98 surburban roof rack build

Built the whole thing out a unit struck in about 7 hours

[@897aa33]

Good idea. My only concern is weight.

[@photog1529]

I'm original owner of a '95 4WD Suburban and looking to do the same. I'm currently using a basket rack from Amazon but looking to build my own out of aluminum stock and 80/20 crossbars. The edges of the roof are sloped where the factory mounts are and I measured that as a 10-degree angle. How did you account for this slope to keep your side rails vertical? I'm thinking of machining some 3/4 inch by 1-1/2 inch aluminum bar stock to the correct angle to keep things true.

[@ontheflyoutdoorsflyfishing5951]

I also looked at doing it in 80/20.. that would have looked also. But after seeing the $ I want with what is on there and used poly and rubber bushings..

[@Eastcentralstainingco]

What's with all the cutting? They make all kinds of hardware for connecting unistrut/superstrut.

[@ontheflyoutdoorsflyfishing5951]

The cutting was to get everything to length. Or to notch so that I could use the existing mount holes....also I could not find a bracket to lay the cross bar's

[@publicroyalty760]

He did not use it in proper form he could have avoided so much time and effort if he used it properly, also I don’t think that will hold together, I could and may be wrong but idk 🤷🏻‍♂️

[@photog1529]

@@publicroyalty760 My concern would be leakage around the rubber mounts when the horizontal slats pull the vertical rails inwards. The roof has a 10-degree slope where the factory rails mount...you'd think GM would have machined the rack's vertical supports so they're flat but nope...they're actually 7-degrees away from flat. Would have been nice if the OP included some details/parts list. I measured the original mounting bolts at M6x1.00 thread pitch...if you're not careful, you can damage the factory nutserts that are in the roof.

[@ontheflyoutdoorsflyfishing5951]

It also called Superstrut

[@darrenelwood5103]

What kind of channel are you using to mount directly to roof?

[@ontheflyoutdoorsflyfishing5951]

I used poly and rubber bushings

[@darrenelwood5103]

@@ontheflyoutdoorsflyfishing5951 ok thanks, where is the metal channel from or called?

[@ontheflyoutdoorsflyfishing5951]

Its un-strut from Lowe's or home depot

[@ontheflyoutdoorsflyfishing5951]

It's also called Superstrut

[@seanhubbert9929]

Darren did you impact the roof yourself// drill the holes your self to begin with My Cruze has 8 holes already in the roof to clip in the plastic black roof lining. I’m thinking about opening them up a little more and mounting to it