Planning a little bit of interior rework for Aurora the Explorer. We’ve waited a while to take our lad Isaac out (bit of a delay caused by building a house). So we have a single middle seat going in cut down and fitted with isofix is the plan. The spare always ran up back on the rear seat squab. That probably needs to change, so we’ll mount in the roof rack. Now the roof rack we have (westy) 3 bow stands I think! 45cm from the gutters to the top. So given we have 40cm clearance in the garage above the gutters. So! I has a plan. I’m going to lower the roof rack Has anyone tried this before? It’s a tin top so we don’t need to clear a pop top so there is room to spare. I’m thinking maybe a 3” drop. I’m going to strip the rack make a template up on ply and section it down, then reweld. Can’t be that hard... anyone got a rack that’s westy styled and lower? The hard bit here i suspect will be getting the proportions right.
Because on a dark, wet motorway, the last place you want a spare wheel is somewhere where it’s a pain in the ass to get to.
The only hassle will be if the legs are angled. If you shorten them, even Pythagoras would tell you that you are going to need to widen the rack where it is horizontal, or narrow the gutters. You need to widen the rack by 2 x. Sin (leg angle from vertical) x (amount you shortened legs) And the amount you shorten legs by is (Height drop) / cos (leg angle from vertical) So if the legs angle in at 30 degrees (e.g. I can remember sin and cos 30 degrees..) You would shorten legs by 5cm/0.866 or 5.8 cm. And widen rack or narrow bus by 2x 5.8 x 0.5 or 5.8 cm... I saw a front mount spare wheel carrier in the swapmeet at Dubfreeze for a tenner...
You could fit it to the front panel or where it was intended in the back or what @Lord Congi has the spare wheel attached to a swing down? bracket thats attached to the rear of the bus very good idea
I knows I have to re-angle them. Otherwise they’d be shorter by now I reckon a quick jig is the way to do that.
Pythagoras might tell you that, but common sense says that all you need to do is bend the shortened legs outwards a bit more, until they are back to the same span as the gutters.
I doubt dancing will sort it but if you must do a jig make it a big 'un! Riverdance springs to mind!!
That is quite neat. But I’d still like to sort the roof rack so it’ll fit in the garage So i’ll be donning the MC hammer welding pants in the next few weeks.
This is true. But there is a limit where the legs go too close to the roof and the base of the clamps stop hooking securely round the edge of the gutter. And bending all 6 mild steel tubes without one kinking or the whole thing ending up looking like an insect doing a dance will need a lot of heat and luck.
Just put a reverse set bend in it so it straightens the last bit of tube at the clamp end. The tube is thin enough to bend over your knee, just use a cheap plumbers bending spring and do it, a bit at a time.
Sorry I was thinking of my roof rack which has about 20mm diameter tube with 2mm walls. Not a Westy one.
Do all the bending in the garage - but still end up with muddy trainer prints up the stairs............
