Once all holes are drilled, it is now time to mount the roof rack. The roof bars will connect to the roof with a tee junction, ‘nipples’, short bits of pipe which connect to the junction at one end, and screwed into flanges at the other. Simply screw together the poles with the tees with the flanges and viola! Our racks are designed to be the Ultimate DIY Van friendly system! Apply two coats of paint on each side of all components. Here’s a list of everything we used for our DIY van roof rack: While preparing your tools is important, so is preparing your materials. But, firstly I would throw away the feet, they’re ok but on a wide campervan roof they are at the limit of their reach and I found they sagged quite badly. Saved from youtube.com. Insert bolts, provided with your van tech roof mounts, into your bottom brackets pointing upwards. Thank you for your support! If you are extending the roof rack to the front of the van, consider adding a tee bracket in the middle. For this DIY roof mount, you can find all the materials we used listed below and purchase them online in advance from Home Depot. This step requires two people. Deciding on flooring in a van is difficult. Having removed the feet, I needed a method to mount it. don’t forget it when entering ferries or passing under low bridges or entering underground car parks! Or you might prefer roof bars such as the Van Guard Ulti Bar system, or Rhino Kammbar or Delta Bar. I cannot tell you the number of times, we started a project only to find out that we did not have all the pieces. Pin it! There are a lot of different options for expedition roof racks, but unless you intend fitting a roof tent, then you probably don’t need to carry more than 50 to 100kgs. Using a flat head screw driver, assemble the roof rails to the top of the car by sxrewing the side rails and the cross bars together. Van Roof Racks Truck Roof Rack Truck Tent Truck Camper Roof Rails Roof Top Tent Jimny Suzuki Land Rover Discovery 2 Jeeps. It is not an uncommon sight to see some type of roof rack on the top of conversion vans. Attaching the rack permanently to the van is the scariest part of the whole build. Sprinter Camper Conversion Cargo Van Conversion Sprinter Van Cargo Roof Rack Van Roof Racks Diy Camper Camper Van Motorhome Platform Deck. . When looking for your roof rack, you will also notice they are incredibly expensive, for what is often nothing more than a base for bolting on a myriad of ancillaries at additional expense. Want to save this DIY van roof rack for later? Saved by Carol-Ann Mulkey. Enter your email address to follow this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email. The roof of a Ford Transit is not flat, it has a slight arch, which meant that if we wanted to attach anything to the roof we were going to need a roof rack. This post is going to show you how YOU can make your own pressurized, roof rack solar shower for your vehicle. We hope you’ve found this post useful. Roof rack brackets. Saved by Julius pepperwood. 1. Hardware is important. I then bolted the roof rack through a set of roof bars, just like normal cars use. Thule Roof Rack Gutter Mount Foot Pack. Below is a How-To article on installing the factory roof rails so you can mount any number of items to your roof. Drill a hole slightly smaller than the screw to bolt the flange to the fiberglass roof. Will your roof rack run front to rear, side to side, or both? perusing the web for a couple of hours and trolling YouTube for instructional videos) we still were at a loss for how we were going to construct and install a roof rack. There is nothing like getting halfway through your project and realizing you forgot something. The Vantech H1 system uses 2″ X 1″ rectangular bars. Using our van would be more economical to haul skis, a kayak, and other camping equipment around. Apr 4, 2019 - Sprinter Van DIY $200 Roof Rack and Deck | Vanlife Hack. SportRack Complete Roof Rack … Measure the roof two or three times to confirm the measurements because once you cut the steel, there is no going back. Apr 4, 2019 - Sprinter Van DIY $200 Roof Rack and Deck | Vanlife Hack. For our solar panels, we used U-bolt to secure them to the round pipe. 99. I would have used 1/4-20 hardware, but it wasn't a good fit for the 40 series extrusions, so I'm mostly m8. Does your roof rack sound like a wind tunnel while driving down the highway? Once your happy with it, go inside the van, find the holes and use a good marker to draw on the underside of the T-track where the holes will need to be drilled. Follow The Little Red Bus on WordPress.com. 170" Vans come with 6 mounting brackets, 5 crossbars, and all hardware needed to install the rack to your van… We set out to try our hand at overlanding in a converted van (#vanlife). Roof Racks are one of the easiest ways to add extra space to your tiny home. The Mounting uprights are 8″ X 2″ extra wide base and a total possible height of 29″ from base to top of endcap. Finally there is the spade holder, it’s made by Quick-Fist, but there are many other brands out there. Using a measuring tape move the rack into the desired position. How many bolts you use and the kinds and directions of load is important when figuring out the hardware. DIY Rooftop Camper Made From The Simplest Of Materials. Sprinter Van DIY $200 Roof Rack and Deck | Vanlife Hack. Or are you interested in meaningful self-directed travel? The fittings aren't cheap, but I've changed the configuration a couple times for very little. Sounds good right? Out of a love for travel, we met one snowy Christmas night in Estonia. In this episode, we decided