Roof Rack wanted for AEV 112

[wmouledouxiii]

I figured this would be as good a place to ask as any. I would like to add a roof rack to my AEV 112.

Couple questions:

Have you ever mounted a roof rack to the hardtop of the 112?

Can the top handle the weight and the stress?

The top came with the roof rails already installed when I bought the jeep, was a particular rack in mind when the rails were installed?

I emailed ARB about their rack, if it could be mounted to the jeep? They responded that their racks are designed with mounting brackets for specific applications and Jeep wrangler is not one of them. They then referred me to you to determine you had ever installed one one of their racks for your vehicles.

Any suggestions?

I bought the jeep from Ben Bryant of Memphis back in April, its a 1999 112.

Thanks for the help.

[AEV Dave]

Since I'm about the only one who was around then...

The rails in the top are from Yakima and designed for a simple Yakima rack for skis, snowboards, bikes, etc. If you are looking for an ARB Rack, I would say that with a properly designed system, the roof is capable of handling the weight and stress. The trick is the "properly" part. ARB racks are extremely heavy so the load really needs to be spread out. I think I would first investigate a rack made from Aluminum. I would check some of the Australian boards, Land Rover guys, or Toyota guys. The foreign guys always seem to have some good aluminum stuff.

dh

[AEV Dave]

Another quick thought, you might check a company called Safety Devices who make all the cool Rover racks. You might be able to use a Discovery rack or a Defender 110 rack and modify it to fit. They are some of the best looking racks out there.

dh

[Laurie]

Dave,

What was the overall body length of the 112 compared to the Unlimited?

I'm wondering if an Unlimited Garvin Wilderness Rack is suitable..

[AEV Matt]

I know that the 112 was basically a 20" stretch, so it would be 5" longer than an unlimited.

Matt

[Laurie]

That makes that idea a no-go unless you wanted to modify the supports... although making the front up-rights of the Garvin rack L-shaped so they go back 5 inches would give you some space for a row of Lightforces on the front of the rack without sticking infront of the windshield... could look quite good.

[JeepinJon]

You could always look at Kargo Master as well. Their uprights are seperate from the basket, and so you would just need to modify the bars that connect the two ends.