ARB roof rack

[MickL Addicted PP Member Find all posts View Profile Close MickL]

Re: ARB roof rack

My issue is the same; the roller door is just too low so I plan on taking the rack on and off. When not in use I will just hang it on the garage wall on a couple of hooks.

I leave the two steel rails on all the time and just take the cage off. Rails took about an hour to put on but I was being really anal about sealing it up properly with silicone as well as the seals that come with it.

It’s just over 20kg so one person can easily carry it around but you will need two people to put it up on the rails without risk of damaging a panel or paint just because it’s so large.

It has 6 mounting points and if you only had to do the ones at each corner you’d have it on or off in 5-10 min. It’s the middle row mounts that are a PITA as you can’t fit your hands through the mesh floor to hold the nuts when assembling it.

So first time putting the cage up took the best part of an hour.... having said that, I think I could do it in 20 min now I have a technique worked out. :wink:

Mick

[LostDingo2 Find all posts View Profile Close LostDingo2]

Re: ARB roof rack

Mick,
any issues putting the mounts on?
I wouldn't mind attaching this myself but have heard it's not the easiest of task removing the current rails and then mounting etc.

The lightweight of the alloy is what makes this really attractive, looks the same as the steel unit....only time will tell with durability etc. 8)

[MickL Addicted PP Member Find all posts View Profile Close MickL]

Re: ARB roof rack

wouldn't mind attaching this myself but have heard it's not the easiest of task removing the current rails and then mounting etc

Can't speak for removing the factory rails as my year of GXL didn't have them, but putting the rack on is easy and anyone with basic mechanical skills can do it.

All you need is a 6mm ball end allen key (comes with the rack), some silicone (no leak insurance) and something for some leverage for tightening the bolts with when using the ball end of the allen key (I used a 10mm ring spanner)

A long (100mm or so) 8mm bolt is useful to do the middle two mounts (you'll see when you get to it, too hard to explain without photos)

Mick

[nickchap Member Find all posts View Profile Close nickchap]

Re: ARB roof rack

Just a tip

I have a cheap whip aerial on the bull bar which is cut to the height of my Prado. (40mm lift, racks and rubber UHF aerial)

If it touches we can not go into the shopping centre car park

Have saved a lot more that it's cost!

Nick

[mjrandom Out of control poster! Find all posts View Profile Close mjrandom]

Re: ARB roof rack

I have a cheap whip aerial on the bull bar which is cut to the height of my Prado. (40mm lift, racks and rubber UHF aerial)

If it touches we can not go into the shopping centre car park

What a top idea, should go into the "little things" thread! I will be doing this for sure!

I know precisely how tall the Prado is with and without roofrack but still I don't trust carpark signs. One we use frequently changed its height from 2.1m (ok) to 2.06m (Oh Oh!) which caused a deal of panic as the Prado is 2.065 on its own. Carefully walked into the carpark to discover that a new drain pipe had been hung over one parking spot! I guess they did the right thing.

Can't be too careful. I wedged the 90 with roofrack once and had to let air out of the tyres to get back out and yes the clearance was ok according to the signage just didn't allow for the bridging effect of a long wheelbase 4wd over a drain.

Michael

[Kevin Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Kevin]

Re: ARB roof rack

...I don't trust carpark signs...
Michael

With you that one. You also need to be careful if you change tire size ops: I have no problems with any of the Carparks in Cairns with the roof rack on when I am running the 265/65 ATR's, but when I put the 265/70 STT's, I clipped the clearance bar with the roof rack. Luckily no damage but it woke me up...

Kevin

[jeff s Avid PP Poster! Find all posts View Profile Close jeff s]

Re: ARB roof rack

Regarding the centre mounting plates for mounting the bar to the rails.
Yes they are a PITA. I ended up using masking tape to hold it in place. Then no problems. Just remove the tape when finished..

Just a tip.

Oh, and so far the rack has been great. Did Steep point and the GTG now, no sign of movement. but they do make some wind noise..
And for fathers day I got some rear work lights to mount to it.. cool. 8)
Jeff.

