Discuss: Roof Racks

buggman

buggman

Do not touch the trim!
I know some of you have installed roof racks from Explorers, Escapes, or other vehicles on Rangers.

Here's the place to drop some knowledge for anyone considering the mod for themselves.
Feel free to post pics of your roof racks, mounting methods, how you use them, light installations, etc.

After many months of searching in my garage, I finally found mine tonight & I'll be posting some pics & measurements once I get them cleaned up & painted. I didn't get the sliding rail portions off the Explorer, so I'm gonna devise some method of mounting them that will be secure & rustproof (or at least rust prohibitive).

My initial idea is to have 4 hella 500ff's aiming frontwards and 2 more facing backwards. Not sure how this will look or work :p

I'm looking at ideas as to how to hide the wiring completely in the channel & inside the side mounts if possible. Looks like I'm gonna be modding myself another radio bezel... with 3 or 4 more oem fog switches in it.
 
As far as hiding the wires go get some of the sliders and run the wires thru that and I'm not sure how u would get it in the cab other than drilling a hole and caulking around it to seal it under the roof rack.
 
I'm thinking about using something like these firewall waterproof grommets...

liquid-tight-cable-gland-567922.jpg


I have one for my 1/0ga amp wire & it hasn't leaked yet. Maybe one on the driver's side for power & one on the pass side for grounds?
I'm thinking I could run some flexible tubing through the grommet & fish the wires up through the tubing & seal all the wires in there.

I'll need a few of them... for the roof & firewall.

Although it would be nice to find some oem wiring connectors that are used to pass through the body or firewall. That would make things a lot simpler.
 
True, I'll have to find a more suitable sealant than my normal silicone... any ideas on something that will seal up really well, have some adhesive stickieness & remain flexible?
 
I would think some regular silicon would work Terry. Think about it, it works fine for the 3rd bl so why wouldn't it work on something the size of a quarter?
 
okay ill pop in here lol i installed mine with loctite adhesive/sealant on the bottom of rack then ran clear silicone around the entire base of rack and over screws, no leaks!!!!
 
Well, it was a fairly nice & warm yet windy day today & I finally got my racks washed up looking much better.

Since I don't have the side mounting tracks, I'm going to have to engineer some way to use the thumb wheel screws to pass through the roof & hold everything in place. I cut into a couple of the thumb screws & did a little modding so that the thumb wheels will now just be a cover for the bolts used to mount the feet to the truck.

Also noticed that the "feet" on the ends have a slight bow in them that won't allow them to set flush on the roof, so I'll have to do a little shaping with one of my belt sanders to get them to lay flat.

Once they had been in the sun for a while, the rubber insert on top was pliable enough to finally peel out & I found there should be plenty of room inside to hide all the wiring. As of now, I'm thinking I'll run 2 or 3 12ga wires up each side, power on one side/ground on the other. When I finally found my torx drivers, I took one of the feet ends off & dremeled out a small hole for the wires to pass through & I'll drill a hole lower down on the foot once I get my smaller waterproof grommets & see where they'll mount to the roof.
If all goes well, the grommets will fit inside the feet & none of the wiring will show... this will also help reduce the chance of any water getting in the cab.
 
I dunno... roof racks on a Ranger? Just not appealing to me. It seems like more of a SUV thing. Not dissin anyone! Jus sayin
 
I'd like to be able to use the rear one to help keep long ladders off the roof of the truck.. have to see how it will work.
 
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