I tried one section back, but the rear overhang seemed a bit precarious.
Hi @TrailRax. Question about t-slot fasteners. I understand the half-rack crossbars are 1020. Looks like I can use this 8020 drop-in t-nut with an M6 thread pitch in the crossbar. Is that accurate? And if the M6 bolt is too long, then I would need to trim the bolt so it doesn't run into the bottom of the t-slot channel. Is that correct?
I bought (Craigs List) a roof carrier that was designed to fit other make crossbars: I tried making M6 nuts fit, both triangular drop-in and different T-nut types, and they never really fit: either too large (wouldn't slide) or too skinny so I was afraid they might work loose when a load is secured to them. I ended up abandoning all my M6 hardware.
Check your ski rack and see if you can attach 1/4-20 bolts, or drill the mounting fixtures to allow 1/4-20. (See my farmjack mounting pieces, above? I might have to widen the bolt holes a little.)
Maybe Trailrax (note how responsive their rep is on the boards?) could send you a stray one-foot section of crossbar to our good friend murphtron to experiment with. I'm sure somewhere around the shop floor is a piece of miscut, bent, or mangled extrusion bar. Cut him 12-18 inches to monkey around with, figure out his solution, and you'll have an enthusiastic, high-endorsement Trailrax owner like BostonSasquatch! Just slip it in a padded envelope.
You will want to use 1/4-20 hardware. We use 1020 series which equates to 1/4 inch slots for 1/4-20 or 1/4-28 hardware.
Heh I was just considering getting a sample to work with. I’ll ask TrailRax. I have a friend who builds machines with 8020 hardware but he doesn’t have the 1020 series on hand.Check your ski rack and see if you can attach 1/4-20 bolts, or drill the mounting fixtures to allow 1/4-20. (See my farmjack mounting pieces, above? I might have to widen the bolt holes a little.)
Another thought: drill (very carefully!) the top of the TRMR 1020 crossbar slots, a hole large enough to slide in an M6 carriage bolt. Then, when you want to mount your ski rack (and who knows what else, later on?) you can drop in an M6 bolt and slide it latterally to where you want your ski rack positioned. Then you can remove the skirack, and remove the upright carriage bolts so they don't connect with anything (like your garage door) on your daily drive.
If you go this route, I'd position (drill) the opening location left side on one crossbar slot, right side on the adjoining one (there are two slots per crossbar). Note: 1/4-20 carriage bolts will slide in perfectly, my suggestion is to allow easy removal so you don't have to (hex wrench) remove your crossbars everytime you want to set up your skirack.
Now, here's the rub: you don't have your TRMR yet, so you don't know if my brilliant ideas will work for you.
Edit/PS: Note on Trailrax' post, above, link #1 is just available extrusion bars (crossbeams) of different sizes and types--useless to us. Link #2 is 1/4"-20 carriage bolts, which you can get on Amazon or local retail. I never found M6 T-nuts or drop-ins locally, and gave up trying to ID the right nut off Amazon, and consider it much simpler to go 1/4-20 on everything. Get some 1/4-20 bolts and/or nuts and see if you can adapt your skirack to that standard. And call Trailrax about a section of crossbar. They're very helpful--once they answer the phone!
Please note, I wrote, above:
Did your light bar come with any non-vehicle-specific mounting brackets? I'm seeing this in their installation instructions:I've just finished installing the @TrailRax TRMR roof rack. Through a complete lack of planning on my part and admittedly poor forethought, I had a competitor's roof rack (which I loved, though it was heavier) that unfortunately wasn't compatible with my recently purchased RTT (OVS Bushveld--love it!). So, off came the barely two weeks old competitor rack and on went the TrailRax TRMR. The nearly brand new one will be listed for sale shortly.
All-in-all, I'm quite pleased with the rack. I tested it today at 75MPH+ on the highway (with the installed light bar--see below), and it didn't make any kind of noise at all over the normal wind noise in the Bronco at that speed. I'm very pleased with that result.
The only issue I had is that, when I picked up the rack (I'm relatively local--I live an hour away from TrailRax HQ), I asked the gentleman who helped me if the cutout version I bought would work with my lightbar (Rigid). "It will work with the mounts that came with your light bar." I know, again, poor planning on my part--I should have known the answer to that question BEFORE I ordered and picked up the rack.
Well, to my dismay, after a couple of hours of repeated attempts to prove the gentleman correct, I must report that the Rigid light bar cannot be installed with the TrailRax TRMR with the OEM brackets that come with the light bar. I know--I tried extensively. Unless there are yet other Rigid mounts beyond the two that I tried.
Here are two photos of the rack with the OEM Rigid mounts--please tell me how these could possibly work with the cutout on the TrailRax rack! If anybody has done this, please come forward and tell me, because I couldn't figure it out.
The second one seems sort of promising, but there is no clearance for the block into which the TrailRax faceplate mounts. And it's too low for the faceplate when it's in the mounted position. How could those mounts possibly fit into this space:
I ended up using some OTHER brackets I had laying around from another application and drilling a hole near the top of the cutout (horror!!!! drill a brand new rack????) and mounted them like in this picture:
I had to do this because this is my DD and I had to put it back together so I could drive it. I'm considering going to a fab shop and asking them to make me some better brackets to get the light bar closer to the cutout, but not sure where to go to do that (Northern Utah if anybody has any ideas).
Has anybody mounted the Rigid light bar with this rack? If so, how did you do it? @TrailRax, do you have any suggestions?
Other than that; I love it. I'm going to put the Bushveld on tomorrow (when I get some help--it weighs 150 pounds) and I'll report back how it works with the rack. I'm hopeful it's going to work very well.
Some more gratuitous photos. Here, with the Rigid light bar mounted, but well above and in front of the cutout. The bolts on the Rigid would APPEAR to interfere with any attempt to mount the bar in the proximity of the cutout. Ideas, @TrailRax?
We have the same build and you sold me on the rack with these pics. That looks real good.Regarding the install, the biggest challenge I found was attaching the rack with the rack's wind screen in place. Instructions go over centering the the screen first and attaching to the first cross member. There is very little room to get two nuts on the front attachment bolts when the screen is in place. I removed two pairs of attachment bolts from the T-nuts on one side of the track. This gave me enough room to gently lift the wind screen to get access to the front attachment bolts. Care was taken not to move the T-nuts so the wind screen could be reattached at the same place as the original location. The process was repeat for the other side to secure the front of the rack to the bronco. There is enough flexibility in the screen to slightly lift it during this process without warping or damaging the paint.
My other issue was they sent two pairs of rear attachment brackets, instead of a pair of front and rear. If you watch Trailrax's installation video, you will see the presenter belabor the correct bracket orientation. Unfortunately, the shipping staff hasn't seen the video.
Went to the off-grid cabin in Maine for the holiday.
I have all that except part C--the bracket. Where did you mount the bracket for your BD light bar? I can't quite tell from the photo.Did your light bar come with any non-vehicle-specific mounting brackets? I'm seeing this in their installation instructions:
This kind of setup should work perfectly with the TRMR wind deflector cut out. It appears to be very similar to how I have mounted my 40" Baja Designs light bar:
Got it--beautiful! I can likely do something like that. Thanks!It’s mounted to the top of that front crossbar behind the wind deflector.
This also points up how you shouldn't put yourself in a situation where you have to do something quickly. It was late at night, I was tired, and I had to get my Bronco back in driving condition for early the next morning. So I drilled the hole in the rack faceplate for my mount. A clearer head would have figured out how to do it like @cr117 showed up above. Don't be in a hurry and don't do things when you are too tired!
