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Expedition One Mule roof rack

11K views 36 replies 11 participants last post by  Moonbuggy 
#1 · (Edited)
The rack arrived on Saturday, far earlier than expected! I could hardly wait, so I enlisted a good friend to help me assemble it on Sunday. My dog made sure to help by sticking his giant head in for some ear scratching whenever it looked like we were working too hard. I took a few pictures of the build, but not enough to give you an idea of the entire build process. The build took all day and we stayed busy.

All the materials were securely packed and there was no damage. The kit included printed instructions, which I found fairly easy to follow. The construction itself I found to be minimally complicated, but fairly labor intensive. This was most particular when it came time to attach the cross bars, with the numerous nuts and bolts securing each one. The parts kit is primarily comprised of 1/4" bolts and 5/16" bolts with lock-nuts. I torqued all the 1/4" bolts to 100 in/lbs and the 5/16 to 150 in/lbs. I was particularly grateful to have my friend's help as all the nuts/bolts add up to a lot of labor. Typically, one of us would hand tighten bolts in place and the other would follow up with a torque wrench.

Mounting the rack itself on the vehicle gave us a pretty good headache due to the relationship between the roof attachment feet, the threaded clips which accommodate the rack mounting bolts and the rack itself. The clips attach to the feet and provide the threaded opening to run a bolt through thus securing the rack to the feet. The clips float a bit and have to align with openings in the feet and rack itself. That part was practically a nightmare. I'll be curious to see other's more definitive posts and how they got the clips to work in a smoother way. We struggled with it and still have some adjustments to make.

The kit itself appears to be well made. The powder coating appears to be very thick and the overall weight of the rack is not bad, maybe 60 pounds. It came with a nice rubberized gasket which mounts underneath the front fairing to cut wind noise. The assembled rack appears solid and I find stunning to look at. I drove on the freeway after work and noticed some marginal increase in wind noise at 65 mph, but the wind was also blowing quite hard. There was no whistling or vibrations at all that I noticed.

It would have been far easier to mount another type of rack with simpler construction and fewer parts, but I think this one is perfect for what I was looking for...a balance between form and function. This summer I will be looking into ways I can mount some flood lights to the sides and in back.

Regards,

Desmo
 

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#6 ·
Thanks Desmopilot for the feedback and write up!

It's great to get external feedback so we can look into potential changes that may make it easier for future customers. We're glad your happy with the product! We're eager to wrap up the design of the RTT-specific load bars that we hope to push to market here in the next month or so. More to come soon on that!

Cheers
 
#12 ·
Thanks! My friend and I spent about 8 hours prepping, assembling, mounting and adjusting the rack. A couple of the mounts didn't line up correctly, so that cost us some time. Having a 2nd person helped with organizing, visualizing the assembly, installing the hundred plus nuts and bolts. Lastly, I needed someone to help me lift the rack up on the rig and help with alignment. Since it's comprised of so many pieces, the mounting process involves a series of adjustments to align the feet, clips and rack placement.

Long story short, I never would have finished it in one day if I was by myself. Actually going to be working on it again this weekend to try and get the mounting bolts to line up better.
 
#13 ·
Build update: At the time of the original assembly, I wasn't able to get several of the bolts installed which secured the rack to the mounting feet. I think I had 8 of the 12 bolts installed. The center foot on the passenger side just needed to be shifted forward by an 1/8 inch or so, but the drivers rear foot seemed to extend out too far to sync up with the holes in the rack. I'm probably not explaining this very well...

Anyway, I removed all the rack mounting bolts and suspended the rack above the FJ with ropes tied to the garage rafters. Thought it would simplify aligning things. A buddy came over to lend me a second set of eyes on the issue of making the rear bolts fit. We determined that if we extended the upper bolt slots (the ones that meet the rack, not the ones that mount to the roof) on each rear foot all the way inboard, it would give us enough room to match up the bolt holes and the threaded clips. We clamped the feet to my work bench and drilled out about 1/8 inch of metal, thus lengthening the bolt channel inwards as far as we could. I then remounted the feet, torqued them down and installed the threaded clips. Next, we aligned the rack and lowered it down from the ropes. Every mounting hole and clip aligned perfectly.

I had a celebratory beer before I wrote this, so hopefully it makes sense. I think mounting the rack to the FJ could be simplified if all the mounting slots on the feet were extended some. She's on now and it looks perfect. I love it and hopefully I won't be taking it apart again for a very long time if ever. :rocker:
 
#15 ·
Thanks for making such an excellent product!

I forgot to add in my build info that I used generous amounts of 100% clear silicon in and around the mounting holes in the roof. I didn't want any water seeping past the brackets and into the cab. Seems to be working great so far in our wet winter.
 