[MickL Addicted PP Member Find all posts View Profile Close MickL]

Re: ARB roof rack

but they do make some wind noise..

I agree. I found it reasonably quiet travelling at speed in calm conditions but any sort of cross wind and it gets very noisey.

Mick

[hisham saeed Member Find all posts View Profile Close hisham saeed]

Re: ARB roof rack

below is my msg. under another topic due to i couldn't find the ARB roof rack thread,
thanks to amts he sugessted that i move the discution here , also you will find answers to questions asked by amts

hi all,
i need you help me taking a desicion for my roofrack, i was under the impression that ARB is the best , perhaps due to the fact that we don't have much brands offered in the Egyptian market, but after searching PP , i don't see many members with ARB alloy roof rack , most are with Rhino HD bars.
any paticluar reason ?

although i like the following roofrack setup Toyota or rhino HD bars with Rhino pioneer roof rack , if i'm going to get that setup in egypt it would coast me almost same as ARB.

forgot to mention my favorite roofrack setup on PP is what amts done ,
viewtopic.php?f=4&t=6773#p95695

regards
hisham

What will you use the rack for?

How often will you use it?
winter (offroad season ) imy average offroading is every 2 weeksends and couple longer trips 4-5 days., and planning to go for a 15 days trip this year (i hope)

What are you going to put up there?
offroad trips:
extra spare tyre
hi lift / shovel
arb awning (haven't decide on which 2m or 2.5 m long)
2 alloy sand matts (1.5 m ) , could be replaced with maxtrax in the future
camping gear / stuff

on road (with wife and kids)
luggage ( i use the 3rd row seats )

How heavy will the items be?
i think all the above will be around 100kg +/-

Do you want it permanently on?

that question never crossed my mind , i used to have my racks on all the time, but after reading and searching pp forum , i begane to think why not remove the rack when not in use, thats why i began to like the toyota HD bars with the rhino pioneer rack (which by the way got a qouat today from Castle Hill Toyota for A$ 260 +A$ 157 shiping to Egypt)
after seeing amts setup , i also began to think why do i need the sides of the roof basket , why not tray ?
my car has no factory side rails
i use it for daily driving + offroad
car highet is not a broplem to me as i intend to give it 3" lift
i just got my prado second hand couple of months ago after being a jeep owner for 8 years, my original plan was to get non expensive solution for the rack at the moment to put my spare tire and sand matts for this winter and then replace it with the ARB Alloy , but since i couldn't find any i was going for the Alloy ARB , but i felt like most of you guys are using rhino,so i thought i should ask why?

sorry for the long reply

regards
hisham

[Guest Close Guest]

Re: ARB roof rack

How heavy will the items be?
i think all the above will be around 100kg +/-

If the items are going to be 100kg, then you will have to take 20kg off as you have to allow for the weight of the roofrack.

thats why i began to like the toyota HD bars with the rhino pioneer rack (which by the way got a qouat today from Castle Hill Toyota for A$ 260 +A$ 157 shiping to Egypt)

I'm assuming that that price is just for the Toyota HD bars as the Pioneer platform rack is AUD694rrp.

[hisham saeed Member Find all posts View Profile Close hisham saeed]

Re: ARB roof rack

yes the price is just for the Toyota Hd bars. or the aero ones , [quote][I would recommend the aero ones though as these produce less noise when driving and wind resistance. These are still the same price and same 100kg spec with 3 bars. Freight on either $157.00./quote]
still waiting for the pioneer platform qoutation

the 100 Kg stated above as a max. weight , dont think that i would exceed that
spare tyre 30-35 KG(steel rims)
hi lift :?:
sand matts 20-30kg will have to weight to make sure
ARB awning 10Kg
tent/sleeping bags/camping chairs 10-20KG

all above are from my imagination (these are not accurate)

forgot to tell you that i hope to get a roof tent , but that will be the last on my wish list

regards
hisham

[Guest Close Guest]

Re: ARB roof rack

the 100 Kg stated above as a max. weight , dont think that i would exceed that
spare tyre 30-35 KG(steel rims)
hi lift :?:
sand matts 20-30kg will have to weight to make sure
ARB awning 10Kg
tent/sleeping bags/camping chairs 10-20KG

all above are from my imagination (these are not accurate)

forgot to tell you that i hope to get a roof tent , but that will be the last on my wish list

Assuming that they are accurate, they would be close to 100kg. The 100kg rating on the roof racks is what the manufacturer of the roof rack recommends. However, Toyota only recommends 100kg on the roof. So you must take into account the weight of the roof racks. The Pioneer platform is ~20 to 25kg. So you are left with roughly 80kg worth of equipment that you can put on the roof.

