Roof Rails

[Justo77 Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Justo77]

I called CMI Toyota this afternoon to get a price on some roof rails for my 05 GXL and I was told that Toyota don't recomend putting roof rails on a vehicle that didn't come with them from new as they have a different roof skin and the roof rails may weaken the structure of the roof???
Has anyone ever heard of this before?
It seems strange that they would use different roof skins for different models.
Is there anyone out there who has put rails onto their Prado and had any problems with them?
Thanks in advance.

Justin

[Madkore Avid PP Poster! Find all posts View Profile Close Madkore]

I take it you are talking about the roof rails that run the length of the roof?

Sounds like a load of sh*t to me...

I put roof rails on my GXL after I purchased it second hand. Not sure if it came with them when purchased new, then owner took them off, but mine just had black covers in the spots where the attachment points were for the rails.

I bought my rails from a PP member and the only advice I can think of when installing them is that I put a bit of silicone around the bolts as I was attaching them to help reduce any chance of water ingress.

Not had a problem with them and they have been on for errr... maybe 3 years?

I have heard the genuine article roof rails purchased from Toyota are pricey - very pricey. I would keep an eye out in the For Sale section here as often PP members are getting rid of them when they purchase a roof rack. Seems you might be going the other way round as your sig block indicate you have a ARB roof rack...

[Guest Close Guest]

It's a load of $#@^%$.

The roofs are all the same. Don't buy the genuine item from Toyota as they cost a bomb. Don't buy the imitations off ebay either as others have been burnt before with the plastic construction for certain sections of it. Put your request in the wanted section and someone will have one they want to offload.

[Justo77 Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Justo77]

Thanks for the replies guys, I touught it sounded a bit strange.

I have an ARB rack on there at the moment but I was looking at getting rails, cross bars and something like a Rhino basket that is easier to put on and take off as I find that I dont really use the ARB rack very often and would rather have the extra clearance and less wind noise when I don't need it.

[Madkore Avid PP Poster! Find all posts View Profile Close Madkore]

Thats the system I have Justo, but I use it because I wouldn't be able to fit in the garage with a permanently mounted roof rack (unless it was a windcheetar one perhaps).

To be honest, its a bit of a pain to have to install when doing a trip, but I think its because its just one more thing that needs to be added onto the list of 'things to do', when all you really want to do is be on the road!

Thinking about it further, I wonder what the price comparison between a permanent roof rack vs rails/crossbars/basket would be.

I think I paid $400/$500 for my rails (second hand off a PP member), maybe $100 or so for the cross bars (Rola brand - the ones that sit flush with the rails), and $200 for the basket (Rola Vortex). All up somewhere around the $700 - $800 mark. How much is an ARB one approx.?

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In that case, I would just get Rhino Aero or Sportz bars and bolt them directly to the roof. Much cheaper that way.

[Justo77 Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Justo77]

Thats the system I have Justo, but I use it because I wouldn't be able to fit in the garage with a permanently mounted roof rack (unless it was a windcheetar one perhaps).

To be honest, its a bit of a pain to have to install when doing a trip, but I think its because its just one more thing that needs to be added onto the list of 'things to do', when all you really want to do is be on the road!

Thinking about it further, I wonder what the price comparison between a permanent roof rack vs rails/crossbars/basket would be.

I think I paid $400/$500 for my rails (second hand off a PP member), maybe $100 or so for the cross bars (Rola brand - the ones that sit flush with the rails), and $200 for the basket (Rola Vortex). All up somewhere around the $700 - $800 mark. How much is an ARB one approx.?

From memory the ARB one cost me around $900-$1000, not sure what they retail for now though. My main reason for wanting to change is that the Prado is mainly driven on country roads and I find the ARB rack to be quite loud at 100 kmh and also the extra fuel that it uses draging that extra weight and with the extra drag. Last time I took the rack off I found that I was getting around 100 km further between fills which adds up in the long run.

How long does it take you to remove/instal your basket? Is it a one person job?

[404pug Avid PP Poster! Find all posts View Profile Close 404pug]

I have a basket on my roof rails and it takes about 1/2 an hour from getting it off the garage rafters to having it bolted to the roof. One person can do it but it easier with 2 to lift it. Neil

[krypto Avid PP Poster! Find all posts View Profile Close krypto]

I also have a Rola basket that I put on for trips, one of the more useful accessories that makes it easy to carry all the extra stuff for camping trips. Takes about 15mins to install, I can do it alone but easier with 2 people.
Sent from my Transformer TF101 using Tapatalk

[Justo77 Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Justo77]

I have a basket on my roof rails and it takes about 1/2 an hour from getting it off the garage rafters to having it bolted to the roof. One person can do it but it easier with 2 to lift it. Neil

Thats much better than my ARB rack, takes about 2 hours, can do it alone due to having ropes set up under my garage roof but still a very difficult job.

[Guest Close Guest]

I have a 2m platform rack that takes 15mins to install by myself.

[Justo77 Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Justo77]

I have a 2m platform rack that takes 15mins to install by myself.

What type of platform is that? Is that the Pioneer rack? Can it be attached to cross bars or does it have to mount directly into the mounting holes in the roof?

[Guest Close Guest]

This is the first platform rack I did
http://www.pradopoint.com/showthread...l=1#post221742

Recently, I changed over to the old style platform rack, not the Pioneer. The platform rack is mounted to aerobars, which in turn bolts directly to the mounting holes in the roof. When I don't need it, I remove the rack as well as the aerobars and are left with 6 pads/feet on the roof.

[Madkore Avid PP Poster! Find all posts View Profile Close Madkore]

Like others have said, takes about 30mins or so to put crossbars and then basket on top. Depends how long you want to spend lining it all up.

The crossbars are easy to put on by one person. I have put the basket on by myself on previous occasions, but is easier/quicker with two.

The only sneaky thing with the Rola crossbars (not sure about others) is that the little bolts used to tighten them to the rails has a distinctive hex sort of head on it that can only be tightened using the supplied allen key. Not a drama normally, you just would want to lose it...

I am also playing around with different methods of attaching a tube (for fishing rods) to this set up, as the crossbars that sit flush with the rails don't leave much/any space for connecting brackets directly to the crossbars for the tube. Similarly, this may also affect how an awning may be attached, if I choose to get one in the future. At this stage I am thinking of making some permanent mods to the basket itself so that both these items are easy to attach, as most times I would want to attach a rod tube and awning would also be with the basket.

[rudiedj Junior Member Find all posts View Profile Close rudiedj]

In a month or two's time, I will fit a windcheetah to my 07 Grande, and the rails will go up for sale, if you can wait till then...