Roof Rack System recomendations

[Jeeper6]

Originally Posted by Colm

That sounds like the goods mate, what was it like to fit, pretty straight forward?

I piked out and had it fitted by Stu Murchison over at Brendale. There were a couple of dastadly tight bolts holding the roof rails in and I didn't want to do any unnecessary damage. Figured they had a bit more experience so left it to them...all good.

[Taprod]

Originally Posted by Jeeper6

I've got the full Chief rack fitted and it is great, no wind noise or vibration at all up to at least 120kmh that I can attest, and has a capacity of 150kg as opposed to the 68kg of the standard roof rails should I need it. I have an awning attached and carry the max trax...but heaps of room for more stuff as I require.

I wouldn’t recommend going over the manufacturer’s roof weight limit, no matter what the roof rack manufacturer claims


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[Grippy]

Originally Posted by Taprod

I wouldn’t recommend going over the manufacturer’s roof weight limit, no matter what the roof rack manufacturer claims


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Yep, it's attached to sheet metal, thin sheet metal at that!
At least the chief rails push the weight out to the pinch seams, however that does shit all for the up travel which will still wrench on the flimsy roof. A solution would be to brace under the sheet metal with a full length plate or something, but that would be a massive pain in the balls!

When I ordered mine after doing the Simmo and noticing some stress marks on the roof (only had a second spare up there and empty jerries) around the bolts, old mate at Murchison mentioned him having a bloke in there that had ripped his roof rack clean off (Stock) doing Cape Yorke, apparently he had his spare up there, hit a bit of a rut and she came off.

I reckon the corrugations are the worst for it, I put a short 1.4m rear awning on mine now, fits much better, had a 2m on for a while and with the corrugations across the Simmo, Oodna and Birdsville Tk i could see the end buzzing up and down like crazy (through sunroof) which surely is t good for the stress on the roof rack and mounts which are sub par from factory.

[Colm]

Originally Posted by Grippy

Yep, it's attached to sheet metal, thin sheet metal at that!
At least the chief rails push the weight out to the pinch seams, however that does shit all for the up travel which will still wrench on the flimsy roof. A solution would be to brace under the sheet metal with a full length plate or something, but that would be a massive pain in the balls!

When I ordered mine after doing the Simmo and noticing some stress marks on the roof (only had a second spare up there and empty jerries) around the bolts, old mate at Murchison mentioned him having a bloke in there that had ripped his roof rack clean off (Stock) doing Cape Yorke, apparently he had his spare up there, hit a bit of a rut and she came off.

I reckon the corrugations are the worst for it, I put a short 1.4m rear awning on mine now, fits much better, had a 2m on for a while and with the corrugations across the Simmo, Oodna and Birdsville Tk i could see the end buzzing up and down like crazy (through sunroof) which surely is t good for the stress on the roof rack and mounts which are sub par from factory.

When I was researching roof racks the other day I came accross this Guy

Custom FrontRunner Roof Rails Install For a Roof Top Tent on a 2016 Jeep Grand Cherokee WK2 - YouTube

He has developed his own system and method for securing the roof rack system as he carries a RTT around with him the whole time. I can't remember now if he mentions it in his comments on youtube or the thread where I came accross this, But he too was worried about the damage the up-travel was doing going over ruts.

[Jeeper6]

Absolutely taprod, always be mindful of manufacturer specs. The WK2 roof is pretty flimsy and light weight. Roof racks only weighs about 18kg and has limits too, the Chief rack sits on the roof on rubber strips from front to back using the original bolt locations that secured the rails to secure it.
The load is spread from front to back both sides using the strongest section of the roof for support.
That said, i wouldn't be putting 150kgs up there partly for centre of gravity reasons, but very good for the lighter stuff that normally takes up space inside.

[mightbuyajeep]

I fitted the Uneek tradesman rack to my WK2 at the start of last year for an interstate trip. I'm sure I've commented in another thread on here somewhere, but I experienced wind noise above 80km/h and a fair hit to my fuel economy (+2L l/100km). I played around with the height of the wind deflector and even removed it at one point, but found that resting it on the roofline did the best job of eliminating noise. Unfortunately the supplied pinchweld edge damaged the clear coat. To their credit Uneek have offered to pay for repairs but do to lockdowns down here in Vic I havent gotten around to it.

Since I commute at highway speed to and from work, due to the wind noise and fuel economy I removed the rack after a few months as I wasnt using it.

I'm probably due to refit it soon for another trip. I might try reinforcing the wind deflector or finding a better aftermarket solution.

I dont want to scare you off buying this rack in particular as it seems really well made, but the Chief and ORA look to have a better wind deflector.

[LeCheese]

Originally Posted by Colm

Did you have to get a couple of planks with the the Chief rails to get them to sit right or were you able to attach the rack straight to the rails?

Rack straight to the rails - plenty of mounting holes in the Chief rails so just a matter of aligning to suit. Honestly it was easier than I expected. Although, the Chief rails were initially designed using the Pioneer platform, then they designed their own planks later, so it makes sense that it all works.