roof rack progress

[evldave]

Well, I don't have $1000+ for the Gobi rack, so I decided to do the same I've done for all my other offroad rigs - build my own. Sorry for the messy pictures, only about halfway through, but wanted to give a progress update.

[evldave]

View from the front. The diamond plate is what the front fairing will look like. Except it will be black.

[evldave]

Rear extra supports to hold the spare tire carrier (not built yet) and kayak mounts (rear of the sea kayak). Once the tire goes up top, I'll figure out a separate mount for my bike rack to hang off the back so I don't have to lift it up top once I get the RC lift!

[DarthKarl]

Looking good. Looking forward to final install pics

[evldave]

Last one, from the other side. YOu can see the metal grid mesh I'll use for the floor of the rack. It will be cut into 3 pieces and 'set in' on the round tubes making the whole floor the same height, but with the crossbars part of the floor (does that make sense?). Should be able to stand on it without any problems + will have plenty of space for storage/bins/gas/etc.

[DDWH]

Looks good so far!

[Vandakeg]

You forgot a close-up shot of the most important part... the poster on the wall!!

[The Green Lantern]

looks great, I was thinking about that today - a customized roof rack. About how much that thing weigh?

[evldave]

Right now, it's light enough to lift easily - maybe 30-40lbs. Once the floor goes in and the sides go on, I'm figuring 60-75lbs. Of course, I've got a lot of weight planned for it:

3 jerry cans (120lbs)
3 water cans (120lbs)
Spare tire (75lbs?)
Hi-Lift (30lbs)
Sea Kayak (60lbs x2)
recovery gear (40-60lbs)

Just the basics are 500-600lbs, so if the rack weight a little extra few pounds, no biggie.

My biggest concern will be tipover issues, but I had a similar rack on my lifted Jeep and never really had any serious issues. Time will tell...

[jp's-h3]

Is that a beach towel? NICE!

[Ma\'Deuce]

looks like it's gonna work. i like it. i'm planning to do the same(make one) as i'm spendin more than i want to on the H3. How are you mounting it to your hummer? I've seen some rack "T"mounting brackets that will mount to the slot rails on the roof. basiclly their just flat stock that have holes in em and will slide in the roof slots. then you mount an "L"bracket to them and tighten them down. seems like it would be pretty easy to make some custom "towers" to hold your rack. anyway, can't wait to see the final product. keep us updated with pics. oh yea, you SHOULD post a close up of your girlfriends pic hangin on your wall. http://www.elcova.com/infopop/emoticons/icon_smile.gif

[Edspad]

looks cool, to hell with the other racks when you have the skill and equipment to build your own.

[evldave]

ok, so I've been working (regular work) too much to do anymore so far this week, but I got nothing going on this week and should finish all the welding.

Some rough comments:

The towel I got in south beach a few years ago. Nice boobies, it's a great garage accessory. My nekkid pixies picture of a girl with a drill I lost in a recent breakup (much better than the towel...the picture, not the girl).

The roof mounts will be 1" .065 round stock, 2-3/4" in height, welded to a 1-1/2"x3"x3/16" flat plate. The plates will mount to the rails via the same mechanism the little tiedown dohickies mount (a flat plate under the rails with a stainless bolt).

In the rear, the rack sits out back behind the rail, so I'll cut the round stock to match the front-back round stock and the rack will sit about 6-8" out over the rear roof mounting point.

The two center crossrails will mount on the roundbar.

The front crossrail is ~10-12" in front of the front plastic mounting bolt (torque bit). A 3/4 square stock (.065, same as the upper rails) will fit perfectly down in the hole. I've already made up a special tool to tighten that down and it will come up to the frontback roundstock and hold up the front portion of the roofrack.

The roof antenna (onstar?) sits right below the floor plate of the rack, which is why I went with that height of the rack.

There will be 4 supports on each side, 3 on the rails, 1 on the front bolt.

The rear tire will go up top, and I'll make up a bike mount for the stock rear tire mount.

