Roof Racks for the B2?

[jkufen]

I have been looking around for a good roof rack for the B2 to mount lights on and I am curious if any other members here have added roof racks?

All of the Jeep sites want like $450-500 for a rack but here is one on ebay for $125. The rack itself isn't a big deal but I am curious how some of the members here have mounted them. My B2 doesn't have the factory roof rack so I will have to either buy and install one or build one. I have never installed roof racks so I don't know if they bolt in the roof or how they are secured. One last question is how have yall ran the wires to the inside of the cab? Have yall cut a small hole in the roof and run it on top of the head liner or did yall just run the wires through the back hatch? I want it to look good and clean so I don't want random wires going everywhere. Thanks for the advice!

 

[chrwilkins30]

Some bolt them on some bolt them to the drip rails. I was actually looking for one just like that from discountramps.com that's identical. I haven't decided how im going to do mine.

 

[jkufen]

I am thinking about just bolting mine to the roof. A buddy of my is building a heavy duty bumper and i think once he is done we are going to just build small brackets that bolt to the roof. I will never sell my B2 so i dont mind the holes in.the roof just have to seal them up good! This is definitely on my list to get for Christmas after my bumpers are done! Im gonna put 8-10 lights on it so ill be putting off a whole lot of light!

 

[The Jester Race]

Here is a rack idea for you. I was going to copy this one for my BII, but decided against it. I just don't have a need for a full roof rack. I pulled the rear seats out of my BII, so it's a two seater now with plenty of room for gear and supplies in the back. I do however have a wire Yakima basket mounted, but it goes unused 95% of the time.

As for mounting lights, I built one of these.

For bolting a rack to the roof try and go through the inner structural pieces and not just the outer skin, and use large fender washers on both sides of the bolts to keep them from ripping through.

-Jester

 

[jkufen]

Thanks for those awesome pics! Yeah the only reason I want the roof rack is mainly for the place to mount lights. It isn't all that expensive so I figured it'd be a good way to mount the lights. I might use it for camping or something a few times. I need the lights because a lot of my wheeling happens at 3 am in the morning after work. The headlights are nice but more light the better!

 

[4.0B2]

my plan was to add a factory roof luggage rack to it... then make the "feet" from the cross bars to mount to the roof rack I had and make it slide in the luggage bars.

 

[86broncII]

I have the factory roof rack and i mounted my lights to the front cross bar. I purchased the KC Hilites kit which came with the grommets for dilling holes in the roof to run wiring through. You still have to use some sort of sealer, silicone is the common choice. I recommend doing this where the temperature will allow for proper natural curing time for the silicone or other sealer used so that it will seal.

 

[dieseldane]

Has anyone ever tried to transfer a factory luggage rack from an explorer? I have a 98 explorer that I got to put the v8 in my ranger, and had thought about taking the rails from it and adapting them to my BII. Anyone see any issues with that?

 

[Beachbuggy]

I bought a used Surco rack here for almost nothing, fabricated my own light tabs and added an explorer base from pull-a-part. The explorer rails were easy to mount with a little measuring some nutserts, and it gave me the flexibility to remove the rack or slide it forward/back as desired. I ended up drilling through the roof for wiring because I just couldn't get through the hatch clean, there's not enough tolerance open/close the hatch around the wires without notching.