The spare tyre and wheel weight is about right (30kg for factory Grandtreks, 35kg for mud-terrain)
A hi-lift is about 15kg.
Not sure what sand mats you have but a set of 2 Maxtrax weighs 8kg.
2.5m long ARB touring awning is 12kg
Oztent RV4 weighs 19kg
The above totals 89kg (assuming 35kg spare wheel). That's pushing it.

Maybe you can put the hi-lift somewhere else or not take it. I have a set of Maxtrax which I think will get me out of most trouble except for changing tyres in sand. The hi-lift would be handy but my thoughts are that if I choose a tough tyre and maintain correct pressure, the chances of something going wrong with the tyre would be low.

What I may suggest is that you use only the Toyota 3br HD set.

• :arrow: The spare tyre can go on the mid and rear bar and strap it down.
  :arrow: The HD bars are 1250mm long and assume that you are using 265/70R17 tyres (which are about 800mm, it leaves you 400mm of space next to the tyre. You can mount your long items in this space, like the oztent.
  :arrow: The ARB awning and hi-lift will have no problems attaching straight onto the HD bars with the correct bracket.
  :arrow: As for your miscellaneous equipment, you can buy extra HD bars that are 1650mm long (price info), cut it in 2 and install them in between the front and mid cross bars. You will need something like P1031 T-plate from Unistrut to join the bars up. (http://unistrut.com.au/index.php?M1=6&M2=20&M3=75) I would recommend that you stick with the HD commercial bars instead of the aerodynamic ones for greater flexibilty.

[plunko2 Junior Member Find all posts View Profile Close plunko2]

Hey Fellas,
Just wondering if any one who has fitted up a delux Arb rack is willing do give us a few instructions as to the best way to fit it. I'm mostly not sure what to do with the rubbers which sit in the tracks and how people sealed up their screw wholes.
Just picked up a second hand one in good nick for $500 went in to arb to ask them and the arogant tools pretty much told me to piss off.
Cheers

[mjrandom Out of control poster! Find all posts View Profile Close mjrandom]

The holes are sealed with pieces of flat rubber that cover the whole foot area of the mount. Most of us who have fitted our own also filled the screw holes with a neutral silicon like sikaflex. The fitting instructions say to fit the two mounting frames to the car and then bolt the roofrack on top using the angle looking plates which have weldnuts. There is no access to the allen screws that attach the frame to the car after the rack is installed so you will need to follow this order of installation. Fairly straight forward. Mine is a bit different because I modified the ARB mount to suit another brand of rack which I already had. I think if you search around you will find the instructions on the ARB web site or you could try calling ARB direct in Melbourne. My experience is that ARB head office are very helpful and will send out info.

[Eecee Lurker Find all posts View Profile Close Eecee]

Hey guys,

I'm glad this old thread has been revived, its just the info I need.
My requirements are for a roof tray system that will accomodate a roof top tent (Howling Moon 1.4) as well as a howling moon awning.
With the tent and the awning off, it needs to fit under a carbay with a clearance of 2.085m

After much procrastination I have decided there are two options;
1. Tracklander Roof topper
2. Rhino Pioneer Platform.
3. ARB (although I'm not too keen on the steel due to weight and potential rusting in the future)
But the guys at TJM tell me that the Tracklander will add 280mm to my Grande 120 (stock height 1850 according to wikipedia) hence too high.

Has anyone have a Tracklander on a Prado and can u tell me if it would clear under 2.1m? Thanks in advance.