Lexus GX470 | DIY ROOF RACK UNDER $200.00!!!
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- Опубліковано 26 сер 2024
- Our GX470 was in dire need of a roof rack. We needed something quick fast and in a hurry. Most of the after market racks were on back order, or I didn’t like them much. So why not build our own?
That is exactly what I did.
I found a brilliant design on GXOR FB group.
This rack came out really strong. I can walk on it and have mounted a decent size RTT on it. Although there is debate on the actual working capacity of this rack.
Designed by Kory Rasmussen.
Parts List.
3) 10’ sections of 1 5/8” x 13/16 Unistrut
4) 4 hole angle brackets ( these will be the corners of the rack)
8) or more 2 hole angle brackets (depends on how many x bars you use 2 per bar)
60ish) Strut nuts 3/8” thread.
10ish) 3/8” x. 1/2” bolts ( I diverged from this and used 3/8”x 1” my method)
50ish) 3/8” x 1” bolts (these connect all you lego pieces together)
60ish) washers
30) 3/8” lock washers (if you follow my method, you could also use lock nuts)
3-4) cans of paint
Dimensions
Overall 80” x 39 3/4”
Front and rear bars 39 5/8”
Cross bars 37 1/2”
If you have any questions just leave a comment below and we will do our best to answer!
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Much love, KRT LYFE!
Thank you!
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Email: krtlyfe@gmail.com
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#KRTLYFE #GX470 #DIYROOFRACK
Awesome brother heading to store now! Thanks for breaking it down "Barney Style" and being real! Stay healthy and Safe
Awesome, good luck on your build. Let us know how it turns out for your rig!
That is a pretty awesome design! Here's a tip/ suggestion: Diablo makes a "steel demon" blade designed specifically for strut. It leaves a very smooth cut and you can make perfect burr-free square cuts. Thank you for the great content!
Thanks for the tip! We appreciate it.
Glad that you are giving credit when its due! Simple but strong roof rack. Utilizing original roof rail hardware is genius!
Looking good! Nice to see more of these simple roof racks that don't require welding and tons of fabrication tools.
Yep, so far it works great for us and it was very inexpensive lol. Thanks for watching!
Every GX owner has the third row seats shoved somewhere in the garage 😂
So true!!!! You have to keep them tho just in case! 😂😂😂 We actually used them once... literally once....
Yeah lol because they take too much space in the cargo area.
@@Plus1HD too much weight.. it improves gas efficiency by a small amount if you remove them
I love your channel... one of the best channels on UA-cam.
Thank you!
Just picked up my '08 GX 470 and I've been addicted to your channel. Thanks for sharing!
Thanks for watching hope you find some valuable information that improves your GX experience! 💯
so I don't own a GX470 but I was looking for Unistrut roof rack ideas and came across your video. I like your idea with the washer but it has one flaw - that type of washers that you used in the railing can fail because they're not hardened. the standard washer that you used could Bend under load. so for those that are using this to maybe mount a roof-top tent or some other type of heavy item may end up bending the washer out due to the weight. I would suggest a hardened washer inside the track to offset catastrophic failure. Just my two cents!
Great observation, so far the rack has survived several off-road adventures, a 1300 mile road trip thru the Everglades and, most recently, a head on collision. All while carrying a Roofnest Falcon XL up top. The tent and rack have not shifted or moved even a millimeter, but I do agree hardened washers would be better.
Well done! it's looking nice. I was going to get Prinsu for my LX but this is a good route to take too.
It really is! I think this might actually be stronger as well.
Awesome 👌....this is exactly how I did mine on a jeep gladiator but I can't help other people with the same principle because I'm not tech saby 😄...anyway great job and thanks 👍
Right on! That is awesome. It is a very rugged design and once it is together it is massively strong. Thank you for watching commenting and subscribing!
Thank you for the video. Looks great. I may do something like this for my escalade. Just my thoughts, but those washers may not last over time. Washers are usually kind of cheap low grade steel. (unless you buy something like grade 8) The stock roof rack most likely flexes so much to reduce the inertial loads on the mounting points. With this being ridged those washers are going to have tremendous loads on them, and could fatigue over time. Depending on what you have on top and how often. I am thinking about how I use my vehicle and how much weight I have in my cargo box and going off road. I am not driving it places a normal escalade goes.
