Roof Rack and equipment = top heavy?

[avgjoe624]

hi all, so ill start out with a little background.. ive always been a truck guy and one can imagine the convenience of a large 6 foot bed.. and then I drove a jeep and fell in love. Im also an avid offroader, and with a "full send" attitude, so much that I had to buy a roll cage for the day it happens.

but with owning a wrangler comes limited storage area and as im planning to tackle the TAT as well as a LOT of trails throughout the country soon, the idea of a roof rack and roof top tent came to mind and it is really tempting.

So my question is, with my offroading addiction.. Im wondering if its the right choice. so with a lot of outlanding experience in here.

"how much does the roof rack and equipment really effect the center of gravity of the vehicle?"

thoughts on what I should or shouldn't do?

 

[Kevtd]

I had a little Chevy Tracker with a roof basket for a while and I have to say I sure felt the extra weight especially when it got to be more then a can of gas or so. My advice is to mount fuel, high lift and water on your bumper if possible and minimize top weight. I never rolled but it for sure felt less stable .

(Side note. 11L of gas and two 33" tires on the roof of an 05 tracker looks completely absurd and feels just as bad on the highway.)

 

[avgjoe624]

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I had a little Chevy Tracker with a roof basket for a while and I have to say I sure felt the extra weight especially when it got to be more then a can of gas or so. My advice is to mount fuel, high lift and water on your bumper if possible and minimize top weight. I never rolled but it for sure felt less stable .

(Side note. 11L of gas and two 33" tires on the roof of an 05 tracker looks completely absurd and feels just as bad on the highway.)

haha. I imagine that looking like a cartoon car swaying back and forth =D.

thanks for the advice!

 

[jeepers29]

hi all, so ill start out with a little background.. ive always been a truck guy and one can imagine the convenience of a large 6 foot bed.. and then I drove a jeep and fell in love. Im also an avid offroader, and with a "full send" attitude, so much that I had to buy a roll cage for the day it happens.

but with owning a wrangler comes limited storage area and as im planning to tackle the TAT as well as a LOT of trails throughout the country soon, the idea of a roof rack and roof top tent came to mind and it is really tempting.

So my question is, with my offroading addiction.. Im wondering if its the right choice. so with a lot of outlanding experience in here.

"how much does the roof rack and equipment really effect the center of gravity of the vehicle?"

thoughts on what I should or shouldn't do?

We have a 2014 JKU that we just recently put aRTT on. You definitely feel it up there but I am confident that with common sense all will be good. I am sure that the off camber situations could get a bit puckish, but I don't like those in the first place. We fell it is well worth it for the extra opportunities it will give us to explore when we can't take the teardrop trailer.

 

[avgjoe624]

We have a 2014 JKU that we just recently put aRTT on. You definitely feel it up there but I am confident that with common sense all will be good. I am sure that the off camber situations could get a bit puckish, but I don't like those in the first place. We fell it is well worth it for the extra opportunities it will give us to explore when we can't take the teardrop trailer.

definitely good to know. thanks for the reply

 

[Chadlyb]

hi all, so ill start out with a little background.. ive always been a truck guy and one can imagine the convenience of a large 6 foot bed.. and then I drove a jeep and fell in love. Im also an avid offroader, and with a "full send" attitude, so much that I had to buy a roll cage for the day it happens.

but with owning a wrangler comes limited storage area and as im planning to tackle the TAT as well as a LOT of trails throughout the country soon, the idea of a roof rack and roof top tent came to mind and it is really tempting.

So my question is, with my offroading addiction.. Im wondering if its the right choice. so with a lot of outlanding experience in here.

"how much does the roof rack and equipment really effect the center of gravity of the vehicle?"

thoughts on what I should or shouldn't do?

If you want some great perspective, try TrailRecon YouTube channel. They just met with LiteBrite a few episodes back and compared crawling to overlanding . His crew has all different types of setups and gear. And you can see them in action and judge for yourself on how you want to set yourself up. Good luck on your build.

 

[avgjoe624]

ill definitely check that out, good tip

 

[Lindenwood]

In this example with some numbers I can, if you put 400lb on the roof of a more typical overlanding rig (I used my 5000lb 3rd gen 4Runner), including the weight if the rack itself, I was looking at roughly a 10% increase in rollover probability. Very generally, Id say you can probably count on anywhere from 5-15% depending on how much stuff you load up there. If you put a light weight (Walmart grade...40lb?) with maybe 125lb of gas, water, and cooler, it will probably be closer to that 5-8% range, depending on your lift and wheel specs.

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