Improving the Roof rack

now safe to walk on

I have improved the storage efficiency of the roof rack and its ease of loading by fitting 3mm 5-series (high quality0 aluminium chequer plate sheeting to the load area not covered by the roof tent bag.   That bag and its ply floor had originally been fitted to the middle of the rack to put its laden weight over the centre of the vehicle, but since the hold-alls and other items that get carried in that bag tend not to be especially heavy, that has now been moved all the way to the front of the rack.  This means that I now have one large flat area (1.5mx1.45m) for carrying larger items like bicycles, which couldn’t be done before if the tent bag was in use.

Unfortunately, to move the tent bag fully forward, I had to remove the Alko galvanised wheel chocks and stowage brackets from behind the roof spot lights.  They will be re-sited to the rear of the roof rack.  I could just fit them directly to the external edges of the upper and lower rear beams, having them hang out above the rear door, but it looks really ugly.  I think I’ll trim the rear corners of the new chequer plate to allow the chocks to be mounted inside the rear corners of the rack, exactly how they were mounted at the front.  The CB antenna mounting also had to be refitted on the front side of the rack’s upper front beam instead of its rear side, but that was a simple two-minute job.

Depending on how I get on with the new arrangement, I may add  lashing eyes to various points of the plated area for bungees, rope or ratchet straps.