Protype Roof rack
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Senior Member
Joined: Feb 2009
Posts: 126
From: Louisville, KY
This thread is an old one, but thank you for the interest. With the end of HUMMER production, so was the end of our hopes to produce a roof rack in larger quantities. We ended up making less than thirty units total. All from steel verses the aluminum we had started working with.
The ladder was tossed out quickly, it took longer to deploy than it did to just hop up on top the roof. Plus it took up valuable space on the shorter version rack, only held about 250 pounds tops, and cost the most to fabricate. We did make a ladder rail that would fit in the original tire carrier bolt spaces. two versions, one that kept the tire in the original spot, one that moved it to the roof. We also cut round pockets into the front deflector for lighting on a few models. That ended up looking better than expected.
Wish we had better news, but you are more than welcome to use the design to make your own, or have one made. Any good welder should be able to make quick work of the rack. Probably stronger and cheaper than any dealer could do on commercial racks.
FYI if you decide to build your own, to keep the mounts from rusting near the roof rails, have the tabs you use to slip under the rail for clamping, cut and tapped from aluminum. Stainless bolts help too, as does a thin layer of rubber stripping at the base of the rack where the rails meet the metal leg of the rack. In the photos the center support leg did not have rack mounts, only the ends, I would strongly suggest adding a mount to the center of your own design. This was the only version we made without them.
The ladder was tossed out quickly, it took longer to deploy than it did to just hop up on top the roof. Plus it took up valuable space on the shorter version rack, only held about 250 pounds tops, and cost the most to fabricate. We did make a ladder rail that would fit in the original tire carrier bolt spaces. two versions, one that kept the tire in the original spot, one that moved it to the roof. We also cut round pockets into the front deflector for lighting on a few models. That ended up looking better than expected.
Wish we had better news, but you are more than welcome to use the design to make your own, or have one made. Any good welder should be able to make quick work of the rack. Probably stronger and cheaper than any dealer could do on commercial racks.
FYI if you decide to build your own, to keep the mounts from rusting near the roof rails, have the tabs you use to slip under the rail for clamping, cut and tapped from aluminum. Stainless bolts help too, as does a thin layer of rubber stripping at the base of the rack where the rails meet the metal leg of the rack. In the photos the center support leg did not have rack mounts, only the ends, I would strongly suggest adding a mount to the center of your own design. This was the only version we made without them.
Member
Joined: Apr 2009
Posts: 52
From: Some would say within a whisper
Would you be willing to post your schematics or email them to me so a welder could use the dimensions and additional info relative to tubing thickness etc. I would consider making a slightly larger version for the H2.
thanks
thanks
