Roof Loads

[Dern]

Hola,

I know that FWC states that the roof load can be up to 1000# in the up position but recommends 200-300# for traveling purposes. With that in mind, here's my question. Would I be pushing my luck if I were to carry a 35" spare tire/rim in Yakima gear basket up top? The weight of the tire and the basket wouldn't exceed the 200-300# recommendation. However, we travel Baja quite frequently and more often than not we are off road. Those of you on this board that do Baja as well know what I'm talking about in regards to road conditions. i.e. Washboard taller than most tires etc. I worry that that amount of weight would do some damage to the frame work of the camper with time. Am I right?

I've looked into those cool Aluminess bumper/tire carrier/utility box set ups but just can't quite swallow spending upwards of $2500 bucks. Someday maybe. I'm sort of anal when it comes to spares. You can never have too many when in Baja. In a perfect world it would be nice to have one up top and one on the aluminess set up but for now I don't have that option. Also, our 35" spare tire won't fit under the truck where the original spare used to be.

Thanks in advance,

Darren

 

[chnlisle]

Man that must be some serious tire. According to Tire Rack a BFG 35" All Terrain T/A weighs 62 lbs. Even if the wheel weighs the same, which is somewhat doubtful, you're still way under max weight. However banging around down in Baja does strange things. Maybe Sunny will "weigh" in on this one. He goes there a lot and carries things on the roof.

 

[dsrtrat]

Darren,

The last Baja trip I had a 70 pound kayak on top with Yakima racks and tracks. With solar the top load was around 110 pounds. I found that when on rough washboard roads two things happened. One there was enough flex that the top latches would pop open due to flex on rough roads. The top would compress and pop the latches open even it they were adjusted tighter than recommended by ATC.

The other was with the boat loaded on top and the top up it seemed to put a lot of extra load on the end panels.
I could see some roof frame flex or bowing when the top was up as well. This went away when the weight was off and there was no roof damage. I would suggest you find some way of spreading the weight over a larger area than the two tracks. I am thinking about adding another Yakima track in the middle of the roof.

I have a Yakima load warrior basket that I use carry a spare tire on a "96" 4 runner with three Yakima crossbars supporting it and have had it crimp the top due to flex on really rough 4wd. I wouldn't want to have that much weight on top of the camper.


I once tried hauling a 100 pound raft frame on the camper and even on regular roads had some roof flex and it put enough strain on the end panels when up that I didn't want to do it again.

Those end panels are very thin material for the load they are supporting. You can see them bow when you have a large load on top.

I solved the 2nd spare problem by using a front hitch and spare tire carrier. Not too elegant looking but it works.
About 300 dollars for both.
Dsrtrat

 

[SunMan]

Dern, Welcome. I've routinely carried (2) 5 gallon cans of gas (~62lbs each) and surfboards on my roof in baja with no issues. Plenty of folks around here carry kayaks and I've never heard of any issues either. I've yet to take my kayak to Baja. Like dsrtrat says the more you spread the weight out the better. My cans lay in a diamond plate tray that is mounted to my roof racks and that seems to handle it just fine, I would think your basket system would work fine.

 

[Dern]

We'll Hmmmm....

Thanks for all the replies. Sounds like the situation could go both ways but I'm the type of person that errors on the side of caution. Besides in all reality that space up top is dedicated to surfboards, kayak and solar. Not to mention the fact that trying to lug a 100#ish tire up and down from the roof would be more than I could handle by myself without blowing out a lower vertebrae. Sounds like a tire gate would be more suited for me. I found this company online. http://www.tiregate.com/vt_series_0.shtml $700-$900 range. More suited for my buget. Has anyone ever used this setup? It looks like it could potentially work. My only worry is clearance issues with the camper. Forgot to mention, F-350/Gandby combo.

Thanks in advance,

Darren

 

[Desert Rancher]

There was a thread about this a few months ago. One solution is to look at a front receiver mount with a tire carrier.
Helps with the weight balance and is out of the way.

A lot cheaper too. I found a Curt front mount for mine that was $85 shipped. Not sure what the tire carrier would run.

 

[chnlisle]

We'll Hmmmm....

Thanks for all the replies. Sounds like the situation could go both ways but I'm the type of person that errors on the side of caution. Besides in all reality that space up top is dedicated to surfboards, kayak and solar. Not to mention the fact that trying to lug a 100#ish tire up and down from the roof would be more than I could handle by myself without blowing out a lower vertebrae. Sounds like a tire gate would be more suited for me. I found this company online. http://www.tiregate.com/vt_series_0.shtml $700-$900 range. More suited for my buget. Has anyone ever used this setup? It looks like it could potentially work. My only worry is clearance issues with the camper. Forgot to mention, F-350/Gandby combo.

Thanks in advance,

Try this.
http://www.jcwhitney.com/spare-tire-adapters/p2004360.jcwx



Darren

 

[MarkBC]

There was a thread about this a few months ago.


Yeah, I started a thread on that...and I ended up resolving the "how/where to carry extra spare" by following advice to just carry a good plug-repair kit and compressor (along with one actual spare).