African Outback roof-rack time?

Brian894x4

Explorer
Well, the biggest factor for me was cost. I've spent a ton of money purchasing this LC, then outfitting it with suspension, bumper, winch, tires, plus numerous other mods. So, as much as I'd like to act as though I won the lottery, I do have to keep expenses reasonable. :)

So, I ordered the half-rack from Slee on Friday, which really should be called the 5/8th rack, because it's about 5/8th the size of the full size AO. Since this is larger than any rack I've used the past, I think it will work out fine. Also the rack may have to be removed on a regular basis if I can't fit in my garage, so ease of removal due to size was a factor.

I've heard the reports of bad power coating. Slee only had grey in stock and since aluminum is naturally grey, I wonder if the chipped power coating will be as noticable with grey compared to black.

Now to put that money saved getting this ARB locker I have sitting in my living room installed. :D
 

LexusAllTerrain

Expedition Leader
Brian894x4 said:
Now to put that money saved getting this ARB locker I have sitting in my living room installed. :D


Congratulations on your purchase!


Now you are planning in some lockers?

Are planning on doing front/back lockers or just rear!

I have been reasearching the lockers, however I am unsure if I want to do this or wait and change gears at the same time!

Keep us posted on the install, i bet it will look great and will give the LC a different look!:arabia:
 

RAM5500 CAMPERTHING

OG Portal Member #183
Brian894x4 said:
Now to put that money saved getting this ARB locker I have sitting in my living room installed. :D

If you are even THINKING of regearing, now is the time. ARB's are somewhat complicated to install and you will save a decent chunk of $ doing everything at once!

My .02
 

Brian894x4

Explorer
I have gone back and forth many times about whether or not to regear. I've decided...hesitantly...not too.

Right now, the gearing seems perfectly fine for both highway and off road. My gas mileage on the highway has been between 14-15 mpg...which is surprisingly higher than I expected, and higher than I was getting before for some reason, so I'm thinking the Land Cruiser likes the slightly higher gearing. I don't know.

I have more than enough power to pass anyone I need too and its races up the passes just fine. I do notice that going up long steep passes, the transmission seems to hunt in between 2nd and 3rd gear a lot, with neither really being ideal. I know that slightly lower gears will make it perform better in 3rd gear under these circumstances based on my experience regearing my truck.

I may regret my decision after more weight is added, plus the roof rack. At this point, the only additional weight I anticipate though, is from adding sliders and some kind of steel rear bumper/tire carrier and some under armor like maybe a T-case crossmember. Beyond that, my build up is fairly complete.

I also don't anticipate going taller than 33s. While 35s would be nice for some places, 33s work much better for the majority of what we do and on the highway.

It's definately different than my Toyota pick up. The moment I went to taller tires with my truck, I immediately noticed the power loss and it was very frustrating. Then regained it by regearing. But then later when to even taller tires and again had no power, which caused me to regear a 2nd time. With the Land Cruiser I don't notice the difference at all thanks to the much more powerful engine. But then the difference between 31s and 33s is fairly minimal too.

As far as lockers, this was also a tough call. Going ARB was a no brainer. I didn't want the hassle of trying to retrofit electric lockers. And I have plenty of experience with both LSDs and Autolockers to know that I hate both on street vehicles. Having both axles open under normal conditions on the street is a major advantage.

So, that left me with deciding between two lockers or one locker. When I ran my truck, my final set up included a front ARB. After all that expense, I only used it a few times.

So, I've decided to go just rear ARB for now for cost reasons. By not regearing it was an easy decision, because I can always install the front ARB anytime in the future, if/when I change my mind. Installing two ARBs is a chunk of change and its easier to justify it when spreading it out over time.

With winter and snow just around the corner, I may end up going with a front ARB before next spring. If I can make it through winter, I'll probably do the front ARB as one of the last major mods, after sliders, under armor and probably rear bumper, just because it will be so rarely used.
 
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Brian894x4

Explorer
Does anyone know what the hieght is from the LC roof to the top (floor) of an AO rack at its lowest setting. Not including the AO rail?

The reason I ask is that I figure I got about 8-9 inches maximum to work with between the roof of my LC and the top of the garage door. Closer 8". I know I can fit the basic AO rack, but I'm wondering if I have enough room to mount a 6" tall box up on the rack and still fit in the garage.
 

RAM5500 CAMPERTHING

OG Portal Member #183
Brian894x4 said:
Does anyone know what the hieght is from the LC roof to the top (floor) of an AO rack at its lowest setting. Not including the AO rail?

