Do you REALLY know the rating for your roof rack?

[sgtsandman]

A roof rack that is pop rivetted to the roof of vehicle. Let's think about this for a minute. Pop rivet, come in various sizes, aluminum or steel. Roof steel IDK, 14 gauge maybe less. Cross winds and driving winds say 60 mph. I'm not an engineer or claim to have any knowledge of engineering, but saying the rack has 4 points of contact (one at each corner of the roof) and 2 rivets in each contact. I cannot image this would be any type of good contact with winds coming at the rack and trying to lift it off the roof. I would be more inclined to use 1/4-20 bolts, rather than rivets, with a plate on the inside of the roof.

Sorry just thinking about pros and cons.

The one in dispute in the videos was pretty much a solid rail on either side with multiple points for the rivets to mount to the roof. I can't say if the proper rivets were used or not but I certainly would not have chosen aluminum over steel. I would also would have used some sort of back up reinforcement like the one Ronny replaced the original one with.

In any case, the rack's off road rating was much less than what was advertised. My Rhino Racks and Thule Racks on the 2011 and 2019, respectively, both have similar weight reductions if you are running off road. The ones on my 2011 are heavy duty models. So, their rating is higher but I believe the percentage reduction from max recommended load rating are the same for both models. But the end story remains the same. If you are going to off road and use a roof rack, check to see what the limits are so you won't end up with the rack getting ripped off the roof and dumping you stuff all over the trail. Not to mention the probability damage to your roof.