The top rail is set up to exactly fit th 4xRac for the hi-lift mount, plus it nicely fits the PIAA 1500XT on the rear. The front will have separate mounts built in to hold lights.

The whole rack will be either line-x, rhino, or herculiner. My finish welds aren't really nice enough for powdercoat, plus I want to line-x the fenders (like Bebe) and that would be a good match.

Total dimensions are 4'1" x 8'1" - almost exactly the size of the roof. It may be a little too big, but I've done some fits and it seems to go nice with the lines of the vehicle. The roundbar/square stock seems to go well with the design of the vehicle, but you can only tell when it's all done.

Alec-I agree, the Gobi looks fantastic, but have some patience - when this is done, it will look nice + it will only be maybe $300 in parts & it will be exactly what I want, not what everyone else has. I bought my Hummer first for it's offroad capabilities, but also for it's uniqueness (otherwise I would have kept my XJ). If it doesn't look good, you can pick on me all you want, but I think/hope even you will be impressed when it's done.

[evldave]

Another update, now on the Hummer for a 1st fit. The lines are near perfect, except I made the mounting posts too high. I was trying to clear the onstar antenna and guess I must have been drinking when I did the original measurement!

I'm cutting 2" off the posts and the antenna should fit exactly at the bottom of the floor (got the expanded metal today, will be all welded in this weekend).

[The Green Lantern]

That looks awesome!!, great job evldave. http://www.elcova.com/infopop/emoticons/icon_wink.gif

[evldave]

OK, all done with the main work. Still have to make the front roof mounts, but I'l lsave that for Sunday.

[evldave]

From the other side

[evldave]

Rear view

[evldave]

I am a pad whore, deal with it

[jp's-h3]

Sweet rack!
Next on list of chores, CLEAN GARAGE!

[Rutdogg]

You need to powder coat it black.

[H3less]

Sweeet, Would love to do the same but I am a perfectionist and don't weld, yet! Tell me when your going into business! Love the gobi racks but...someone has to pay for the overhead!
You should build a ladder for the back now and mount it to the holes left behind when you take your spare and put it up top! I e-mailed Gobi about building a similar rack to the one they make for the H2, no answer yet! http://www.elcova.com/infopop/emoticons/icon_razz.gif

[timgco]

Originally posted by H3wanabie:
Sweeet, Would love to do the same but I am a perfectionist and don't weld, yet! Tell me when your going into business! Love the gobi racks but...someone has to pay for the overhead!
You should build a ladder for the back now and mount it to the holes left behind when you take your spare and put it up top! I e-mailed Gobi about building a similar rack to the one they make for the H2, no answer yet! http://www.elcova.com/infopop/emoticons/icon_razz.gif

still haven't got an E mail. http://www.elcova.com/infopop/emoticons/icon_confused.gif
I'll ask Sandra.

If you are wanting a rack that holds the tire like the H2, it will be released next month.

[H3less]

Thanks, got the e-mail, hope to see photo's as soon as you have them. http://www.elcova.com/infopop/emoticons/icon_biggrin.gif

[CampMaster]

That looks great! Can't wait to see it after you get it coated.

Are you going to run wires for lights before you get it coated?

[evldave]

Sorry for the delay in getting back, been busy the last few days....

I'm likely going to line-x the rack. I called around and am looking at $200 or so for the powdercoat - it's a 4'x8' rack and to get 90% black is expensive. 20% black is cheaper, but will be duller and I don't think it will look as nice with the black H3. Plus my welds are strucurally sound, but my finish work could use some work. I'll get my grill line-x at the same time, so that's the way I'm going as the line-x will cover some of my incompetence.

After the rack is up, I'm going to make a removable rear ladder that doubles as a sand ladder. Haven't got the exact design yet, but shouldn't be too hard to come up with something that does dual purpose.