Definitely beef up your build to your anticipated needs for sure.
Thanks KRT, it looks awesome 👌
No problem 👍
Porsche with a roof top tent... subbed
Thank you thank you, we appreciate it!
Great video! Looks like I am shopping for materials now.
This rack is great, you will love it.
Oh how I wish I had seen this earlier before buying a rusty old rhino Van rack of ebay and modifying it , yours look so much better .Wont you need a wind deflector once you start putting things on it.
It was actually very quite. No whistling no crazy sounds.
Whoa dude ! You've cut it off twice now and its still too short !!! ha,ha ... Great informational video . Thanks.
Two different sections, one was getting the front and rear sections right while making sure everything aligns properly. 😭😭😭😭
The second was a cross member. I wanted everything to line up a certain way. 😖😖😖😖😖😖
I edited out all of me really explaining lmao 😂 I know didn’t want to bore people.
Great build. Music is way louder than the voice.
Thank you, yeah something went wrong in the edit.
Looks clean & love the music 🔈🔈🔈
Thank you so much, appreciate the support!
Nicely done!
Thank you! Cheers!
Looking for ideas for my 4runner, i think this one It's the best.
This rack designs is very strong, I think its better than a lot of these racks people are paying big money for to be honest.
Roof tent on porsche...didn't see that one coming
: )
It is a killer combination! Speed and adventure!
That thing came out awesome.
Thank you!
Thank for great idea 💡.
No problem!
Turned out great 👍
Thanks!
Nice build! Curious as to how you attached the mid span cross members. Don’t think you showed that in the vid. Gonna build one for my Jeep! 👍🏼😎
I actually did show it it around the middle of the video.
Looking for this also! I must have watched the vid about 6 times and didn't get it😅
Thanks a lot... But i think it may be better if you could eliminate your failed trials and share just the final fair version of successful steps
That is why I referenced the original design, so that if you rather read out the steps you can.
Interesting how you used a washer and a lock nut to fasten the bolt. My question is how did you tighten it if have no way of stopping one side from spinning. I believe that the reason why the original design uses that rectangular block that he had to file down to fit in the slot. Awesome DIY! I did my own DIY roof rack which was a prinsu copy and twice as expensive as yours.
Once they got tight the back side didn’t spin they snugged up real nice.
I've been wanting to get or make a rack for my Expedition since there isn't anything available aftermarket besides "universal" basket designs. I think this would be a great option until I can pony up the coin for a proper custom rack!
I think making your own is the best option. I have messed around with some products my friends have on their rigs and honestly for the money people pay I am not impressed. If you know how to fabricate or can hire someone to build a custom rack I would 100 percent go that route. There are also other materials you can use to make a DIY rack. I choose UNIstrut because it was what I could get my hands on the fastest. Keeping it 100 this rack “seems” stronger than some of the factory ones I have seen. There is no way for me to scientifically prove that but mine definitely “seemed” much stronger.
!!QUESTION!!
HOW DID YOU MOUNT THE CROSS BEAMS.
I really appreciate the video brother. I'm literally in the middle of building mine and dont understand how the 2 hole angle brackets were attached to the 2 outer 80 inch sections without puttin in longer bolts from the stock roof rack before tightening those long 80 inch pieces down.
Any comments on road noise at highway speeds as compared to the oem?
Solid rack bro! Good option. Thanks.
Nice and thanks
Thank you too!
Sweet bro now I can do one for mine 🙏🏻
That rack was time and money well spent, we really enjoyed it!
How much would you say the total weight of the rack? What is the load capacity?
And how much noise does it produce on the road and highway with whistling?
Thanks for the upload, really enjoy your videos!!
So the rack it self is pretty light. I would say about 30-35 lbs give or take.
The load capacity... this is the tricky bit and depends on who you ask and what you reference. From my research the rack in stock formation is rated for 135lbs dynamic load.
Removing the OEM cross members which IMHO seem to be the weakest link, and replacing them with a rack like this should take that number way up. Others seem to believe the side rails are the weak link, but they are solid aluminum and the screws that mount them to your roof are pretty substantial!
