[jamm5266]

I want to be able to haul my 13.5'/70# kayak on my LJ with either top. So I wondered if anyone had used a hinge mounted lightbar similar to the pic below for the front support?



I want to use Mako Saddles (already have them) but the lightbar has a larger diameter than the saddles can accomodate. I was thinking about making an inverted U-shaped pipe that could either be bolted or welded to two of the light mounts.

So I have a few questions:

1. Has anyone used a lightbar to do this successfully? What were the pros/cons?
2. Did the lightbar cause excessive wind noise? I'm thinking that with my added pipe I may be able to incorporate a wind deflector. Any thoughts?
3. Would it be better to copy the lightbar design but use the correct sized pipe? Yakima Load Bars are 1-1/8" diameter, is that big enough to span the width of the LJ without additional support?
4. I don't particularly like the look of a lightbar so I would like a way to quickly disconnect it when not in use. Any ideas?
5. Anybody have experience with "A" pillar protectors? Could these be used as the base mount for the pipe?

Now on to the back yak mount.

I was lucky enough to purchase one of Eddie's (Ground Pounder Fab) rear bumpers with a tire swingout. Which is awesome by the way. So I am thinking of adding a vertical receiver above the tire mount. This would allow me to make a removeable rear yak support which would be somewhat similar to the one below, but narrower.



Now here's the kicker--- I want to be able to access the inside of the LJ from the rear while the yak is in place. The problem I see with my design is that the support mounted to the swingout along with the yak being strapped down would not allow the swingout to open. Basically the tied down yak would be holding it in place. To combat this issue, I was thinking about making the mount so that it would still sit in the vertical receiver but would have two stacked horitzontal arms with a pivot hinge at one end of them (probably in line with the tire swingout hinge). The yak support would then mount to the top arm centered over the LJ. Kind of like your arm.

My hope is that with the rear of the yak strapped to the top support arm the lower arm would swing out with the tire carrier and the yak would stay in place. This would then allow the rear door to open for access to the back of the Jeep.

Am I crazy? Any designers think this would work? I would appreciate any thought or comments. Please don't tell me to get a roof rack. I want something that can:

• be taken off quickly without doing a lot of unbolting
• allow for either a hard or soft top to be on or affect folding folding it down
• let me leave the setup at camp while on the trails

Thanks

[Unlimited04]

I wouldn't use a lightbar, that stuff is usually pretty thin walled. I think you could make it work with proper sized tubing tho, like some 1/8" wall 1" diameter aluminum tube, or maybe even just buy some Yakima or Thule load bars and find a way to mount them horizontal. If you can weld, fabricate the lower section of that lightbar and weld to a set of shaft collars from McMaster-Carr and shove the aluminum load bar across the horizontal width. That way you can use load bar that will match the diameter of your existing kayak mounts.

I'm assuming you don't have a hard top on and can't use the gutter rail & clamp on Yakima/Thule style attachments - but those would definitely be the easiest way to go. And without a wilderness rack & no hard top to drill through, you're going to loose the tailgate no matter what you do.

[Fletch8672]

This guy made his own kayak rack ...

http://www.jeepforum.com/forum/f46/custom-roof-rack-1997-wrangler-tj-under-40-a-764367/

I was going to follow suit but I found a deal on a cage! Good luck.