As anyone who owns a Wrangler will tell you, there isn't much room inside to store anything.  And if you want to bring family or friends along, you run out of space pretty fast.   I wanted to bring my two kids and wife with me on my rides, and also wanted to be able to use the Jeep for running errands to the home store, trash dump, and even to travel with it.  After listening to my wife teasingly warn me about not buying too much food in case I have trouble getting it all home from the store, I decided it was time to look into a roof rack.

I wanted something that was extremely rugged, offered flexible storage capabilities, and would not be too high or wide.  I looked at several different brands and settled on the Garvin Wilderness Expedition Rack.  It's made by the same company that makes OEM factory roof racks for the civilian Hummer®.

Front Mounts

Rear Mounts

In the rear the rack uprights are attached to brackets that are added to the rear of the jeep.  The upper brackets are attached to either side of the tailgate just below the top of the tub.  The lower brackets are sandwiched between the rear body mounts and bolted into position.   

The factory number plate holder is removed and the number plate is relocated to the left rack upright.

The rack is designed to hinge on the rear uprights so that the soft top may be raised and lowered.  Two braces are supplied so that this may be accomplished by one person (the rack must be empty)

Update: 7/19/2003

I ran Dictum Ridge going uphill.  I opted to take the "bypass" around the large rock shelf.  This got me up against the "guard" tree and left my rack with a little trail modification...  Look at the side rail near the offending tree...  Considering how hard I hit, the damage is very minor.  Had the rack not been there, I believe I may have damaged something else.  Indeed, on many outings, the rack has prevented other kinds of damage.  It's an exoskeleton of sorts!

 

TJ (Above)

YJ (Above)

Update: 10/29/2005

When we were on the road back from a visit to GWNF, I noticed a rattle.  This is how the Jeep was loaded, fairly typical for our trips:

One might wonder, with such a load, how a rattle would be something that would get attention.  The simple answer is, I tie everything down, and the rack doesn't rattle, and never has from day one.  Now, five years later, and many trips past, something was up.

When I got the load unpacked later, I found the problem.  Bad engineering.  Before you Garvin rack lovers start sending me mail, please note that the bad engineering was mine.  I had come up with a way to attach the Jackguard and Hi-Lift jack to the rack and it had lead to some problems. 

All along I knew it wasn't a great solution but since it had more or less been trouble free, I hadn't bothered to do anything.  Now I discovered that my procrastination had lead to one of the nutserts that holds the floor rail to the rack had pulled out. 

The rail was swinging in the breeze with the Hi-Lift attached.  I was pressed for time so I threw a bungee on it to stop the migration and rattle and left it for a better day.

Later that week I called Garmin and ordered a few parts:

Wilderness Jeep Expedition Rack Part #: 34098

• 1 - Side (48" x 4")

• 3 - Floors (66")

 Rack and Flooring

• 8 - Black End Caps

• 8 - 1/4 x 1 1/2 Bolts

• 8 - 1/4 Lockwashers

• 8 - 1/4 H.D. Flatwashers (1 1/4" Dia.)

• 8 - 5/16 x 1 Bolts

• 8 - 5/16 Nylon Locknuts

• 16 - 5/16 Flatwashers (9/16" Dia.)

 

The parts came very promptly.  When Saturday came, I did some chores in the morning and then after lunch I got started.

First I stacked two tires up on each side of the rear of the Jeep.  Then I unbolted and flipped back the rack.  I had already removed and set aside the contents of the tool boxes and the Hi-Lift.  When I unstrapped the Hi-Lift, it came off in one piece along with the floor rail.  One rail toast, six to go.

Once had the rack flipped back, I removed the remaining two bolts holding the rack to the rear uprights.  I set the rack out of the way and rebolted the rear supports to the brackets on the tub to get them up out of the way.  I stowed the CB cable in the Jeep through the back window, and the remote GPS antenna on the front upright.

Then I removed the rails from the rack and then the tool boxes and cooler shelf from the rails.  I discovered one nutsert that is loose and another rail (the one with my CB antenna attached) that had blown out nutserts.  Two rails bad and one rail with a suspect nutsert.

 

This was a problem because I had only ordered three rails.  That may seem enough but I had ordered them to add one to each side of the rack to fill in wide spots, and the third to use to improve the Hi-Lift Mounting.  Now I was pretty much down to just enough rails to put it back the way it was.  Right there I decided to go for broke and order seven more rails.  This will give me a total of ten new rails with good solid mounts and fresh powder coat.  The four or five rails that I have will be used until the new ones come in and then perhaps fit into my mounting scheme (or not).  It doesn't make sense to fiddle around with the old rails.

While I had the rack disassembled, I took the bent side rail out and installed the new one.  That was easy!  Comparing the bent rail to a straight one, I found it was bent more than it appeared on on the Jeep!

For the time being I still had plenty of work to do.  I wanted to replace the bent side rail, repaint the whole rack, floor rails and all, and paint the tool boxes with Krylon Fusion to freshen them up. 

Contico Tool Box Painting

The other thing that was obvious - how dingy the tool boxes looked.  Five years of sun took its toll.  I used Krylon Fusion again to see how it works on these - they're plastic and have never been painted - exactly what Krylon Fusion is made to paint!

