roof rack

September 25, 2022May 16, 2023

Reduce, Recycle, Reuse, Roof Rack (Post #601) 9/25/2022

While visiting my buddy JagGuy at his awesome shop, I saw something in his metal trash trailer. It was a mesh like material. I went over to check it out and it was a door off a server rack. You’ve seen these before or maybe you haven’t been in a server room where physical access the servers is secured by a keyed door of some kind or other.

I asked him if I could save it from the recyclers. He said, “Sure.” I told him I was going to see if it would work as a floor for my roof rack. We ate barbeque, chatted for a while, and I tossed the door in the truck and drove home.

The door was about 74 inches in length and 23.5 inches in width. My roof rack is 4 foot by 4 foot. So this door, cut in half, fit perfectly across and left about a foot of space uncovered along the length.

I cut the door in half with my angle grinder and a cutoff wheel. I dry fitted the halves on the roof rack and was happy with the results. I went to the hardware store (twice, or was it three times, maybe twice to one store and once to another) to get stainless steel bolts, washers, and nyloc nuts.

I wiped the door with some grease and dust remover. I then painted it with some black spray paint I had left over from another project. I removed the roof rack from the roof and drilled my holes (lots of holes some in the wrong places) and got the hardware installed and tightened up. Several of the bolts failed catastrophically when I was tightening them up. Each one that failed, failed about the same as the others about midway up the bolt. My dad used to complain about the cheap Japanese products that began flooding the country in the 1970s. Today we complain about the cheap CHINESE parts that flood our country. I didn’t check the country of origin on these bolts, but let’s go with China for arguments sake. Bring back American made hardware. I promise not to complain too much when they fail. At least if they fail, an American had a job making them and we aren’t sending money to a country determined to destroy us. (stepping off soap box)

I recorded several videos of my cutting and narrative about what I was going to do only to have my phone camera fail in the heat of my shop.

The temperature in the shoppe was 110F that day. I would have this trouble again later when recording video for several other projects. I really need to upgrade my camera equipment to a GoPro or something. Maybe my wife will buy me one for my birthday in two weeks….hint, hint. (who are we kidding, she doesn’t read my blog, she’ll never see this)

So I have the upgraded roof rack installed and I’m pretty happy with it. I feel pretty good about myself too. I recycled and reused something that would have just been thrown away, eventually bought by a Chinese scrapper, and made into some cheap crap and sent back to America for someone to buy and then either throw away, or be stacked in a garage packed full of crap.

Thanks for reading and Happy Rovering.

December 17, 2013May 15, 2023

How tall is it? (Post #421) 12/17/2013

Yesterday I was asked to pick up Mr. Fisher from the Enterprise Car Rental post at Will Rogers World Airport.

Yes, both of OKC’s airports are named for two guys that died in the same 1935 plane crash.

So as you know I have a roof rack and the added height was my first concern considering all the close parking is in the garages at the airport. My colleague here at work is 6’2″ and as we were leaving work yesterday I had him stand next to the Range Rover so I could get an estimate of how tall the Rangie stood today. We guessed 6’6″.

As I pull up to the parking garage which inside resides the Enterprise Rental office they had a bar hanging to prevent these very problems. Both lanes had a bar that said 6’8″. The bar on the left lane hung at least 2 inches below the one on the right and was off kilter a bit. I assumed someone had rammed it. I chose the right lane. I slowed way down opened the sunshade on the sunroof and proceeded with caution.

You can see the different heights on the bars.

The good news, I was well clear of it AND when I got to the actual garage I cleared that too. The bad news, I don’t think I can park in the park garage at McBride Clinic any longer. That garage has a very low clearance.

I was thinking of doing an experiment and taking the rack off for a couple of tanks of gas to get the actual mileage it cost me. I’m guessing 1.5 miles per gallon. I normally drive like an idiot and go as fast as the traffic will allow. I also plan to limit myself to 65 mph and see how that affects the gas mileage on my daily commute. I’ll report the numbers as they come up. I need to replace my oxygen sensors and may do that first depending on cash flow in January.

I saw a couple of Classics this week. ON my morning commute I saw a black Classic with a “Keep Calm and Chive On” sticker on the rear glass. He gave me an enthusiastic wave. The other was a white one parked on the street in OKC.

I’ve also had several emails of late referencing the difficulty of finding the resistor pack for the blower motor. Apparently they are not in stock any where.

Thanks for reading and Happy Rovering.

October 12, 2013May 15, 2023

Birthday Roof Rack (Post #401) 10/12/2013

My wife got me the roof rack I was looking at a few months ago. My future son-in-law Brian and I put it together. RovErica did the intel and figured out what I wanted.

I think it looks great. It needs a deck of some type and I think it would be complete. I’ve already decided to put a work light on the rear. The Hella 1000s on the front are showing their wear now, time for an upgrade.

Thanks for reading and Happy Roof Racking.

May 10, 2013May 15, 2023

Accessories You Didn’t Know You Needed (Post #338) 5/10/2013

I’ve been looking for accessories for the Circumnavigation Trip. I’m pretty sure I need a few things to dress up the Range Rover.