The reason I ask is that I figure I got about 8-9 inches maximum to work with between the roof of my LC and the top of the garage door. Closer 8". I know I can fit the basic AO rack, but I'm wondering if I have enough room to mount a 6" tall box up on the rack and still fit in the garage.

I dont have the rack on the rig, and wont for awhile

But at its lowest setting, the BOTTOM of the rack can/will come in contact with the roof!
 

pete.wilson

Adventurer
n

Hey


I sent an email to that Blackoutaz people and they have not returned my emails requesting a estimate. Where are they located? I'm looking for a rack for my 94 Burb.
 

zimm

Expedition Leader
i put an AO on the LX a couple weeks ago. super strong and really light. no chipping on the powder coat.. yet.. but the finish aint the best ive ever seen. overall i give it a thumbs up.
 

Brian894x4

Explorer
Package just arrived from Slee. But I only had time to put the box in the garage and then go to work. :(

Christmas time will happen when I get home tonight, though. :) I'll post pictures when I open it up and install it.
 

Brian894x4

Explorer
OK,

Picture 1, is the rack installed and ready to go. Picture 2, just shows a detailed shot of the mounting. Picture 3, shows the spade holder set up that I also purchased.

There are some bad and some good, so far about this rack. I'll cover the bad first, so we end on a good note.

The rack's size was about 47x49, while Slee's site advertises 51x51. I'm sure this is just a honest error on the website, but I'm a little dissapointed in the smaller size. But its not significant.

Powercoat was not that bad. Not super great, but it was fine to me.

Quality of build is OK. I had a major issues with trying to get the nut inserts to slide through some of the slots and this appears to have to do with possibly too much powercoating.

Assembly and installation was a bit of challenge and took some time, because of the slots and nut inserts, etc. It's a great design, once it's finished, but it's kind of a pain to assemble the top rail. The rest of the rack went together fairly easy.

I purchased the spade and axe holder. Both are neat designs, but my axe is too big for the holder, so I'll be looking for a smaller one. The spade holder is nice design, but the quality is only OK. I had to modify the handle bracket to fit my shovel, but no biggie.

OK, that's about it for the bad.

The good is that the rack is very light. Total shipping weight was 23lbs and that include some other stuff I ordered from Slee. I didn't weigh the rack, but I wouldn't be surprised if it wasn't more than about 20lbs with brackets installed.

Despite the extremely light weight, the rack feels SUPER beefy. I didn't try, because there no easy way for me too get up there, but I'm sure I could stand on it all day long. It should have no problem hauling anything i ask of it, yet weighes almost nothing by itself. Very cool!

The mounts are a nice a design and appear be very sturdy as well.

I currently have it set to the lowest setting and it sits about 1" off the top of the roof, so it's a pretty nice low profile rack. My 80 never came with a factory roof rack so there's no rubber strips on there.

As far as the size, the full size rack would been nice, but I don't regret getting the smaller rack. Now that it's put together I can remove and install the rack with easy, which I may end up doing.

Over all, I'm happy with it. We'll see how I outfit it as I'm off on an Eastern Oregon trip next weekend.
 
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Brian894x4

Explorer
Picture 1, shows the box with the top rail brackets and the spade and axle holder.

The axe head slides inside this square box, which is neat idea, but you have to have axe that will fit. The handle is held in place by a wing nut through a hole drilled into the end of the axe handle.

The axe holder is designed to mount upwards and would stick up too tall for my rack to clear the garage, so when I mount it, I'll have to modify it and mount it sideways. I'll post pics when I'm done with that.

For at least some of my trips, such as the upcoming one, where fuel will definately be an issue, I plan to store fuel on top of the rack, but I haven't decided how. I have four 10 liter Wedco cans right now and two Scepter 10 liter cans on the way. That's about 15 gallons and I think I'm going to store about 5 of those cans on this rack somehow, with 1 can living inside the cargo area, tucked next to the rear drawers.

I'm thinking of using some blitz can holders, cutting them down so they are low profile, then bolting them to the rack and that will give me a stable platform for the cans. Then lashing each can down to the rack itself.

The eye bolts I bought extra from Slee. I was anticipating not using the top rail and just using the eyebolts, but that quickly went away as I thought about the things I might store up there.
 
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Grim Reaper

Expedition Leader
Thats a good looking rack.

Have you got a good MPG figure for the truck? I'm curious to see how much it lowers it.
 

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