Box prices!!!!

[Overland Oregon]

It is insane how much some fabricating shops or dealers charge for a simply constructed box with that stores all your gear in the back of your vehicle .
I built one myself and the joy from creating it and doing it yourself is unsurpassed.
Tired of such OVERPRICED shit out there on the market nowadays…..
That being said. I am looking for a roof rack for the ‘21 Bronco. One like the yucca or spider . However, not wanting to drop the headliner to get it done like some.
Any suggestions?

 

[Pretzel]

If you're into DIY (which it sounds like you are), take a look at some extruded aluminum products to kit one together yourself. It's WAY down on my list of things to do, but eventually that's the direction I think I'll go. You could even get the wind deflector and side panels done yourself with a jig saw and aluminum stock. The tricky part is mounting it, I haven't got that solution in mind yet. Might not end up as cheap as some of the lesser expensive options, but it would be custom for you.

 

[Overland Oregon]

This is what I ended up making

 

[Red_Leaf_Overland]

Paying anyone to do something gets expensive quickly. Material costs are high right now as well. If you look at how much they are paying someone per hour and how many hours it would take to build, add material cost, not to mention shop overhead, it all adds up pretty quick.
Sometimes doing it yourself can be better because you can build it specifically to fit your needs and add something along the way as stuff comes up. I have been on both sides of the fence. I have made a lot of stuff for myself and got into fabrication and started working as a welder. Now people pay me to build stuff lol

 

[KD7WCD]

For the roof rack you might look at etrailer.com.

We were looking to add a rack to our newly acquired H3 Hummer for a trip we did earlier this summer to Utah. We were going to pull the trigger on the iconic Gobi rack. They are a pretty penny and look at to fit our needs. But there 3 month waiting list was a deal killer.

I found a Safari style rack from e-trailer. It was half the cost. I ended up building my own custom mounts to make it fit the way I wanted to on the Hummer. In the end it worked out perfect and had that much more funds for other toys for the trip.

 

[El-Dracho]

It's certainly true that once it says Overlanding or Expedition on it, things are quite expensive. And some things are certainly overpriced. I agree with you there.

However, please also keep in mind that this is partly due to the fact that only small numbers of them are sold. Also, it's different when a company makes and sells something than when you make it yourself. Because then many costs are added. Personnel costs, rent, warranty cases, insurances, correct installation and operating instructions have to be created, just to name a few.

In addition, there are currently often delivery problems with some things and they are rare and/ pr prices for basic things are going up and up. You will also notice this when you build something DIY. I say only wood and metal prices or lack of availability of some simple fittings, connectors, etc.

Nevertheless, it makes sense to compare prices, see what you can do yourself, etc. It's also nice to see when you or someone else has built something yourself. You can be proud of your achievement.

 

[smritte]

Also being a fabricator, I can tell you some of these things are a ton of work. An example was my roof rack. I was going to shamelessly copy one I saw. Not to sell but for myself. The material cost and the water jet cost to cut the aluminum plate came to about $650. That's before labor and time spent on my CAD program. Someone did a group buy and the cost went from $1000 to $750. I bought it instead. My custom front bumper has close to 100 hours of labor by the time I was done. On the other hand, why is a front cargo box on a trailer $400 or more?