#20 ·
Update: Still loving the rack, though the only things I have mounted on it at the moment are my Tred boards. I just learned that Exp One has the channel style load bars for sale, so I'm planning to order some. They are sold in pairs, so I'm not sure how many I should order. I have no plans to mount an RTT, but would like the ability to more securely mount things such as tools, Treds, Rotapax and an awning. I'm wondering if 4 load bars evenly spaced along the rack be enough? Also, I have no idea how these channel bars work aside from using carriage bolts I'm assuming. Any insight from others who have used a channel style system on their racks would be appreciated.
 
#21 ·
I have not mounted my mule rack yet, but I did order 2 of the aluminum load bars with it, and I have to say they are heavy duty. There are hole where you drop in the head of the bolts (included), then you slide the bolt in an upside down position down the slot to any place you want in the load bar. Then you secure stuff onto the bolt with the included nuts. At least I think that's how it works, as there were no instructions with it and I've never used one. But I think 4 would probably work well for attaching lots of stuff like you mention. That's my noob take, anyhow. I'll try to update as I get the chance to use them.
 
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#23 ·
I've run into a mounting issue, maybe you guys can help me. I've had the feet mounted to my roof for a couple of weeks now. My wife helped me test fit the rack
1143322
onto the feet the other day. I was concerned about how the rear feet would line up with the rack, because the top of the rear mounting feet are not level, but rather slope up toward the front on the vechicle. Sure enough, the flat, level rail on the rack did not meet the rearward holes on the 2 back feet due to the slope of the feet. Did I mount the feet wrong? I can't see any other way they should go.
 
#24 ·
That looks the same orientation as mine. I remember using spacers under the feet to adjust the angle of the rack on the roof. I think I used the thick spacers up front and the thinnest ones in back. I dont remember exactly, but I remember experimenting with spacer stacks before I could get all the feet to reach the rack.
 
#25 ·
Nope, my bad! I think you need to swap the brackets to the other side of the rig. That will change the angle. The brackets are driver and passenger side specific. I'm still drinking my morning coffee and am in Zombie mode.
 
#26 ·
Yep, that was it, thanks Desmopilot! I really studied the photo in the instructions, but I still got it wrong. Anyway, I swapped sides with them this evening and they are nice and level now. I hope to get the final install done this weekend, which will be my first weekend at home in about 2 months. I've got to source some more stainless bolts, though. The black ones that came with the kit have seriously rusted while the rack has been outdoors.
 
#28 ·
The rack arrived on Saturday, far earlier than expected! I could hardly wait, so I enlisted a good friend to help me assemble it on Sunday. My dog made sure to help by sticking his giant head in for some ear scratching whenever it looked like we were working too hard. I took a few pictures of the build, but not enough to give you an idea of the entire build process. The build took all day and we stayed busy.

All the materials were securely packed and there was no damage. The kit included printed instructions, which I found fairly easy to follow. The construction itself I found to be minimally complicated, but fairly labor intensive. This was most particular when it came time to attach the cross bars, with the numerous nuts and bolts securing each one. The parts kit is primarily comprised of 1/4" bolts and 5/16" bolts with lock-nuts. I torqued all the 1/4" bolts to 100 in/lbs and the 5/16 to 150 in/lbs. I was particularly grateful to have my friend's help as all the nuts/bolts add up to a lot of labor. Typically, one of us would hand tighten bolts in place and the other would follow up with a torque wrench.

Mounting the rack itself on the vehicle gave us a pretty good headache due to the relationship between the roof attachment feet, the threaded clips which accommodate the rack mounting bolts and the rack itself. The clips attach to the feet and provide the threaded opening to run a bolt through thus securing the rack to the feet. The clips float a bit and have to align with openings in the feet and rack itself. That part was practically a nightmare. I'll be curious to see other's more definitive posts and how they got the clips to work in a smoother way. We struggled with it and still have some adjustments to make.

The kit itself appears to be well made. The powder coating appears to be very thick and the overall weight of the rack is not bad, maybe 60 pounds. It came with a nice rubberized gasket which mounts underneath the front fairing to cut wind noise. The assembled rack appears solid and I find stunning to look at. I drove on the freeway after work and noticed some marginal increase in wind noise at 65 mph, but the wind was also blowing quite hard. There was no whistling or vibrations at all that I noticed.

It would have been far easier to mount another type of rack with simpler construction and fewer parts, but I think this one is perfect for what I was looking for...a balance between form and function. This summer I will be looking into ways I can mount some flood lights to the sides and in back.

Regards,

Desmo
Nice write-up, photos, and very cool FJ :cool:

How do you like it now, after 4 years?

I just got mine installed a couple days ago.

Do you run a rooftop tent?
 
