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Roof Cargo Carriers

Good Morning Group!

Does any member of the group have experiences, good or bad, with the roof
cargo carriers. Our 2000 XJ has a factory roof rack. What brand does
anyone prefer? How is the installation - difficult or easy? What
experience is there with the spare tire mounting kit to secure the spare
tire in the carrier? Is there a vendor that is recommended? Thanks for
your insights!
--
Debbie & Norm Parsley
XJ Couple
2000 Cherokee Classic

Re: Roof Cargo Carriers

I have had good luck with confer they are easy to install!!

--
Jarod Sprauer
www.sprauermotorsports.com
281-807-JEEP (5337)

"Norm & Debbie" <nwpars@insightbb.com> wrote in message
news:_sosc.109131$iF6.9834427@attbi_s02...
>
> Good Morning Group!
>
> Does any member of the group have experiences, good or bad, with the roof
> cargo carriers. Our 2000 XJ has a factory roof rack. What brand does
> anyone prefer? How is the installation - difficult or easy? What
> experience is there with the spare tire mounting kit to secure the spare
> tire in the carrier? Is there a vendor that is recommended? Thanks for
> your insights!
> --
> Debbie & Norm Parsley
> XJ Couple
> 2000 Cherokee Classic
>
>

Re: Roof Cargo Carriers

Thanks Jarod! What vendor do you recommend?

Norm

"ISellJeeps" <111@222.net> wrote in message
news:qNosc.141$Sd5.21@newssvr24.news.prodigy.com.. .
> I have had good luck with confer they are easy to install!!
>
> --
> Jarod Sprauer
> www.sprauermotorsports.com
> 281-807-JEEP (5337)
>
> "Norm & Debbie" <nwpars@insightbb.com> wrote in message
> news:_sosc.109131$iF6.9834427@attbi_s02...
> >
> > Good Morning Group!
> >
> > Does any member of the group have experiences, good or bad, with the
roof
> > cargo carriers. Our 2000 XJ has a factory roof rack. What brand does
> > anyone prefer? How is the installation - difficult or easy? What
> > experience is there with the spare tire mounting kit to secure the spare
> > tire in the carrier? Is there a vendor that is recommended? Thanks for
> > your insights!
> > --
> > Debbie & Norm Parsley
> > XJ Couple
> > 2000 Cherokee Classic
> >
> >
>
>

Re: Roof Cargo Carriers

On Mon, 24 May 2004 15:24:42 GMT, "Norm & Debbie"
<nwpars@insightbb.com> wrote:

>Does any member of the group have experiences, good or bad, with the roof
>cargo carriers. Our 2000 XJ has a factory roof rack. What brand does
>anyone prefer? How is the installation - difficult or easy? What
>experience is there with the spare tire mounting kit to secure the spare
>tire in the carrier? Is there a vendor that is recommended? Thanks for
>your insights!

I had a Garvin Wilderness rack on my '91 XJ.

http://home.comcast.net/~johnedavies/John-XJ-01.jpg

http://www.garvin-industries.com/

Installation was average, but two people are required to lift it into
place. It is pretty heavy. There are lots of little bolts to install,

Being poorly painted steel, it rusted like crazy in the wet Puget
Sound climate. I saw no signs of primer under the rusting paint. The
finish might be acceptable in a desert environment.

Being steel, it made the Cherokee top heavy and resulted in excessive
body roll, even with the stiffer OME suspension. Having the spare
permanently mounted up there made it worse. Add the Hi-Lift and shovel
and some bikes and extra gear and the handling went to hell.

The highway fuel mileage plummetted, and the wind noise increased
dramatically, even with a big Yakima fairing. Maintaining highway
speeds with stuff on top and the stock gears was very difficult,
especially into a stiff head wind up a grade. I had to use 2nd gear a
lot. Lower ring and pinions highly recommended.

The roof rail clamps interfered with the tops of the passenger doors
and I had to grind down the door sheet metal to get them to clear. The
mount system was very sturdy, however. The rack was rock solid and had
zero play.

The spare was very hard to get up and down without a step ladder.
There was no way my wife would have been able to do it in an
emergency. If you had a steel wheel it woluld be worse than an alloy.

Washing and waxing the roof of the Jeep was a _lot_ harder.

The extra storage was great, and I used it a lot for hauling bikes
(using the Yakima crossbar adaptors) and camping gear, . I really
liked the extra cargo space, which is so sorely lacking in an XJ when
you are carrying 4 people.

Final thoughts: in this time of soaring gas prices, forget about
mounting anything permanently on your roof. A removable gutter mount
rack system with stout bars, like Yakima, makes sooo much more sense.
You can leave it at home except when you really need it.

http://www.yakima.com/home.html

Or consider buying an inexpensive 4x6 or 5x8 utility trailer for those
times you need a lot of space. Then you can haul dirt or lumber too.

If this is a pure trail rig we are talking about, never mind. Install
an expedition rack. They look way cool on a lifted XJ. It's your
choice: does way cool and lots of storage outweigh the many
disadvantages? For me it didn't.

Do your research and make this decision after some deep thought.

John Davies
http://home.comcast.net/~johnedavies/
'96 Lexus LX450
'00 Audi A4 1.8T quattro
Spokane WA USA