As we all know, 4WDs are great for carrying all kinds of things. There‘s a whole tray out the back we can toss all manner of gear when we need to. From your tools for work or your swag for camping – there is always room in the tray or tub. Or is there? What should you know about fitting a steel roofrack or an aluminium platform roofrack to your ute?

No matter how much storage room you have there is always more to take. It always seems that the more room we have, the more things we want to pack. Long items that don’ fit into the tray, big bulky gear that just takes up space. It seems that no matter how big the tray is, there is never enough space.

This is where 4WD roof racks come to the rescue. They’re great for throwing the ladder up onto during the week, tying a surfboard to for play or even a roof basket for those long camping trips.

Load Ratings

Roofrack load ratings are important, they make sure that our load stays with us until we get to our destination, safe and sound without doing any damage to the vehicle, and more importantly ensures it will corner and stop safely. Insurance companies and traffic authorities will also be interested in any overloaded vehicle, particularly if something goes terribly wrong. Excess weight on the roof won’t do your ute’s stability any favours when mid-way through an off-camber bend either.

You’ll find that most utes will have a roof load rating of around 100kg. A quick look through your vehicles handbook may tell you what the limit is, or a call to the respective dealer and they will be able to confirm the rating. However, regardless of your utes limit, the style of roof rack and mounting point will make a huge difference to the safe carrying capacity of your utes roof.

Be wary, any load placed on the roof will need to be added along with the weight of the racks, basket and any other fittings to the total payload of your ute as well. If your ute has total payload of 700kg, a load of 100kg on the steel roofrack will leave you 600kg for passengers, luggage camping gear and fuel.

Mounting Options

There are three main styles of mounting points for steel Roofracks  and alloy platform racks for the cab of your ute – the pad, rail or gutter mounting systems. The rail mount has a long rail which gets riveted to the top of the cab. This gives the roof racks a mounting surface and allows the racks to be adjusted in different positions easily. The more traditional gutter mount roof racks will only fit to a vehicle with a rain gutter, such as a Patrol or LandCruiser ute. The rail mount and the gutter mount will have a load rating of around 100kg, dependent on the ute and the pad mount will be closer to 60-75kg. It’s all about spreading the load across as much of the roof as possible.

Fitting roof racks to canopies will involve installing a full length mounting rail that will support the racks down onto the tub of the ute. These typically will hold a weight of around 100kgs. The weight of the racks and the load is supported fully by these internal rails, rather than canopy itself.

All of these ratings however are for loads that are used on flat roads, once you drive off-road it’s a good idea to consider reducing the load by as much as two thirds. This is to allow for both the extra corrugations and also when the ute is leaning to one side during tough 4WDing.

Roof Top Tents

With roof racks typically having a load rating somewhere around 100kg-150kg what happens when we need to install a roof top tent? The ratings that are published refer to the maximum the racks can carry whilst the vehicle is driving up to 100km/h, or in other words, a dynamic load.

When a roof top tent is installed on your ute they generally have a weight of 60kg when folded down, depending on things like bedding material. When set up ready for use, part of the weight of the tent is supported by the ladder and the rest is supported by the racks. As this load isn’t supported by the vehicle whilst in motion, the roof will easily support two people. This is often referred to as a static load. You might ask how the roof can handle having the extra weight of two people inside the roof top tent if the roof load limit is 100kg. It comes down to the fact that once your roof top tent is all set up and you’re tucked away for the night the load is static (for most of the night anyway). The roof can withstand a considerably higher static load, than it can whilst the vehicle is driving, as it doesn’t have deal with the added weight bouncing over rough terrain.

Choosing the right roof rack for your 4WD is something you need to get right – but luckily here at 4WD Supacentre we’re here to help! Drop into any of our company stores 7 days a week and have a yarn with our friendly team of camping and 4WDing experts and we’ll be able to help you choose the right steel roof rack for your needs. Once you get that right, you’ll be sorted whether it’s for work or play, with heaps of extra storage ability.

A quality alloy platform roofrack or steel roof rack is one of the best investments you’ll ever make in your vehicle!