jscherb
Expedition Leader
I've got a roof top tent that I want to mount on an XJ Cherokee roof rack and I'm trying to decide the best way to adapt the tent to the rack.
I know some people mount tents to the drip rails of the XJ, but this XJ roof rack isn't actually on an XJ, it's on the fiberglass Safari Cab on my LJ:
The XJ rack on the Safari Cab is tied in to the LJ's roll bar, so there's no worry about weight capacity on the roof - all of the weight on the rack gets transferred directly to the roll bar, with no weight being borne by the fiberglass.
The Safari Cab does have drip rails, but they're non-structural - meaning, they are not designed to support drip-rail mounted rack bars, so I can't use that solution.
The instructions that come with the tent aren't very specific, they only mention "After-Market Roof Rack Bars":
The cross-bars on the XJ rack are rated for much less weight than an RTT plus two people, according to the XJ Owner's Manual. I don't know if that's because the XJ's sheet metal roof won't support the weight, or because Jeep is worried about rollover liability, or because the crossbars will simply break under that much weight.
I've done a design for custom brackets to mount in the XJ rack channels that will support the weight, but before I build anything custom, I'm looking to find out what aftermarket XJ rack accessories some of you might have used to mount an RTT on an XJ rack. Thanks in advance for your input.
I know some people mount tents to the drip rails of the XJ, but this XJ roof rack isn't actually on an XJ, it's on the fiberglass Safari Cab on my LJ:
The XJ rack on the Safari Cab is tied in to the LJ's roll bar, so there's no worry about weight capacity on the roof - all of the weight on the rack gets transferred directly to the roll bar, with no weight being borne by the fiberglass.
The Safari Cab does have drip rails, but they're non-structural - meaning, they are not designed to support drip-rail mounted rack bars, so I can't use that solution.
The instructions that come with the tent aren't very specific, they only mention "After-Market Roof Rack Bars":
The cross-bars on the XJ rack are rated for much less weight than an RTT plus two people, according to the XJ Owner's Manual. I don't know if that's because the XJ's sheet metal roof won't support the weight, or because Jeep is worried about rollover liability, or because the crossbars will simply break under that much weight.
I've done a design for custom brackets to mount in the XJ rack channels that will support the weight, but before I build anything custom, I'm looking to find out what aftermarket XJ rack accessories some of you might have used to mount an RTT on an XJ rack. Thanks in advance for your input.