How to Build a DIY Van Roof Rack

There are a lot of options out there for roof racks on your van, and even more options for mounting your solar panels. Some of these options actually aren't cheap! We opted to make a DIY van roof rack during our van build mainly to salve a chip of money only too considering it gave the states maximum flexibility on how we mounted our solar panels.

Why a DIY van roof rack?

Don't get me wrong, nosotros look at some of the amazing van conversions out there with Aluminess roof racks and are seriously envious! Their kit looks awesome! Being in the UK it's much more plush to get for that option, although at that place are some bright van outfitters based in the United kingdom of great britain and northern ireland now doing like designs. We didn't research these throughly equally all we needed was a actually elementary ready purely to mount our solar. I love the idea of decking on the roof of the van likewise as using it for additional storage but our electric current build is heavy enough, and we've non used all our internal storage however anyway!

Other options we looked in to whilst researching van ideas were off the shelf commercial roof racks. These are often less discreet however, and were a lot more expensive than I thought. We decided the best option was to make our own roof rack out of aluminium. It needed to exist sturdy, lightweight and secure our solar panels around the roof ventilation. Nosotros've besides attached our external security cameras to the rack so we can come across what's going on around us when parked up.

Van Roof Rack Ireland

What do you need?

We settled on a simple pattern that allowed our solar panels to be positioned only above the roof of the van. This also ensures total flexibility for the future. We used xxx×xxx 2N aluminium profile on both the length of the van and cross bars for the solar panels. This profile features two flat sides opposite each other and 2 sides featuring an 8mm slot downwards the length. We chose this way to give a smooth surface on the outer edge of the van.

Yous will need:

  • Mastic Sealing Tape
  • 30×30 2N Aluminium Profile (we used 2 x 4100mm and 5 x 1400mm, purchasing longer lengths from world wide web.aluminium-contour.co.uk)
  • M6x25 T-Commodities & Nut (enough for roof confined, cantankerous bars and brackets)
  • 30×lx Brackets
  • 30×60 Subclass Comprehend Caps
  • 30×30 End Caps

DIY Roof Rack Installation Process

1. Clean the roof

  • Unless you lot're working on a brand new van the chances are at that place'll be some dirt to get rid of! Brand sure the aqueduct that runs down the length of your van that you're fixing the aluminium to is completely make clean and care for any rust that's present.

two. Install aluminium profile on roof

  • It's easiest to install your roof rack early on in the build so you tin easily admission the inside of your van's roof. Our van, along with may other models, features a aqueduct in the roof with pre-drilled holes to adhere a roof rack. These holes accept plastic caps in them when not in apply.
  • Nosotros drilled through the plastic caps to go on the holes as modest as possible but you could also remove them.
  • Run mastic sealing tape forth the full length of the van in the channel where the aluminium will sit. It should fully cover the holes in order to ensure your van is 100% water tight.
  • Neither of u.s. can remember exactly how we did this next fleck! Nosotros think we pushed a pencil or similar up through the holes in the roof from inside the van. Essentially, you need to work out where the holes are (now they're covered in tape) as well equally create a pigsty to limit the amount of mastic tape that gets on the thread of your T-Bolts otherwise they'll exist harder to secure.

DIY Van Roof Rack

  • Put a T-Commodities in each hole ensuring the head of the bolt runs parallel with the side of your van. Don't push button them all the way in as there needs to be room for them to twist and lock. This ensures they'll slide easily into the channel/slot in the aluminium. This can exist a scrap fiddly! Once they're all lined up push your aluminium into place along the roof.
  • Head back within the van, y'all should hopefully be able to run across the thread of each bolt coming through the holes in the roof of your van. We twisted each bolt 90ยบ by hand to ensure it locked in place in the aluminium channel (it should do this anyway when tightened) and secured using a big flat washer and nut.
  • Once all your T-Bolts are secure the aluminium should be pulled tight against the mastic tape and van roof. Repeat on the other side of your van.

3. Adhere aluminium contour to solar panels

  • We accept v 100w solar panels. I sits in a higher place the cab in front end of our fan, the other 4 are in the centre betwixt our front and rear fan.
  • Our solar panels accept a metal frame around 30mm deep. We drilled holes every bit along the frame and and then attached the aluminium profile to this metal border. To do this simply slot T-Bolts into the channel in the profile, through your pre-drilled holes in the solar panel and secure with a nut on the other side. Every bit you lot tighten the nut the T-Bolt will plough and lock securely in identify in the aluminium channel.

4. Secure solar panels to the roof

  • In one case your solar panels are attached to the aluminium bars that will run across the roof, all that remains is to attach these bars to the aluminium running the length of the van on either side.
  • To attach the two together we used triangular 30×lx brackets. These are stock-still in to the aluminium attached to the van roof and then fastened on either side of the solar panel bars. We used T-Bolts in the channels with basics to secure in place

Van Roof Rack Solar Panels

5. Finishing touches

  • Everything should now be secure and tight on the roof of your van.
  • We finished everything off by adding stop caps to all the aluminium bars and subclass cover caps to all the triangular brackets.

What did it cost?

In a nutshell that's how nosotros constructed our DIY van roof rack. It's been on our van for over ii years at present and we've had no issues at all with it. Everything is yet stock-still, secure and fully watertight. I should point out we're not experts only and so far so good! We installed this on a Mercedes Sprinter van but I tin can't encounter why a like install wouldn't work on other flat-roofed vans.

Excluding our solar panels our DIY van roof rack toll us £251.98 inc vat. This was considerably cheaper than commercial roof racks we were looking at, many of which started at upwards of £500.

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