Factory roof racks...?.

[tturbonegro]

my factory roof rack cross bars are so tight to the roof I don't understand how they could be usable...what am I missing ?

[dieselcrawler]

Duh... they are just for looks otherwise the Excursion wouldnt look like the bad@$$ suv it really is...

Ok... jokes aside... I have to agree the roof rack is mostly useless. The one time I did use ours I was hoping it was going to hold the box I was strapping to it... flimsy rails could be beefier for sure. And an inch higher off the roof would be nice.

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[tturbonegro]

Haha yea I'm amazed at how useless they really are

[AMSOILdealer]

I removed mine. You need to be the Jolly Green Gaint to be able to reach anything without a ladder.

[tturbonegro]

Ha, the roof is actually pretty accessible by standing in the rear door area
Want to be able to throw a surfboard up there

[AMSOILdealer]

Take out the third row and put inside, unless it is a long board or paddle board. Where do you go? I'm on LBI as much as possible.

[Posterboy]

This is a Thule Ascent 1600 cargo box I mounted on my stock roof racks.

[IMG][/IMG]

I used the mounting system that came with the box, but had to cut off the bottom of the metal fingers that wrapped under the bar so they wouldn't wear into the metal roof. (Look up this box on Thule's website & you can see the bar clamps before modification)

[IMG][/IMG]

There's also 2 small T-nuts in each roof rail that you can use to fasten the very edges of the box to minimize flexing in high winds when it's empty.

[IMG][/IMG]

I've had this set-up for over 5,000 miles without any issues, it'll hold 5 snowboards if you pack it carefully, is fairly easy to get into by opening the rear passenger door & standing on the floor next to the seat. Plus the fact that it sits so low to the roof makes it look super clean, you get better aerodynamics, & don't have any wind noise or whistling like the racks that sit 2or 3 inches off the top. I just picked up 2 more factory rails from a junkyard & plan to fab up a mounting bracket for the spare tire behind the box so I can get it out of the cab. I'll post up some pics of that project in the future!