We were contacted by Luis to design and build a heavy duty overland style roof rack for his F250. his requirements were simple, lol:
1) it must be strong enough to carry his extra large roof top tent; no worries.
2) it must be capable of mounting an Ostrich Wing 270° canopy; do-able.
3) capable of mounting a flip down toilet/shower enclosure; easy peasy.
4) be as large as possible, preferably 10ft; whoah a big boy!
5) mount to SnugTop fiberglass camper shell; SAY WHAT!!!!!!!
Our light duty racks can easily handle 450# of static weight and we often build racks to support the weight of RTT's and the occupants of them. The Ostrich Wing is a unique style of canopy that when fully extended covers a very large area that wraps around the vehicle, but the entire structure is supported off only one focal point. The shower enclosure , well that's simple. A 10 ft rack is merely a matter of adjusting dimensions and ordering the necessary steel. BUT, the SnugTop coupled with the fact the bed and cab flex independent of each other, now we have a challenge. See for those who are not in cue a pickup bed and the cab are not connected and they move independently, especially on dirt roads! This means the 10ft rack can only have a mounting structure for 6ft of its length allowing the remaining 4ft to float above the cab, the mounts also are affixed to a fiberglass structure that is rated at 500#. Let's stop for a second and calculate the weights; 200 for the rack,175 for the RTT, 125 for the canopy and 50 for the shower, that's 550#'s of static weight and we haven't factored the human element yet! That poor shell will not last long.
Our solution, build an internal skeleton that will span the distance of the mounts to shore up and support the fiberglass and transfer the weight immediately down to the bed. We mandrel bent .120 wall tubes with 18" channels welded to the top to handle the internal load. they hug the inside walls of the shell relatively tightly but still allow room for the sliding windows to fully operate.
The rack itself needed to be enclosed fully on 3 sides and the 4th needed an opening large enough for the 6' RTT to open to the drivers side. on the passenger side is where the canopy would mount and it needed to structurally sound enough to support its leveraged weight. We incorporated a multi faceted mount for the articulating edge of the canopy to attach. We also added in some expanded mesh for a floor in the areas the RTT would not encroach upon for an added touch.
All in all the build has far exceeded the expectations of Luis and now it is off to powder and then for the final install. If you have extreme needs or just a simple design we are your vendor, connect with us to discuss what your desires are so we can get started on your build.
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