Some estimates I’ve seen on IH8MUD guess up to 300lbs dynamic for the OEM side rails. When I was building this mod and “testing” the OEM side rails they seemed to be much, much stronger than my 997 racks.
The 997 racks are rated for 165lbs dynamic load.
I can’t give you an exact estimate, but this set up is very strong.
You should exercise your best judgement tho, if you decide to build it.
Road noise.
The interesting thing is this rack doesn’t produce any road noise on my rig even at 75mph.
That was a pleasant surprise!
I hope these answers help you out!
Thanks for watching.
@TheShufel me personally, absolutely. We had the SB Overlander XL mounted to our factory rack for months with no problems what so ever.
The connection between this rack and the OEM rails is way more solid vs the OEM cross members and IMHO distributes the weight of the load better.
That being said, please use your best judgment.
Thanks for watching and commenting! 💯
My dude, this is legit!
Thank you!
I'm totally doing this one! Thank you
Awesome! Let me know how it goes and thanks for watching!
Buen vídeo, enhorabuena y gracias.
Thank you!
Somebody would love an IMPACT WRENCH for xmas!
Every one loves impact wrenches!!!! ❤️❤️❤️❤️ I got 4 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣. 🙌🏾🙌🏾🙌🏾🙌🏾🙌🏾
@@KRTLyfe ahhhh Hahahahahahahahahahahahaha! I love em!
Cool vid...at the end when you showed the flex difference in the stock bar vs custom you didn't have them braces like they where on the truck. I'm curious as to how much flex it would've been then
All most no flex at all, this set up is very rigid. This build survived a head on collision with our Roof Nest Falcon XL on it. Unfortunately that collision totaled our GX but the tent and rack survived!
So IMHO flex isn’t a bad thing from the little I know flex is a good thing ( think bridges, large ships, aircraft...) So I think the factory bars are just as good as the bars I made.
I think.... and this is just my Opinion. The difference is the way the bars connect to the bars that run parallel to the vehicle. This rack has more/bigger contact points and it is torqued down tighter than the OEM bars can be( hand tightened knobs).
Once again this is just my opinion and experience. I am not a structural engineer lol.
cool
Thanks!
Just stumbled on this. Sad to hear about your GX.
Did anyone mount an RTT to this. By chance ? Do able clearance wise vs me buying a 1k rack
We mounted our RTT to it with no problems.
I couldn't see what hardware you connected the cross bars to the frame.
I put a parts list in the description. Thanks for watching and subscribing!
👍👍👍
A year later how has it held up?
It held up great unfortunately the vehicle was totaled and I sold the rack.
Noisy?
What will you mount on your roof rack? Love the low profile. This should also work great with an awning
It’s coming in the next Vlog. I would like to mount my traction boards to it and maybe an awning for sure.
So do you think the rails on the 10-14 GX460 sit too low to do this? I’ve been digging all over GXOR and the Only Lexus GX460 groups and can’t find anything half as detailed as this.
That is a great question, unfortunately I can’t answer it. I would look on IH8MUD and see if you can find any detailed specs there.
Loving it.. how's the noise level on highway?
It wasn’t bad at all! Thank you for watching commenting and subscribing!
Looks like it came out great! How's the wind noise with the new setup?
Virtually no wind noise! It’s pretty silent with it up there. What is this Jensen, Jensen?
Is wind noise a problem, I would think it would whistle through the front channel holes? If so is a fairing needed?
Surprisingly, we had very marginal amounts of wind noise with this rack. We never experienced any whistling or high pitch sounds either. That was with and with out the tent mounted to the rack. We did several 10+ hour drives with this set up and our Roofnest Falcon we had zero issues.
I'm diggin it but have one question, how heavy does this all come out to be? Seems like it would be very heavy in comparison to aluminum
It actually wasn’t very heavy at all.
Would this fit a Prado 120?
I am not sure possibly but we don’t have the Prada in my region of the world.
Very nice! Do you get much wind noise from the slotted strut? What gauge did you use?
We only get wind noise above 85mph. I used the narrow unistrut.
Good idea
Many many thanks!
How has it held up?
It held up great, even after a collision that totaled the GX.
