PSA: Your RoofRack May be Overloaded...

[Expedition Dave]

Latest Ronnie Dahl vid regarding the somewhat alternante weight capacities of roof racks on/off road:

 

[Calidad]

Met an accident investigator a while back. Her number one pet peeve are roof racks with piles of heavy gear on them. Apparently many of the roll over investigations find over loaded roof racks being a very big factor. Not a surprise....

 

[Fozzy]

Lucky for us the Expy can’t even get to the locations where Ronny is considering Off-Road. Just adding the platform takes half the load rating of the Expy away if you have the sunroof. With the platform and the awning I am at the limit for dynamic loads. When fully loaded I am about 80lbs over. But stay on the road. I would be more worried about the aluminum body twisting up and causing damage when off roading. Last big outing we did I thought the sunroof was going to pop out we had it flexed up so hard. Pretty sure the doors wouldn’t have opened. [emoji1787]


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[Lou Hamilton]

Lucky for us the Expy can’t even get to the locations where Ronny is considering Off-Road. Just adding the platform takes half the load rating of the Expy away if you have the sunroof. With the platform and the awning I am at the limit for dynamic loads. When fully loaded I am about 80lbs over. But stay on the road. I would be more worried about the aluminum body twisting up and causing damage when off roading. Last big outing we did I thought the sunroof was going to pop out we had it flexed up so hard. Pretty sure the doors wouldn’t have opened. [emoji1787]


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So question in your experience and insight…

With the LGE-CTS roof rack being one solid component, do you think it would add any structural strength to the roof?

I am not looking to add anything crazy, but if down the road we wanted to add an optional roof tent as a substitute for our camper on some off grid adventures, do you think it would still be way overloaded?


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[Fozzy]

The LGE-CTS is mounted in 8 locations and it is welded steel with an expanded metal floor. It would have no problem meeting the “off-road rating”. The big problem is the aluminum racks. They are pretty soft and can pull out. Rhino basically says cut the weight in half for off roading and falls back on the vehicle roof rating. So for me my rack was rated at 300lbs. Cut that in half to 150lbs. The Expy can only hold 125lbs. So if I stay within that limit I should be fine. As for adding strength. I am not a structural engineer, but I would guess it would add some rigidity to the roof, but would this cause it to tear the mounts out of their locations? Not sure on that. Their Expy’s where built for SEMA and I am
Not sure how much they really tested them off roading. But Ford only allows 125lbs. on the roof with the sunroof and the LGE rack weights in at 240lbs. empty. Even at the 200lbs. with no sunroof you are still way over. I am sure most of this is for a safe vehicle CG. When fully loaded for a boating trip or side by side adventure I will put some tools on the roof plus what is on it already. I am in the 200lbs. range give or take. It handles fine and the rack holds everything secure. But add what I have to the LGE rack you would have 380lbs on the roof. Getting heavy fast.


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[Calidad]

Lucky for us the Expy can’t even get to the locations where Ronny is considering Off-Road. Just adding the platform takes half the load rating of the Expy away if you have the sunroof. With the platform and the awning I am at the limit for dynamic loads. When fully loaded I am about 80lbs over. But stay on the road. I would be more worried about the aluminum body twisting up and causing damage when off roading. Last big outing we did I thought the sunroof was going to pop out we had it flexed up so hard. Pretty sure the doors wouldn’t have opened. [emoji1787]


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Lol my Subaru Outback sun roof jams when parked on a crossed up surface. The same exact platform the legacy does not.
The wagon body has always suffered twist flex issues. I remember the performance wagons like the BMW and Audi’s having a heavy bar integrated into the rear cargo cover sorta a quasi shock tower bar. To help stiffen up the body.

Even worse are van bodies nothing like your rear doors being a inch or two out of square and not closing on a crossed up spot.

The split tailgate on the Land Cruiser was done to stiffen up the body . The lower tailgate is there to help reduce body twist.

Floating large lift hatches do nothing for body stiffness.

All that and I have actually found the Expedition and the new Yukon to be pretty stiff and not really that affected by twist on crossed up surface. They are surprisingly pretty stiff platforms for their size.