanatory if you had the rack and were dead set on making it work. Next time I have the rack on I will take pictures of the set up.

All in all, this is a great rack for someone that needs extra space on their JK but doesnt want to do ANY drilling into the body or (like me) isn't sold on the look of the racks that completely down and bolt into the body. The only downside of this set up is that it wont work with a full soft top; however, as you can see it will work with the Best Top Safari Top and (if you have them) windjammer, and duster cover.