#31 · (Edited)
Here's some picks of the load bars installed above the regular rack bars. I think you can also install them in place of some of the lower bars if you leave off the black brackets, but I don't recall for sure. I haven't used them for anything, but decided they had been on the shelf long enough so I went ahead and installed them to see how they did. I didn't install the tent brackets included with the bars since I don't have a tent.
Wood Composite material Gas Rectangle Metal

Bumper Wood Rectangle Automotive exterior Gas

Wood Gas Tints and shades Metal Composite material

Bumper Automotive exterior Gas Musical instrument Audio equipment
 
#33 ·
Here's some picks of the load bars installed above the regular rack bars. I think you can also install them in place of some of the lower bars if you leave off the black brackets, but I don't recall for sure. I haven't used them for anything, but decided they had been on the shelf long enough so I went ahead and installed them to see how they did. I didn't install the tent brackets included with the bars since I don't have a tent. View attachment 1217579
View attachment 1217580
View attachment 1217581
Here's some picks of the load bars installed above the regular rack bars. I think you can also install them in place of some of the lower bars if you leave off the black brackets, but I don't recall for sure. I haven't used them for anything, but decided they had been on the shelf long enough so I went ahead and installed them to see how they did. I didn't install the tent brackets included with the bars since I don't have a tent. View attachment 1217579
Cool. Mine are mounted as yours.

My main question is ... what's next?

Have you tried to mount a rooftop tent on yours yet, and if so could you share any photos?

As far as I have been able to tell, Expedition One hasn't fabbed their own tent brackets to fit into these--and the specs of their load bars are different from other brands.
 
#34 ·
Not sure if I'll get a RTT at this point. I've experimented with sleeping inside the FJ and liked it ok,so probably going to stick with that for awhile. I went ahead and ordered the load bars at the same time I ordered the rack just in case, figuring I'd save some on shipping costs that way. They did come with some tent mountaing brackets, but I don't know how they attach to a tent. I'm thinking of fabbing some extentions to mount to the load bars so I can flat-load a couple of wide kayaks side by side. Not sure what else i might use them for. As a side note, I'm wondering if L-track mounting bits will work on these things, since they look kind of similar. I went to a van overlanding show this weekend, and L-tracks seem to be very popular in the van builds for securing items to floors and walls. I haven't actually put my hands on any L-tracks to compare them with our load bars, but I'm curious. Not suggesting they'd work for mounting a tent, but maybe for traction boards and whatnot.
 
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#35 ·
Not sure if I'll get a RTT at this point. I've experimented with sleeping inside the FJ and liked it ok, so probably going to stick with that for awhile.
I would do that too, but I have way too much $#!^ (ahem, "equipment") in my FJ. Snake-wrangling tools, photo gear, backpacks, etc. No room for me.


I went ahead and ordered the load bars at the same time I ordered the rack just in case, figuring I'd save some on shipping costs that way. They did come with some tent mountaing brackets, but I don't know how they attach to a tent.
Did the exact same thing you did, and had the exact same, "Huh / WTH?" sentiment. Cannot figure out how the hell the extra brackets are supposed to work, and they seem a little thin to support a tent, to be quite honest. The scant instructions that come with the Load Bars, make no mention of the extra brackets. I've emailed Expedition One, asking for an addendum to the instructions, or a photo, or something, so far to no avail.

I mentioned this very thing in this post, also falling on deaf ears.

It's good that we're discussing this here though, because I don't feel like I'm the only one stumped as to WTF to do with this load bar, now that I have it. Ex1 doesn't seem to care to expound upon it or answer customer questions.


I'm thinking of fabbing some extentions to mount to the load bars so I can flat-load a couple of wide kayaks side by side. Not sure what else i might use them for.
Nice that you have that option, I'm a casualty investigator, with no "hands-on" mechanical/technical skill, but willing and able to pay for what I want.

Like you, I have searched for other alternatives. This UpTop Tent Riser Mounting Kit appears like it might fit the bill as well.


As a side note, I'm wondering if L-track mounting bits will work on these things, since they look kind of similar. I went to a van overlanding show this weekend, and L-tracks seem to be very popular in the van builds for securing items to floors and walls. I haven't actually put my hands on any L-tracks to compare them with our load bars, but I'm curious. Not suggesting they'd work for mounting a tent, but maybe for traction boards and whatnot.
I've not heard of the L-track mounting bits, but if you post the link and be grateful.

Same as you, I've not put my hands on UpTop Tent Riser Mounting Kit either, but I've measured the distance between the outer two slots in the Tent Load Bars of the Expedition One accessory: 3.5" centerpoint to centerpoint. I'm going to call UpTop and see if I can confirm the measurements of the mounting hardware.

Would like to see the L-Tracks as well.

Cheers,
 
#37 ·
Nice, thanks for sharing that. Now how hard would it be for the company to include that information with the instructions? Not that I received any instructions with my load bars...
 
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