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Sportrack Roof Basket Install and various other brands

32K views 21 replies 11 participants last post by  Doogals 
#1 · (Edited)
I've had this for a couple months now, and love it!

It's 39 x 44 x 6½" (99 x 112 x 16.5cm), and also has an extension available if you can find it.

The brand is Sportrack, made in Canada. Sold at Canadian Tire. It comes with the fairing, and I also bought the net that goes along with it. I'll be making up a bracket to bolt down my oversized spare soon.






I also cut two holes in the fairing and mounted two old lights I had. Since they're driving lights, they don't really work so well on the roof. I'll probably buy flood lights for the rack and put the driving lights on the bumper at a later date.



I wired the lights by running the wire through a rubber sleeve (long heatshrink I got from work), and I ran it down the passenger side of the windshield, down under the hood to the battery. I then wired a relay and a switch that went from the battery through the driver side door, up through a rubber grommet that was in the side of the A-pillar (the metal column on the side of the windshield), and down into the dash.

pay attention now, here comes the custom modification part...

I did have to reposition the factory cross bars to be able to line with the cage. Pretty simple. Just pop off the side rails cover and unscrew, then take off the cross rail and flatten out the metal tabs that fit into the limited number of holes. This allows infinite adjustment on the factory crossrails.







fully loaded with 2 skiis, 2 snowboards a cooler of beer and a bunch of other junk. The little ladder is real handy!

 
#5 ·
I sure did - for my future reference once my bungee cord holding the shovel dries out and snaps.

It would be great to see more knowledge base submissions like your thread, instead of having them get lost in the general forums.
 
#6 ·
as soon as I recover from the recent upgrades I put on the patriot, I'll post a thread of actually installing the Jerry can holder :)
 
#7 ·
Heckler,

Have you compared the rack you have to a Yakima Loadwarrior in person? If so, what did you find? I'm looking at your pics and your sportrack looks pretty heavy duty, but it seems to have the same dimensions as the Loadwarrior.

The Yakima website shows that the loadwarrior is 11kg (25lbs). Is yours any heavier that you know of? (I just know you weighed it because of how much free time you have right? lol) I looked on the site that you linked and didn't find much under "specifications". Anyway, shot in the dark :)
 
#8 ·
no, I haven't. Gut feel though is that it's less than 25 lbs.

No problems holding my heavy spare wheel for the last 6 weeks, and I just have it tied down with straps and hooks.
 
#13 ·
#12 · (Edited)
I just installed one of these two weeks ago before I went to South Dakota. I needed a place for my spare since dog kennels and gear needed more room. The valley rack from Cabela's worked nice and is not too pricey either at around $150.

I didn't have the cross rails either and I did not want to spend another $100+ for them so I made my own.

I went to the hardware store and and purchased two 4' lengths of 1" square aluminum stock, four "U" bolts and some black paint and made my own for about $30. The roof rack bolted up fine to them.

The whole deal was less than $200. :banana:
 
#17 · (Edited)
Rola Roof Rack

I really like my Rola rack, it's a solid unit for sure, maybe a bit heavy though (38 lbs says the website).

It's more rectangular than the others with a lower profile, 48" long, 37.5" Wide, 4" deep. Sportrack unextended is 44" long and 39" wide, 6.5" deep. The sportrack would hold more though. The Rola is beefier but i think in both cases, the cross rails and the patriot's unibody and loose suspension are the limiting factors for rooftop capacity. There's an optional Rola extension (19"), but it would be too much for the patriot imo. As is, the sunroof raises nicely just smoothly in front of the rack shield, and the rear of the rack just just clears the lifted tailgate.

Prices seem similar too, I bought mine from rack-dawg.com, they shipped up to canada. It's funny, the rack is 150 on the website, but shipping was 50 bucks and brokerage and duty was another 50 bucks. Ended up pretty much the same price as getting a Sportrack from Canadian tire, but with a 4 week delay.
 

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#22 ·
I bought mine from rack-dawg.com, they shipped up to canada. It's funny, the rack is 150 on the website, but shipping was 50 bucks and brokerage and duty was another 50 bucks. Ended up pretty much the same price as getting a Sportrack from Canadian tire, but with a 4 week delay.
Same experience here with discountramps.com. $100 shipping for the $170 roof basket, and $45 shipping for the $50 waterproof cargo bag. I opted for USPS instead of UPS as it was the less expensive option and no duty/taxes/brokerage, hopefully it makes it here quickly...
 
#18 ·
these look nice. I want one! What's the deal with the crossbars costing as much as the rack though?

And Heckler, I don't understand? Why did you have to modify the roof rails? I'd really rather not do that if I can help it. The Pat has enough leak issues as is... I'd rather not add any chance for more. If I buy a basket and crossrails, the crossrails adjust to the existing roof rails, right? Just install the crossbars and then install the basket to the crossbars, correct?

I'm liking the Valley and Sport Rack the most i think.
 
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