Cross Bar Options

[CGrant]

New Member here. I just sold my 2000 Cherokee Sport to finance the purchase of one of the last 2012 Liberties around. I'll miss that Cherokee, it was my first Jeep. I am really liking the Liberty, though. I have a question about roof racks.

The Liberty I bought has flush mounted side rails. There are no raised bars. What are my options for mounting semi-permanent cross bars to these rails? When I cruise etrailer.com I see several offerings from Thule and Yakima but, reading the product descriptions, I get the impression that they are meant to be used with raised side rails only. If you have side rails like mine, what have you used?
Thanks,
Chris

 

[lfhoward]

You have several options.

My KK came with the raised side rails, so this was my solution (pipe and u-bolts): LOST JEEPS • View topic - Homebrew roof bars for KK. You could order OEM raised side rails then go with something DIY like that, or go Thule or Yakima, but then you're getting into $$$.

There are stronger and better roof rack options for the KK that bolt directly to the roof where the OEM side rails go. Rock Lizard Fabrications has in my opinion the highest quality product, but RL's business is reorganizing right now and you'd have to wait until the shop reopens to place a new order. I think it would be worth the wait, though. Contact Us

A similar looking product is a Rocky Road Advanture rack. I hear mixed reviews about Rocky Road Outfitters. The roof rack style is similar to RL, but the build quality seems to be less (eg., holes not lining up with bolts on the KK's roof in some cases), and I hear some say their customer service is lacking. Some others are happy. I have never personally dealt with either RL or RRO. Jeep Liberty Safari Roof rack, tire mount / carrier, KJ and KK RRO sells just side rails also if you would rather make DIY crossbars.

Many others have built their own crossbars, using lots of different methods. If you can weld, the sky's the limit. There are a lot of good threads about building roof racks here, on lostjeeps.com, and also on JeepForum.

 

[CGrant]

Great response! The links were very helpful. Those RL products are just what I would want. $450 is a lot of coin, though. How long does it take you to mount the DIY crossbars with the 2-U-Bolts-per-corner arrangement? If those are OEM side rails, it looks like there is plenty of clearance between the bottom of the bolt and roof of the vehicle.

 

[lfhoward]

Thanks. It took me about 30 minutes to install the crossbars (about 2 minutes per nut x 16 nuts, being careful not to scratch the roof with the wrench). Not a terribly long time, but long enough where I don't want to take them off and reinstall them all the time! There is about 1/2 inch between the nut and the roof on the outboard nuts, but the inboard ones are about 1/4 inch from the roof because of the angle of the bar and the curvature of the roof. I used nylocks (locknuts with nylon) so they wouldn't work loose.

 

[CGrant]

I suppose there's not enough clearance that you could leave each assembly intact, looping one 'arm' under the side rail then turning the assembly upright. Does that make sense? How did the painting of the galvanized go?

 

[lfhoward]

You could loop about half of the assembly-- the inboard u-bolt connected to 2 flat plates-- over the cross bar, under the side rail-- but you had to attach the other u-bolt and 2 nuts afterwards, then tighten all 4 nuts on the assembly.

The galvanized pipes are still bare! I got suitable primer and black paint, but the weather has to be at least 50 degrees outside for the paint to dry properly. I think I will have to wait until spring to do the painting.

 

[Boo-Yah]

'Evening.
I have the same issue as CGrant; it's awful to say but I'm glad to see that someone else is dealing with the same issue. I recently bought an '08 Liberty 4x4 not realizing that the side-bars that came with it won't work with the Thule cross-bars I have; it sounds like I have the same side bars that CGrant has. My solution was to contact the Jeep dealership and order raised side-bars (hoping they'll do the trick). Once installed, I plan on slapping on the Thule fit kit for the cross-bars. Expensive solution but the Thule system has lasted me since the mid-90's!

 

[CGrant]

Boo-yah,
I'm interested in knowing how your project goes. Especially when you pull those cheap plastic side-bars off. I have read that these flush rails are in two pieces; the upright portion and a flat piece that "lines" the roof (for lack of a better phrase). Removing the flat piece results in a regrettable mess of 3M tape...so I have heard.
I've decided to go with the Rocky Road system. But I had to promise my wife not to get them until my next bonus comes in [soon].

