Roof racks

[storm]

Please can someone advise me what is the best roof rack to buy, and why? I own a Defender 110 TD5. Thanks. Any info you have would be greatly appreciated.

[Snagger]

Safety Devices or Brownchurch.

[HEIN LATEGAN]

Originally Posted by storm

Please can someone advise me what is the best roof rack to buy, and why? I own a Defender 110 TD5. Thanks. Any info you have would be greatly appreciated.

I recently fitteda roofrack on my Defender 110 H/Top. One of the main factor`s that not a lot of people realize is that the maximum weight capacity for a Defender on it`s roof is 75 kg. only.
Buy a roofrack manufactured from aluminium, with rails that run down the gutter rails and fit snug into them, for weight distribution of course. Fit a roof top tent only for trips and no heavy objects ( especially water and fuel on the roofrack ).
There are plenty of brilliant and lovely roofracks out there on the market. Do not be in a hurry to get yourself one, spend a lot of time on the internet and when you see a landy with a roofrack that YOU like, do not hesitate to ask the owner, we are all, as you know because you are also a landy owner, very friendly guys and we are all the same, we like to talk about our landies.

Which country you from?

[Searcaigh]

Another thing to check is how much increased height your vehicle will have.

I currently have a Land Rover Expedition roofrack on one of my Discos and I am now restricted into which car parks I can use.

Another friend of mine has similar roof rack on his 110 Crew cab and has similar problems.

I am about to upgrade the Disco's suspension with OME shocks and spring but will have to remove the roofrack and replace it with a lower profile one.

Currently looking at the Safety Devices one, bit expensive though.

[worms]

The safe weight load is about equivalent to a single spare wheel. Fitting to the roof gutter alone isn't enough - it has to have the supports front and back down to bulkhead/rear bed level. If the weight is supported only by the roof it will shake the body work to bits if you are off tarmac - door pillars and windscreen surround seems to go first.

With anything on the roof the roll-over characteristics are completely altered. Put a wheel off the tarmac at speed or hit an unseen rock on a side slope and you risk going over. Firmer shocks might help but might make the ride unacceptably stiff.

Apart from the loss of height for car parks, even minor accidents while you have a laden roof rack on can cause major damage to all the bodywork above waist height.

As you can no doubt tell I'm not a fan of roof racks. (Great fun to sit out on with a sun-downer or to put the kids on during off-road trips, but you can achieve the same with a rear ladder or a roof hatch!)

[zeff]

i own a 110 my self, and as im a fabrication welder i decided to build a rack my self that would work the way i wanted it too.(and cos im a tight ass!)
we chucked some right weight on it to start with, and to be honest never found it a problem (on tarmac) but when we went off road it realy did shake the rivets!! so i decided to drill through and fix it to the roll cage, it works a treat, and has had silly weights on it with no probs, my only yard stick has been how much the rack its self could take and i know i built it right so its been alright!......so far .....find me a peice of wood to touch!!
ive done two others for poeple i know and they think there great, and a hell of a lot cheeper than a L/R one!!

[Stephen99D1]

Storm,
Ditto what Hein said. I asked a lot of questions and looked at many other rigs before I decided on a Hannibal rack. For me, it came down to how I plan to use it. Safety Devices racks cleary look better. However, everyone I have talked to says they get a lot of wind noise from that rack (and similar racks like the Brownchurch). I had Yakima crossbars on a Honda one time that made a terrible rumbling until I added a fairing, and I didn't want to repeat that noise. At higher speeds (60+ mph) or with a strong crosswind, there is some rumble, but it isn't any worse than the growl of the mud terrains...

Pluses for the Hannibal (with detachable side/rear rails) - ability to flat-load large objects like lumber or mattresses, hence a good everyday vehicle. Low noise. Light weight. Aluminum parts which attach the rails can be easily replaced if bent.

Cons for the Hannibal - aluminum parts which attach the rails can be easily bent. A bit ugly. I'm still working on an 'elegant' solution for mounting lights under the rack, while trying to avoid drilling the rack itself.

The steel crossbeams appear to have formed a bit of a bow in them already. I keep the heavy items in the vehicle and only load camping supplies (like sleeping bags, Pelican/Storm cases with food, etc and backpacks) on the roof. The bow could have been caused by either my walking on the rack, or overtightening the ratchet straps. I've hit and scraped some larger limbs while off-road and so far haven't seen any damage to the rack. Like I said above, though; hopefully the modularity will make it easier to repair/replace damaged parts.

Good luck!

[one_bad_rover]

Northwestparts.com, sweet racks, nice price, and they even have a low profile unit.

[DiscoKid12]

I have a heavey duty roof rack for a defeneder 110. It has never been used and is painted in a wrinkle coating. I would like a safty defices style roof rack. Any company is fine, just as long as it follows the roofline. Let me know if you would like to trade or buy mine.

I guess $600

here are some pics