2017 Expy EL roof rack removal
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- Start date
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Ranger Jim
Member
If you reinstall the mounting plates, I suggest adding sealant around the base of the screws.
The screw pockets collect water and causes the metal to rust under the plates and beyond.
I used seam sealer, because I had some (both around the holes under the plates and around the screw head in the plate)
The screw pockets collect water and causes the metal to rust under the plates and beyond.
I used seam sealer, because I had some (both around the holes under the plates and around the screw head in the plate)
Flexpedition
Full Access Members
Here is a before and after from another forum member.
0.03 mpg gain
About the same as running premium gas then.
Just kidding!
Gotta have a sense of humor, please!!!
So here is an update and apologies for not keeping up and responding to individual posts as I completely forgot about this forum until an email notification reminded me of it. I gotta start being a regular here - very interesting discussions.
TLDR:
Didn't remove the roof rack, didn't adjust the whole garage door frame or anything.
The long of it:
I spoke to a dealer who quoted $250 (lol) for removing the roof rack. Then I considered lowering the vehicle itself and asked for a quote but he said to bring the truck in and I said no.
Decided that it WILL look ugly without the roof rack so will NEVER remove those, unless replacing for something better.
As for the garage door brick and mortar wall opening, out of question.
Had a garage door person come in and was told about $1,100+ quote to reframe the tracks on the garage door. I don't think I will go for it.
Then I eventually tried to force park the thing into the garage and noticed it barely kisses the horizontal long trim plates on the inside of the garage door when it is lifted up. Essentially force driving it into the garage scrapes the top of the roof rack a little and pushes the horizontally hanging garage door up a little thus allowing a little more room to open up. The noise isn't pretty and it's not damaging anything so I politely and slowly continued while there was a navigator out in the garage guiding me through.
Now, the fun part. Decided the other day to mess around with the garage door a little and figured I will push the travel distance on the tracks to the max so the bottom part of the garage door goes as far up as possible. I finally gained an inch or two of more opening space when the garage door is opened up all the way.
All said and done the truck with the roof racks is barely, only barely, able to move in without fully hitting the garage door trim plates and intermittently only kisses these instead. Of course I have to drive it in very slow with all windows rolled down and the A/C and Audio turned off so I can listen in. The gap between the top of roof racks and the garage door trim plates is basically 1/8th of an inch or less but it barely makes it through.
I only ever park it rather empty and driving alone, and I am guessing the more weight I'd have in there (people, cargo) at other times it might only get better.
To be safe, I do deploy my navigator each time to sometimes manually force push the bottom part of the garage door further up with bare hands manually while I am bringing the beast in when I need to bring it in. Otherwise it stays outside.
TLDR:
Didn't remove the roof rack, didn't adjust the whole garage door frame or anything.
The long of it:
I spoke to a dealer who quoted $250 (lol) for removing the roof rack. Then I considered lowering the vehicle itself and asked for a quote but he said to bring the truck in and I said no.
Decided that it WILL look ugly without the roof rack so will NEVER remove those, unless replacing for something better.
As for the garage door brick and mortar wall opening, out of question.
Had a garage door person come in and was told about $1,100+ quote to reframe the tracks on the garage door. I don't think I will go for it.
Then I eventually tried to force park the thing into the garage and noticed it barely kisses the horizontal long trim plates on the inside of the garage door when it is lifted up. Essentially force driving it into the garage scrapes the top of the roof rack a little and pushes the horizontally hanging garage door up a little thus allowing a little more room to open up. The noise isn't pretty and it's not damaging anything so I politely and slowly continued while there was a navigator out in the garage guiding me through.
Now, the fun part. Decided the other day to mess around with the garage door a little and figured I will push the travel distance on the tracks to the max so the bottom part of the garage door goes as far up as possible. I finally gained an inch or two of more opening space when the garage door is opened up all the way.
All said and done the truck with the roof racks is barely, only barely, able to move in without fully hitting the garage door trim plates and intermittently only kisses these instead. Of course I have to drive it in very slow with all windows rolled down and the A/C and Audio turned off so I can listen in. The gap between the top of roof racks and the garage door trim plates is basically 1/8th of an inch or less but it barely makes it through.
I only ever park it rather empty and driving alone, and I am guessing the more weight I'd have in there (people, cargo) at other times it might only get better.
To be safe, I do deploy my navigator each time to sometimes manually force push the bottom part of the garage door further up with bare hands manually while I am bringing the beast in when I need to bring it in. Otherwise it stays outside.
bloodhound
Full Access Members
$250 for what is literally 10 minutes of labor. What a joke.
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