Best aftermarket roof rack?

[Liquid Lifestyle]

I run the Expedition One roof rack. I bought the bronco 4 door with the factory rack and was unsatisfied with it. Started modifying the factory rack first by drilling holes and adding classic Yakima cross bars to the factory rack. That worked for a season. Come summer I want to take all the roof panels out... with the factory rack you can't get the rear seat panel out without unhooking the rack from the bronco... total PITA.

Enter the Expedition Rack. During the winter I run the full rack with a ski box. During the summer I remove the ski box and middle section and to just the rear rack for bicycle fork mounts. Bonus is both seasons the front mounts stay on that my light bar is attached to.

All that said, I had a bunch of components that the mounting system on the Expedition One wouldn't work with. As the Expedition One uses carriage bolt heads to hold everything instead of the square channels that my previous yakima lock and load used. I had to redo all my mounting with stainless carriage bolts. Another negative is that this rack can't be used with a roof top tent without some serious modification. I never intended to run a RTT so I wasn't worried about that.

Here is a link to the rack I am running.
Expedition One Mule Rack

Sponsored

 

[Skydoc]

Here is the low down:

No rack is going to legally increase the dynamic/static load capacity rating of the Bronco roof, no matter what aftermarket manufacturers claim. The dynamic capacity is around ~150-160lbs (including the rack itself). If you overload your roof, you run the risk of cracking the fiberglass (see Jeep forums as evidence).

That said, I bought the ZroadZ rack and it’s great. Imo it looks the best and is a very low profile flat top design, but still allows panels to be removed. The OEM rack also looks good, and is the lightest, but is made of more plastic than I preferred.

Trailrax does increase it by supporting load on body below top