Question oem roof rack cross bar add ons/attachments

[sienna]

I am a electrician and use my sienna for work carrying ladders and pipes. I have outgrown my oem roof rack cross bars. I find myself constantly taking a long time to tie/secure the ladders to the roof rack.

I have looked at aftermarket professional ladder racks and it appears drilling is required. I don't want to drill my roof and prefer to use the exsisting roof rails. Anyone have any ideas on the hardware needed to secure a piece of aluminum U channel to the roof rail?

[sienna]

think i got a fix, using scrap pieces of alum to build a roof rack to attach to oem rails.

[dave in wi]

I found these:

http://www.discountramps.com/roof-rack-cross-bars.htm

Or you could do as you did and attach some cross bars with U-bolts, should work just as well.

I have these on our van, pricey but rock solid and they work with the crossbars and bike mounts I already have:

http://www.thuleracks.com/product.asp?dept_id=2&sku=450

[teachndad]

I found these:

http://www.discountramps.com/roof-rack-cross-bars.htm

Or you could do as you did and attach some cross bars with U-bolts, should work just as well.

I have these on our van, pricey but rock solid and they work with the crossbars and bike mounts I already have:

http://www.thuleracks.com/product.asp?dept_id=2&sku=450

The discountramps bars look like they really rest on the roof, and then that dial on the outside to tigten, looks a little iffy, IMHO. In regards to the Thule, I have the Thule Crossbars and had bought a fit kit for my 1996 HOnda Odyssey. The Fit kit only cost about 60 bucks a few years ago. I expected to pay about the same or even up to 75 bucks for a set of fit kit brackets to fit the Sienna rack. I am surprised they don't have something specificly designed for the rack. I saw something that fastened to the OEM crossbars, but that would do in David's case. Still, the Thule product in the link looks real solid. If not other options, that would be the way to go and buy the cross bars. Check out what Yakima has. I find that periodically it's easier to find Yakima products at sportinggoods/outdoors stores and also to find them on sale.

Cheers

Rod

[teachndad]

I found this while looking for something else. Here is a link for the crossroads kit.

http://www.etrailer.com/p-TH45050.htm

and that's with free shipping.


Rod

[brian_bp]

think i got a fix, using scrap pieces of alum to build a roof rack to attach to oem rails.

Can we see a photo? I don't need to do anything other than the factory rack for now, but I am curious what you were able to brew up.

I have seen quite a few vehicles with the Thule (or similar Yakima) towers which clamp to OEM rails and hold standard Thule (or Yakima, as appropriate) crossbars. They look like they work pretty well, but they do not support the load directly on the metal channel embedded in the side rails, like the factory crossbars do... I might be concerned about that for larger loads.