Any chance you have a clip showing how you attached your RTT? I am curious about clearance at the roof and access to bolt a clamp for the RTT. My 06 is impossible with a go rhino rack and I’m considering this as an alternative. Cheers
No, sorry. The GX was totaled in January… We are still saddened by it.
@@KRTLyfe oh wow, I hadn't seen that... Extremely sorry to hear.
Love the rack, question. Do you have any wind differences with the strut being infront of or behind your sunroof? (As in air flow being different) I'm looking at doing the same thing on a yukon xl with a sun roof. Ty In advance for your time.
I didn’t have any perceivable wind noise with mine. I might have got lucky tho.
@@KRTLyfe I'll be starting mine soon, I'll keep you posted if you like, going to be similar to yours.
I like how you cut the Unistrut to make the corners. Are the corner brackets unistrut parts or did you get those somewhere else? Thanks!
The corners are also Unistrut parts.
@@KRTLyfe Awesome, thanks 🙏🏻
How much weight can it hold from your experience?
It held our iKamper Skycamp 2.0 with no problems at all. It also held our Roof nest Falcon XL no problem! Thanks for watching commenting and subscribing!
Can you leave this on and drive through a car wash (or do the floppy blue cloth strips get all tangled up in it)? Thanks!
That is an excellent question. I would never know tho. I always hand was my own vehicles. I don’t trust machines or other humans to do it for me.
I wouldn’t risk it.
@@KRTLyfe Oooo! You got me! Very cool answer. And very clear. Unfortunately, my life is balanced by criteria such as this. There are only so many hours in a day and I literally made the choice between a dually pickup and single rear wheels based on the fact that a non dually can be driven through a long tunnel car wash, and it takes about 3 minutes. I made the same decision with regard to Karambit knives after I called three professional knife sharpeners and they said they wouldn't take the job. They told me to just grab some beers, sit down , and plan on spending two or more hours to get a nice edge. I have now made a conscious decision to only use knives that have a more gentle concave shape because they can go through my Work Sharp sharpener in 30 seconds and be razor sharp. So my cold steel Vaquero is as curvy as I go now. And I tend to carry the large cold steel Luzon mostly, because that thing sharpens up so fast! I realize that there is something very Zen about washing your own vehicle and sharpening knives on waterstones, but a person just has to make choices on what their hobbies will be. Haha! Thanks again for your very kind response!
@@davidbutler1825 great analogy, I too went through a knife fancy phase in my life. I went knife crazy lol, I have a Cold steel shovel a Busse Combat Natural Outlaw and some other weird and interesting Knifes.
For me personally when it comes to my vehicles. I don’t trust anyone to do a better job than me... and if they are going to do a better job, they more than likely are going to charge much more than I’m willing to pay lol. So I just do it my self.
With those machines the risks of damage aren’t worth the time saved IMHO.... unless the car is a beater then that is a different story.... however we all have to pick and choose our battles and I respect your perspective.
Would this support a roof top tent?
Absolutely, I built it for our the iKamper Skycamp 2.0 we had. You can see what it looked like in our other Vlogs. Thanks for Watching and Subscribing.
Would it be possible to extend the rack back passes the rear hatch maybe a foot for added real estate?
Possible, if you get really creative.
@@KRTLyfe only because the front looks to extend further than the rear, so I assume it wouldn’t be an issue. Only thing is clearance with the rear spoiler.
Also sorry about the accident. Hope you guys get back on the road soon.
@@PETERGAGAH Thanks, yeah you can adjust it forward or back if you like. We use the rack for our RTT so we wanted it to be centered over the footprint of the vehicle. Helps with weight distribution etc.
But if you are using it for other things you could position it however it works best for you. I thought you meant increasing the length of the rack even more.
How long did it take you from start to finish?
About half a day I started late one day and finished it the next morning. Roughly 5 hours lol. Could’ve been faster but I had a decent amount of trial and error. 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣
Where did you get the material
Home Depot, but you can get uni strut at any hardware store.
@@KRTLyfe thank you
NOT 8 INCHES LONG AND 4 INCHES WIDE, RATHER IT IS IN FEET - CHECK AT 1:13 AND POSSIBLY MAKE ADD A COMMENT