Fab a roof rack

Don't know anything about welding, but how much would/should a roof rack cost to get fab'd? After looking around at what aftermarket products there are available, I have decided I don't like any of them enough to just buy... unless getting one made is going to cost some crazy amount!

How much is 1/2" or 3/4" square tubing anyway?

Where would I go to get one made? A maker of trailers?

Do you not have the factory roof rack? If not you will also have to consider reinforcing mounting points etc. Any half decent local fab shop should be able to make one up for you but you will need to provide decently accurate design plans. You can get 1/2" sq tubing at Home Depot so you should be able to price up the BOM there. What are you going to carry on it?

You could also make one up starting from a pre-made basket like these & adding roof rails http://www.accessconnect.com/safari.htm

If you want a factory rack there is currently want one on eBay http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eBayIS...sspagename=WDVW

I have the factory roof "rack" but I want one to go on top of it.

More specifically, I want a rack that goes all the way from the top of the airdam to the back. Angled in the front to match the slope of the factory roof bars. Seperated, so I can still pull the... whatever the hell that thing is, little dirty shoe holder thing, out. Place at the front where I can mount lights right at the top of airdam. I also want it to have one light mount on each side and two back-up light mounts in the rear.

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Like that

Why did you post the same thing 4 times?

3/4" round steel tubing is about $1.60 per foot. You can get at any local steel shop or metal fabricator if you have any local. Or you could price it at metalsdepot.com

I have been writing up the plans for a replacement rack I am going to build and I figure I need about 40-48 feet of it. It'll cost me about $76 just to by the tubing. Then the work begins. It will be similar to the Calmini rack but extend in the front kind of like the Land rover rack:

Posted that from work and I guess our servers didn't like me doing that??? Oops. Well that ascii didn't come out right either, how strange. Well I guess I'll draw up something and put it on here, and maybe someone has one like it. I wouldn't think it would be that expensive to pay someone to weld the stuff together, then again I have never had anything made before so I could be very wrong.

How about a little windows paint action!



Can't really tell that the front-most bar is angled to match the slop...

Was bored at work

You might get off cheaper by just purchasing a rack like the Proline Safari Rack or the Yakima load warrior

Make one; I made mine out of conduit, very light, cheep, and strong. And add some hooks for limb raisers, they work great for trails.

You know, I was actually thinking about using that stuff, but I didn't nkow if I would be able to find the right fittings to make the corners. Especially the front angles. I will have to make a trip to Lowes or Home Depot this weekend to see what I can find. I have never priced it before, but I bet it's fairly cheap compaired to steel square tubing and having to get it cut and welded. You say it's pretty strong huh? Strong is good Thanks a lot SS~