 

Here are the tool boxes during the painting.  First I emptied them, cleaned them inside and out with Simple Green.  Then I set them aside to dry thoroughly.  When dry, I painted the hardware with the rust reformer paint.  Then I shot them with the Krylon Fusion Satin Black.

Wilderness Rack Painting

Before painting I took a hand grinder with a wire brush and knocked off all the loose scale and surface rust.

 

It wasn't really too bad for a steel rack that has seen almost continuous use for five years and spends every night in the driveway.  I know people complain that these racks rusting but realistically, I have not found it to be a huge problem.  Naturally it would be preferable to have it be maintenance free, but mine sees pretty heavy use and I can't imagine a product that would do better.

The rail plugs were pretty beat up and most of the rust on the rails was concentrated on the ends.  I remove the plugs and knocked out as much junk from inside the rails as possible.

Once I had the rack disassembled and prepped, I organized the parts, then took a trip to the store to get paint.  I wanted to use POR-15 because it's very much like powder coat.  The only problem is that it fades with UV exposure.  I don't need a gray rack...  My next choice was appliance enamel for its hardness but I could not find it in a satin/semi-gloss finish.  Strike two.

Then I found Rustoleum Rust Reformer and Rust Control Satin Enamel black paints. 

Now don't take this as a product endorsement.  I am not one of those people who "buys" the stuff about Rustoleum stopping rust, or being any better at it than the next can of paint.  I don't think it is.  Paint and proper surface preparation stop rust, period.  Rustoleum just cornered market on the cool name.  The reason I bought it was because it was a brand name, it had compatible rust-stabilizing primer and satin finish black paints.  I knew they would not react with each other, and that if I prepped it right, it would probably last several months (at least), enough to get me through the winter.  Anything more than that would be gravy.

So I got all the loose rust and blistered paint off with a wire brush on my hand grinder and a wire brush by hand for the tough spots.  I cleaned up the rack and rails, and set everything up for painting.  First I primed it with the Rust Converter, then hit it with the Satin Enamel.

I did this in the afternoon with the garage open because it was above 60 degrees.  By evening it had gotten cooler so I closed the garage and finished up inside.

In the morning, I kept the garage closed to finish the part of the rack that was left.  I did this because it was cold out - frost on the grass for the first time this fall!  If you have a heated garage, and it's cold out, you may want to work this way.  If not, then you need the temperature to be above the lower limit set on the products you use - usually about 60 degrees.  I think 70 degrees is ideal.  The solvents dry out of the paint at the right rate, minimizing shrinkage and hardening properly.  Mine probably dried a little slower but otherwise should be fine.

The kids played outside while I put things back together.  It took a lot longer than I expected.  The whole project took two weekend days.  The reassembly and clean up took four hours!

Movie (Insane Radio Flyer Tricks)

I went ahead and installed the three new rails I had on hand.  Two went for the Hi-Lift mounting.

I used for of the rack rail screws to secure the two rails apart and to stabilize the Hi-Lift mountings.

I painted and reinstalled the Water Cooler platform.

In installed the newly painted tool boxes

While I was painting, I painted the external GPS antenna platform.

Hard Top

Here is a head-on view of the installed rack with nothing but the jack installed.  The rack does not add any width to the vehicle and only adds a few inches to the overall height as compared with hard or soft-top vehicles.  

Permanent Storage

Here is a view showing some tool boxes that I mounted to the rack for regular everyday storage.  In event of long trips, I have larger storage containers that I can stow on the rack and hold in place with a cargo net that is also sold by Garvin.

Upgraded Hardware

I finished off the rack installation by adding stainless-steel cap nuts to hide the exposed threads on the hardware that holds the rack to the struts.  This makes for a cleaner finish and may protect the exposed threads from damage.  I also added fake cap nuts to the hardware that holds the sections of the rack sides together to carry the theme and cover the exposed threads for a more finished appearance.

Cargo Net

I purchased the largest cargo net available (5' x 6', No 91005) to use whenever I needed to hold a load on the rack.  The net is designed and manufactured to rigorous specifications, featuring 1" high strength (800 lb. tensile strength), extremely durable polypropylene webbing.

Here are some shots made while on a trip to the Outer Banks, NC.  They were made during a ferry crossing from overhead.   You can see the tool boxes (one is beneath the shovel), the Hi-Lift Jack, the antenna tube, the cooler, and one of four large trunks we have for longer trips.  Two of the trunks will fit with the rack configured this way.  Also aboard are two folding chairs for the kids and a duffel bag full of sand toys.

Later, I found a 3' x 5' cargo net on a surplus web site.  This net is just the right size for covering the rear seating area.  I generally use it with the top down though it works to keep a stack of stuff from flopping around inside the Jeep even if the top is up.  Not bad for $10.

The rack, 5 x 6 cargo net and jack were purchased at 4x4 Connection

Here is the set of instructions I used to install my rack.  Your rack may be different so do not follow these instructions blindly or you may end up with some holes you don't need...

The doors cannot be removed from the Jeep with the rack in place without being modified, or by first removing the front supports from the windshield hinges.  I have modified my doors to make removal easier.  See the write-up here.