Roof rack on your own (photo)

Most cars and even comparatively capacious crossovers or SUVs can not boast of a very spacious trunk. As a rule, you can put only the most necessary things, and half the space is occupied either by a spare wheel, or a set of tools, a jack and a tow rope. Installing an additional trunk on the roof of the car significantly increases the useful volume, without causing any damage to the appearance of the car. On the contrary, branded trunks look very stylish. However, they are quite expensive. But with a certain degree of skill and possession of certain skills it is possible to make and install the trunk on the rails of the car with their own hands. On how to do this and what will be required, and will be discussed in this article.

The main purpose of the overtalk trunk

It is obvious that the main function of this element, located on the roof, is the placement of various items necessary for travel or on daily trips. Unlike the staff department, the trunk on the railings, made by yourself, or made in the factory, allows you to transport not only additional cargo. With such a simple device as a rail, with or without attached trunk, you can transport long objects (for example, skis) or dimensional goods (bicycles, furniture, etc.).

Installing the trunk on the regular rails of the car

In those cases where the car is initially equipped with longitudinal or transverse special external beams, it is quite easy to install the trunk on the rails with your own hands. If we are talking about the design of factory production, then to each trunk, as a rule, all necessary fasteners and detailed installation instructions are attached. All that can be needed in these cases is the appropriate wrench and screwdriver. In addition, often a cargo or special trunk is fixed to the guides and at all without the need to use any tool at all - simply by means of belts.

However, even if you make the trunk on the rails with your own hands, the installation process will not require any special equipment or tools. Since already in the manufacturing process it is necessary to provide for the presence of fastening structures.

Advantages of self-manufacturing

Many motorists tend not to buy this important car accessory, but to make it themselves. This solution provides the car owner with a number of obvious advantages:

• Ability to choose the optimal parameters. Making the trunk on the roof of the car on its own, the owner of the car can choose its optimal physical dimensions, satisfying these or other requests and requirements, as well as the geometric shape. This is important from the point of view of maintaining the aerodynamic properties of the car, and from considerations of the ability of the element to perform certain specific tasks. About what variety can have a made luggage rack on the rails with their own hands, photos of such constructions speak eloquently enough.
• Significant savings in financial resources. As already mentioned above, branded corporate rails and trunks for them are quite expensive. If you make a copy yourself, the car owner can choose cheaper materials and not use any expensive technologies.
• Ideal compatibility of the trunk with a specific car. Who, if not the owner, knows best the features of his car? It is with their consideration alone that you can make such a trunk, which will have ideal characteristics of the area or volume, as well as the carrying capacity. And at the same time to have an aesthetic appearance that fully corresponds to the tastes of its owner.

Thus, the desire to produce a trunk on the rails with their own hands is quite understandable. Moreover, this is a rather fascinating creative process.

The main requirements imposed on them

In addition to the capacity of the overburden, it must meet certain standards. They primarily concern the following aspects:

• Geometrical dimensions. As a rule, the trunk area is dictated by a similar roof parameter of a particular car model. But many car owners manage to bear its edges beyond the perimeter of the roof. It is very important to understand that this solution can significantly change the position of the center of gravity of the machine and the characteristics of its stability.
• Strength. Even taking into account the fact that the basis of the trunk are metal structures, its load-carrying capacity, as a rule, is limited to 100-120 kg of load. The increase in this parameter is fraught with deformation of the body of the car, loss of values of the characteristics of the power of the car and a decrease in the safety of operation and movement.

How to make your own trunk with trunk rails

In those models of cars, where the regular roof rails are not provided by the factory assembly technology, they can be installed on their own. This will require the following set of materials, tools and equipment:

• A set of special sidewalls that can be purchased in almost any store of automotive spare parts. The set of sidewalls consists of two pieces, so it is best to buy two such sets.
• Metal profiled pipe. The choice of round tubes is a fairly common mistake. The rectangular profile provides much higher load stability. It is best to choose a pipe section of 15x15 mm and a wall thickness of 2 mm.
• Portable welding machine with the necessary consumables.
• Roulette.
• Grid with cells 4x4 cm.

Having such an arsenal, you can safely get down to work.

Determining the size of the trunk

The first step is to measure the length and width of the roof. From these indicators in many respects will depend on the geometric dimensions of the future design. Needless to say, the trunk on the railings ("UAZ Patriot") with their own hands made, will be much more than on Daewoo Matiz, for example. Based on the results of measurements, a profiled pipe is cut for longitudinal and transverse trunk guides.

Cutting and Welding

Crossbars for railings are sold in specialized car shops. If you can not find the cross-pieces of the desired length, they will need to be cut. The set of cross-pieces, like the side panels, consists of two products. For weight distribution on 8 reference points, it is best to buy two sets.

The crossbars are attached to the frame, which consists of the same profiled pipe and repeats the perimeter of the roof of a particular car, using welding. Thus, the bottom base is obtained, which should have a trunk on the railings with your own hands (VAZ-2111 or any other model).

After that the top platform is exactly the same way. It is very important that both designs exactly match each other in size. To fasten the two halves of the trunk between themselves is most expedient with the help of all the same welding. It is important to clean the welds immediately after cooling the metal.

Installation of the structure

Now it remains only to fix the self-made construction on the roof of the car. For this, special cross-members are used, which, in turn, are fastened to the car body with bolts and nuts. It is best to use 4 such cross-members - then the structure will be strong, reliable and safe. It will not be superfluous to use rubber, polyurethane or plastic gaskets in the places of fastening and abutment of trunk elements to the car body.

Finishing work

After fixing the homemade element, it must be painted. This is necessary not only to make the trunk on the rails look more aesthetic, but also in order to extend its service life. At the bottom of the bottom of the device is best to lay a grid with a width of cells about 4x4 cm. This will make it easy to get rid of snow in winter and from fallen leaves - in the fall.

Thus, the creation of a luggage carrier on the rails by one's own efforts-albeit labor-intensive, but not such a complicated process. In return, it provides a solution to many problems. For example, an expeditionary trunk on the rails with their own hands made, allows you to take with you on long trips and tourist trips everything you need without any problems. Homemade element allows you to transport bicycles, skis, building materials, large and oversized goods without the need for additional security measures.