There will be light tabs on the front (x4) and the back (x2). I won't wire it for awhile as I want to run it up top with gear to see what other wiring I might need. My current plan is to run a single 6 or 8 gauge wire up for power, along with 4-conductor trailer wiring for control and have a water-tight relay box in the rack. That's an easy way to set up to start, and if I include enough extra power wire, and I'm so inclined, I can run a 2nd battery up top and use the 6 gauge wire as charging wire, then run rooftop accessories off the backup battery. I don't do a while lot of off-camber wheeling, so weight isn't much of an issue, and there will be plenty of extra space for a Viar air compressor (400 series) and 2.5 lb air tank (VIA91025).

And for anyone interested in having me make them one, I work for beer http://www.elcova.com/infopop/emoticons/icon_wink.gif

[saleen779]

any updated pics?

[evldave]

None yet, but the rack is primered & painted, mounts are done and it would be on the Hummer right now if I had bought the right length bolts to mount to the roof rails. http://www.elcova.com/infopop/emoticons/icon_mad.gif

I'm splitting for the weekend (headed down to the redwoods for a weekend of camping and some hiking - I'll be pics of the hummer!), but I'll take some pics of the rack installed mid-next week. Got a quote from the Line-x dealer for $250 to have it line-x's - gotta wait for payday, so will be another couple weeks before it's finally done and fully ready to go.

[saleen779]

lol, well post 'em up when it's done!!! wish you lived closer to dallas to make an h2 one.

[NEOCON1]

looking good great project http://www.elcova.com/infopop/emoticons/icon_cool.gif

[alex3d]

hey nice poster in your garage, hotty girl

[Steve - SanJose]

Nice rack (on the H3). Wind noise okay at highway speeds?


S.

[evldave]

It's actually pretty good. There's a low frequency wind noise you can notice at lower speeds in the wind. But once you get up to highway speeds the tire noise actually ends up louder unless there's a heavy crosswind. Fortunately, there's no whistle sound, and even the little noise there is can easily be ignore with the radio...

I'm also planning a black diamond plate fairing for the front and will eventually plate the sides as well. That should help with any leftover noise from the wind.

I have noticed after driving it for a week or so, it's a lot more susceptable to crosswinds, even though it's an open rack. I've had numerous other more 'boxy' racks that don't have this problem (on my suburban and my jeep), so it's taken some getting used to so I don't accidently overcorrect into other lanes.

But it looks cool and it's functional and that's all that really matters!

[z]

That is as a nice Job! The Goby Boy is over priced so I decide to make my own as well. I just stuck to the basics but it is 51in wide by 8ft long. I still need to add the steel mesh. Total cost $60.00

[z]

I've been pricing Safari racks for some time now but either they are too expensive "Goby Boy" or just don't fit the full length of the hummer. So I made my own.
I went to an iron supplier in town and I purchased 1in angle iron and 3in for the legs. The box is 8ft 1/4in in length and 51in inside width. For the legs, I cut a piece of a 3in angle iron at 1-1/2in wide.
The difficulty was squaring the box and spacing the legs. I used a small wire feed welder to put the pieces together so that I would be able to break off anything that did not fit once I measured it against the H3 roof. Once I was happy with the fit I simple used a good welder and secured the welds properly.
Then I simply went to Lowe's and found 3/8 metal body clips that are often used in fender wells and used 3/8 x 1 1/2in hex bolts to mount the rack. I did have to put 2- 3/8 x 1 1/2 wide washers to space between the rail and the legs. This was to keep the legs off of the molding of the H3.
I also had to cut off the top part of the metal clips because I only needed the treaded side. The metal clips will not fit whole inside the mounting rail of the H3. Once I cut the clips with a grinding wheel, I simple dropped the clips inside the rail and twisted them into position. The clips will not slide in from the front of the rail because they will hit the existing bolt inside the rail.
I still have modification to go like mounting brackets for axle, shovel, jack, lights and steel mesh, But for now it’s a start.

[HummerNewbie]

Looking good z

[z]

Here is a side view but my cell didn't do a good job of taking the pic.

[DDWH]

nice!

[MyxH3]

Nice job.. make sure to post the finished product