 

[Boo-Yah]

Hello again!

CGrant, you need to know that when it comes to cars, beyond driving a manual, I have 2 left thumbs. I've asked the local 4x4 garage if they could do the change for me, if I supplied the MOPAR cross-bars. They candidly admitted that they'd never done it and would be uncomfortable. I've purchased the raised cross-bars and will have the dealership that the 4x4 garage recommended, install them for me.

Unlike you, I have no wife to answer to; but I do have support payments to make so I have to wait til mid-March. I'll happily advise you how the switch went.

Have a great weekend!

 

[Boo-Yah]

'Evening All:

CG, further to your request, I'm updating you on the side bar refit. The MOPAR sidebars were easy enough to find through the dealer. I shopped around for an independent garage but no one was comfortable pulling out the factory flush-mounts and installing the raised bars. Went to the Chrysler dealership that an off-road garage recommended and sure enough they did the job. Parts and labour was just over $300 Canadian.

Hope this helps.

 

[CGrant]

'Evening All:

CG, further to your request, I'm updating you on the side bar refit. The MOPAR sidebars were easy enough to find through the dealer. I shopped around for an independent garage but no one was comfortable pulling out the factory flush-mounts and installing the raised bars. Went to the Chrysler dealership that an off-road garage recommended and sure enough they did the job. Parts and labour was just over $300 Canadian.

Hope this helps.

Thanks, BY. I've read a few posts in other forums that confirm what I thought about these flush rails. After installation of you Mopar racks, does there remain some plastic molding on the roof-line underneath the rack?

 

[Boo-Yah]

Hello again:

Nope, no plastic molding that I can see. It honestly looks like it came straight off the assembly line with the raised bars rather than the flush side-bars.

Hope that helps. If you have any other questions, by all means, ask away.

 

[CGrant]

UPDATE:
I ordered a set of roof rails and cross bars from Rocky Road. It took a couple of weeks for the assembly to ship but I was in no particular hurry. When the components did arrive they were well-packed and damage-free. There was one thing I did notice that appeared odd to me. The forward portion of each rear "foot" of the roof rails were angled upward to a degree that would have made it difficult to engage the roof-mounted studs. A quick call to RRO confirmed that this was probably due to welding heat. The rep apologized that they missed this and offered to take the rails back and repair or replace. He also explained that the proper application of torque with the feet in a padded vice would do the trick also.

It did. Very easily.

With that done, fit and finish of the components were sensibly perfect. On to prep and assembly.

For those of you with factory rails, count your blessings. Installation would be that much easier. For those of you with those long plastic rails sitting flush on your vehicle, you've got your work cut out for you. Removing those flush rails was a simple matter of pulling and prying up and away from the roof of the vehicle. What you are left with, however, is mass of broken double-sided tape and stubborn adhesive running the length of the rails. Removing this ugly mess is, unquestionably, the most difficult routine in this installation. What is required is a plastic putty knife/scraper, patience, and generous amounts of Goof-Off.

Once this was accomplished. Installation was simple and straight-forward, hardly requiring instruction. All hardware was present and accounted for. Everything fit together as it should. I recommend snugging down the roof rails but do not torque them down until the end. The long cross-bar goes up front and the short one in the back. "Finger-tight" two brackets to one side of the vehicle. Take the other brackets and attach the cross bars to them. Then feed these into the "finger-tighted" brackets while a friend supports them. Tighten the cross-bar/bracket assemblies in place. Then torque down the roof rails. Lastly secure the cross-bars in their respective brackets with the supplied hardware.

I hope that all makes sense. The end result is a very robust set of racks that will handle any load I am likely to throw on there. I can't wait to throw the canoe up there. It's that time of year!

Cheers,

Chris

 

[Ozzy Powers]

Thanks for the details, would you be able to post some picture of the cross bars on your Car.
Kind regards

 

[CGrant]

Here you go...

 

[Ozzy Powers]

Looks great thank you...