$Fixingaroofrack$ 1966 Ambassador 990 wagon aztp

Mercedes-Benz E 500 T with roofbox IAA 2009

A roof rack is a set of bars secured to the

roof A roof ( : roofs or rooves) is the top covering of a building, including all materials and constructions necessary to support it on the walls of the building or on uprights, providing protection against rain, snow, sunlight, extremes of temper ...

of a

motor car A car or automobile is a motor vehicle with wheels. Most definitions of ''cars'' say that they run primarily on roads, seat one to eight people, have four wheels, and mainly transport people instead of goods. The year 1886 is regarded as t ...

. It is used to carry bulky items such as

luggage Baggage or luggage consists of bags, cases, and containers which hold a traveler's personal articles while the traveler is in transit. A modern traveler can be expected to have packages containing clothing, toiletries, small possessions, trip ...

bicycle A bicycle, also called a pedal cycle, bike or cycle, is a human-powered or motor-powered assisted, pedal-driven, single-track vehicle, having two wheels attached to a frame, one behind the other. A is called a cyclist, or bicyclist. Bic ...

canoe A canoe is a lightweight narrow water vessel, typically pointed at both ends and open on top, propelled by one or more seated or kneeling paddlers facing the direction of travel and using a single-bladed paddle. In British English, the term ...

kayak A kayak is a small, narrow watercraft which is typically propelled by means of a double-bladed paddle. The word kayak originates from the Greenlandic word ''qajaq'' (). The traditional kayak has a covered deck and one or more cockpits, each se ...

ski A ski is a narrow strip of semi-rigid material worn underfoot to glide over snow. Substantially longer than wide and characteristically employed in pairs, skis are attached to ski boots with ski bindings, with either a free, lockable, or partial ...

s, or various carriers and containers. They allow users of an automobile to transport objects on the roof of the vehicle without reducing interior space for occupants, or the cargo area volume limits such as in the typical car's trunk design. These include car top weatherproof containers, some designed for specific cargo such as skis or luggage.

History

There is a long history of the use of roof racks and their designs. Until the late 1970s, almost all regular passenger automobiles had rain gutters. These gutters are formed by the

welded Welding is a fabrication process that joins materials, usually metals or thermoplastics, by using high heat to melt the parts together and allowing them to cool, causing fusion. Welding is distinct from lower temperature techniques such as braz ...

flange (raised rim or lip) on the left and right sides of the car's metal roof panel. This made attaching an accessory or aftermarket roof rack a relatively simple process. The first

mass production Mass production, also known as flow production or continuous production, is the production of substantial amounts of standardized products in a constant flow, including and especially on assembly lines. Together with job production and batch ...

cars without any visible rain gutters were the 1975

AMC Pacer The AMC Pacer is a two-door compact car produced in the United States by American Motors Corporation (AMC) from the 1975 through the 1980 model years. The Pacer was also made in Mexico by Vehículos Automotores Mexicanos (VAM) from 1976 until 1 ...

and

Chevrolet Monza The Chevrolet Monza is a subcompact automobile produced by Chevrolet for the 1975 through 1980 model years. The Monza is based on the Chevrolet Vega, sharing its wheelbase, width, and standard inline-four engine. The car was designed to accommoda ...

. Other vehicles were introduced on the market with hidden rain gutters during the 1980s, and by 1990, vehicles with external rain gutters were becoming rare. Roof rack suppliers developed new products designed to securely attach to various types of automobile roofs.

Types

The most common components of a roof rack system are: towers, fitting pieces (for attaching towers to a specific vehicle), crossbars, and gear mounts. Automobile roof racks are split into different types, depending on the vehicle roof: * Rain Gutter - older roof racks were usually mounted directly to the gutter surrounding the roof line. * Bare Roof - many modern vehicles, which do not have gutters, can have a roof rack installed by attaching hooks to the top of the door frames. * Fixed Point - some automobiles have fittings for proprietary racks which mate with reinforced lugs in the roof, or have pre-threaded screwholes. * Side Rails - vehicles with factory-installed rails, which may be flush against the roof or raised off of the roof, running front-to-back on the roof * Factory Bars - other vehicles have a factory-installed permanent roof rack. There are many factors in the selection and use of roof racks. Some of these include: their weight and strength, the profile for loading and unloading, as well as any available accessories. Roof racks increase air resistance and in the US, roof racks increased overall

fuel consumption A fuel is any material that can be made to react with other substances so that it releases energy as thermal energy or to be used for work. The concept was originally applied solely to those materials capable of releasing chemical energy but ...

by approximately 1%. Due to greater wind resistance, roof racks may increase wind noise on the highway. Mounting the roof rack backwards may reduce air resistance. Some bars are designed with a lower drag coefficient or have a wind deflector at the front to reduce this problem. When installing roof racks, it is important to load the bars properly, in accordance with the owner's manual. When driving on road, one needs to load the allowed weight minus the weight of the roof rack kit. If one plans using the roof racks for off-road drive, the allowed weight should be divided by 2, and this will be the amount, allowed to carry on the roof racks in such driving conditions.

Truck bed rack A bed rack is usually a set of steel or aluminum bars secured to the body of a truck bed. Due to the tall tubes, aka legs, the bed rack is usually higher than the bed itself so that it does not limit inner bed cargo space. Such construction allow ...

is a derivation of a roof rack designed to be installed over the

bed A bed is an item of furniture that is used as a place to sleep, rest, and relax. Most modern beds consist of a soft, cushioned mattress on a bed frame. The mattress rests either on a solid base, often wood slats, or a sprung base. Many beds ...

of a

pickup truck A pickup truck or pickup is a light-duty truck that has an enclosed cabin, and a back end made up of a cargo bed that is enclosed by three low walls with no roof (this cargo bed back end sometimes consists of a tailgate and removable covering) ...

. The construction of a bed rack features tall tubes (legs) that allow to the rack platform to be higher above the bed surface and also leave space for cargo inside of the bed. Pickup truck racks form a long cargo platform that allows transportation of oversized items. They are used in constructions and recreation as a base for various work, sport, and recreational gear such as ladders, surf boards, tents, etc.

References

{{Authority control Automotive body parts