First, I need a roof rack. I have one picked out. I think I’ll get the 50×50 rack. Its small enough to load the things I really need.

It’s not terribly expensive. I couldn’t buy a welding unit and materials for what it will cost me to just buy one already made.

I have thought about how I would load a canoe if I were ever to buy one. The short roof rack would not be long enough alone. I would need to add a Thule bar to finish it out if that ever presented itself as a problem.

I will need some fuel cans. The natural response would be to get some “jerry cans”. They are very “Rat Patrol” like and have a cool factor of 11. I have seen some other systems that I like equally well and they would be lower profile and less apt to be stolen.

This is the exact thing that came to mind when I first started thinking about auxiliary fuel tanks.

My neighbor has these strapped to his ATV’s. They ride flat and are perhaps easier to mount. They can be stacked as well.

Of course this would be totally awesome. Rear bumper mounted fuel tank and spare tire. This is from Rock Rover out of Tulsa, Oklahoma. I’ve inquired about a bumper for a Range Rover Classic. I’ll let you know what they say. If they can’t do it, this looks like a good reason for me to learn to weld.

Other than a ring-mounted mini-gun, I’m not sure what else I might need.
Look for more posts on outfitting as we get closer to our Circumnavigation Trip.

My OkieRover Facebook page got a message from Myles in OKC, he has a 1993 and wants meet up and talk Rovers…That will be fun. Always good to meet a fellow Land Rover owner.

Thanks for reading and Happy Rovering.

December 16, 2012May 15, 2023

Roof Rack Dilemma (Post #308) 12/16/2012

I was visiting the Atlantic British website (Did you know that have partnered with British Pacific?) yesterday looking for springs and shocks. I think I have that sorted out and am ready to purchase them. Bilstein shocks and Old Man Emu/ARB springs, medium duty. I may still look at TerraFirma equivalents but short of that I’ll go with this solution. This should give me a little lift and still be able to be loaded a bit. Heavy duty springs would stiffen the on highway ride too much. I won’t be using the Range Rover hard enough or often enough to require springs of that caliber.

So after I was scoping out the springs and shocks I got to thinking about stuff to ready the Range Rover for our Circumnavigation of the Great State of Oklahoma. I’ve been thinking about a vehicle wrap and other such silliness. Sponsors? Hey now that’s an idea.

A realistic concern is getting too far from a petrol station. The range on the fuel in the tank is just short of 250 miles. I am thinking perhaps I should plan to carry additional fuel in jerry-cans. And if you are going to do that, you need a roof rack. Seriously, trust me, that is sound logic.

I was also thinking how cool a roof rack would look on the Range Rover. We are going on an expedition, we need to look the part! Am I wrong? I don’t think so!

So I was looking through all the great posts on making your own roof rack at Expedition Portal. Guys have made some seriously awesome roof racks. I know I could made a roof rack. I’d need a welding unit, some grinding wheels, cutting wheels, a ruler, some angle magnet thingies, welding goggles, pipe benders, and some material. It would have to be metal so should I use round stock or square stock?

By the time I spent the money on the tools and stock I still wouldn’t have a roof rack. I could go to my mate JagGuy’s awesome shop and have the welder, bender, and goggles sorted out. A four pack of Boddington’s and perhaps a nice bottle of wine and I’d probably have the basic training needed. But I still wouldn’t have a roof rack.

I could just buy a roof rack. WHAT? You have to be insane. Why buy when you can make? Well, time mostly, that’s why.

I am still in school and next semester is a busy one. Also I’m thinking weight is a factor. So I’m thinking of buying.

$199.95 50″x50″ Roof Rack
$54.95 Roof Rack Gutter Mount
$29.03 FedEx Ground Home Delivery

For around 285$(US) I could have a functioning roof rack. Easy-peazy. No welding, no sourcing steel, no new tools. Hotsy-totsy! I bet you thought hotsy-totsy meant something else didn’t you?

Doesn’t that look great? That rack would look great on my Range Rover. I’ll still need to fabricate some jerry-can brackets. The price on-line was a bit too much for what I saw. The brackets are more expensive than the cans. That seems a bit silly.

If I hit the lottery tomorrow I could probably drop 3000$(US) on kitting out the Range Rover and would probably be short a few items. As it stands I’ll be out shipping and nearly 800$(US) for springs and new shocks. The price above for the roof rack plus 2-4 fuel 20 liter jerry-cans. With all this bolt on poser stuff I still haven’t addressed some serious issues.

The air conditioning is still non-functional.
The transmission still needs to be refurbished.
The ABS system is still in fault.

The repair parts for that stuff will probably run up to 2000$(US). At the end however, I’ll be pretty confident I have a rig we can use at some events. Perhaps I’ll even be able to get Mrs. OkieRover to go camping with me. Wait…how much more money will I spend for that?

On this day there was a terrible tragedy in Connecticut Remember it isn’t guns that kill kids, sick people kill kids. That sick bastard was going to commit a horrible crime. If he didn’t have a single firearm he’d have used a car or something else.

Say a prayer for the families that lost their children, say a prayer for the people who will deal with this for the rest of their lives.

And finally say a prayer for our country to come together in these difficult times.

Thanks for reading and Happy Rovering.