To avoid overloading your vehicle take the vehicle load rating and subtract the weight of the roof rack any accessories and your load.
Exceed roof rack load rating.
When outfitting a proper off road overland vehicle be sure to keep the weight as low as.
If your vehicle roof rating is 80kg your fitting kit s rating is 65kg and your roof racks rating is 100 kg your maximum load rating would be 65kg.
The static weight limit can be higher than the dynamic weight.
In a sudden stop or collision unsecured cargo could cause personal injury.
Properly secure all cargo with ropes or straps to help prevent it from sliding or shifting.
If you were to leave sealed roads the maximum load would come down to 32 5 kg 65 kg 50 32 5 kg for clamp mounts and 45 5 kg 65 kg 30 45 5 kg for fixed point track and other mounts.
For custom and unlisted vehicles it is up to the installer to determine the maximum weight for the given application.
Off road load rating driving on dirt uneven or unsealed roads.
All photos by bryon dorr it s common sense but way too often overlooked.
You will need to add the self weight of the tent plus the self weight of the roof racks and any other gear you store on or inside the tent to make sure you never exceed the max load rating while travelling.
Do not exceed maximum roof rack cross bars load.
A good rating means that the vehicle s roof strength to weight ratio is at least 4 1 so for example if a vehicle s curb weight is 3000 lbs sorry for the imperial units and its roof has a strength to weight ratio of 4 1 then the roof can support at least 12 000 lbs before it will crush the iihs website also defines marginal.
Roof rack cross bars should be evenly distributed.
Our maximum static weight rating is 600 lbs.
Thule the popular swedish purveyor of all kinds of car and bike racks puts this simple equation on its website.
Roof rack load limits are generally reflected in the way they mount to the roof and distribute.
If you re heading onto dirt roads a 33 reduction should be applied to the vehicles.
Maximum roof load load rack weight any fitted rack accessories the weight of the load itself what s equally important is to never exceed the weight limit of the weakest link in your roof rack system.
Not very good when its mounted to a 4wd.
Cargo rating amount of luggage or gear you can put on your racks and roof rack accessories.
How not to load your roof rack.
This is known as the dynamic load rating.
165 lbs limit 40 2 lbs rack accessories 124 8 lbs available load capacity.
I ve seen roof racks designed to carry 60kg but it clearly says not suitable for offroad use.
While the vehicle is static you can have a roof top tent weighing 40kgs and have the weight of two persons on top equating to more than the maximum 100kgs load listed in the manual.