build our own roof rack and deck for your Sprinter for around $200. Let us know below! The rack holds three adjustable solar pan Drilling the roof rail. If it needs significant work I will remove it, do the work and refit it. We have drawn together a basic picture of how each supporting piece should look. Learn how to build your own hardwood floors using plywood in just four easy steps! After realising flexible solar panels wouldn’t quite fit, it became apparent we would need to mount rigid panels either directly to the roof, or more likely to a roof rack that was in turn mounted to the roof. DIY - Roof Rack Fairing / Wind Deflector. But I am considering the strength of the fibre glass. FREE Shipping. The solar panel is a rigid 120w Biard panel from eBay (no surprise) and as you can see from the pictures, it all fits very nicely on the roof using extruded aluminium L section and bolts / pop rivets. Of course, what you really need is a solid safe and secure roof rack. The van roof racks and a ladder rack for van may come as one piece, or as several individual pieces that are installed at an interval along the roof. Do you want the roof rack to extend the length of the car or only the cab? An important decision can be choosing between steel, aluminum, and wood. However, steel and aluminum are more durable and stronger, so they will last you a lot longer! So as we only usually want to store wet or infrequently used kit and a solar panel, neither of which is heavy, or perhaps a spare wheel, we went for Aluminium for lightness and modified it to suit our needs. I bolted through using stainless steel fittings and big washers, but you could use U bolts and bolt around the bars instead. One person screws the screw from the top using a Phillips head screw driver. Take some time to align them correctly before drilling holes and you won’t have a set in the wrong place…… . Everything is bolted up using marine grade stainless steel nuts and bolts, or aluminium pop rivets. I'll measure this am. He helped us design a DIY van roof rack for our specific needs and hopefully we can do the same for you! They simply sit in the rain gutter when the roof is down, spreading the load, especially when you climb up to load the roof rack. Remove each bar of the rack and grab the cordless drill! (Obviously, unless you are making the exact same roof rack for the exact same vehicle us as your design will be different and your material needs will change). Half inch galvanized steel pipes form the bars of the roof rack. Make sure to tighten the bolts as securely as possible to avoid losing a panel (or a roof) in your overlanding journeys. These are available to buy as options when you place your order. Among many other awesome features they built a custom roof rack out of Maker Pipe and conduit! Need a roof rack for your van? The Cross bar is protected by bar guard on cross bars. The “U” cups the bar and is bolted into the solar panel itself. Don’t go mad filling your roof with jerrycans! Thanks for wandering with us! I then bolted the roof rack through a set of roof bars, just like normal cars use. Secondly, the structure is very light and the transverse bars at the front and rear of the rack don’t take being kneeled on by a 120kg man! Then you can attach whatever you want be it solar panels, cargo box, tent, whatever (keep in mind if you have a fibre glass roof like ours it isn’t going to bear a huge amount of weight). This homemade roof rack system cost only $50. Have you had a go at making your own DIY van roof rack? Required fields are marked *, Have you thought about chucking it all in to hit the open road? Much less than many of the other offerings available. More information... More ideas for you Pinterest. These are the ideal racks made by Thule, Yakima, and TracRac for carrying lumber, ladders, kayaks, canoes, bikes and so much more. A DIY Roof Rack: Make your Small Car Carry Big Stuff. To secure the cargo, I bolted on a set of Unwin cargo tracks from eBay again and bought a selection of cargo ring fittings. I used CVCs aluminium bars, but any generic ones from your friendly car accessory store will also work. 144" Vans come with 6 mounting brackets, 4 crossbars, and all hardware needed to install the rack to your van. Do you want the roof rack to be mounted high enough that you can slide something, say a surf board, underneath the rack? No additional mounts are used or required with this custom DIY van roof rack. Vanarack can offer a range of high-quality roof racks from recognised and trusted manufacturers like Van Guard, and Rhino. The storage boxes are the Really Useful Boxes reviewed elsewhere on this site and the straps are generic cargo straps from your local DIY or hardware store. Roof deck instead of rack... Hmm. They are bolted through the fibreglass and have beefy spreader plates on the inside and stainless steel fittings. Van & Truck Racks are a core segment at Rack Attack. DIY Road Shower ROOFTOP SOLAR SHOWER SPECS: Capacity: Approximately 18.5 Liters (5 gallons) Total Length: Approximately 2.3 meters (7.5 ft) Weight When Full: Approximately 21 kgs (46 lbs) Especially considering our particular needs and sizing. The Completed DIY Van Roof Rack. $189.99 $ 189. Rhino-Rack RTS523 Sprinter Van Roof Tracks for 144″ Sprinters The kit includes two, 113 1/4″ extruded aluminum tracks, black plastic end caps, and all the mounting hardware. Steel has always been a popular DIY roof-rack option, as it is easy to acquire and relatively inexpensive. The rack is incredibly lightweight and easy to assemble. 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