Make sure that you paint up the metal where you cut it for socket access. Galvanizing is just a coating, so anywhere you cut, the steel is open to corrode. And lockwashers would be a good idea for miles down the road.

@AllThingsOverlanding

3 жыл бұрын

Hey, great suggestions/tips! Thanks!

@jonnytacooutdoors

2 жыл бұрын

What about some loctite also?!

@myemail2005

Жыл бұрын

Along the same line, he mentioned buying cheaper bolts. Be sure those are galvanized or stainless. That alone might defeat any cost savings.

@a.barker7792

4 ай бұрын

Nylon lock / bolts are the best long term.

You guys and gals that make these videos are awesome. Not all of us grew up on a farm or had grandpaw teaching how to build so the service yall provide is priceless. Thankyou

@AllThingsOverlanding

Жыл бұрын

Awesome! Glad it was helpful! Unistrut is lots of fun to use and you can build a lot of stuff out of it. Enjoy!

Nice work Fletch. I’ve been using Uni-Strut in racking builds for going on 40 years, yeah I’m old. A lot of roof top, side mounted and bumper mounted surf rod carriers employing the Uni-Strut pipe straps and PVC pipe. Currently working on a roof rack for my X that will accommodate 6 one piece surf rods (max length 11.5 ft., traction boards, shovel and my Hi-Lift as well as a 5 gal. DIY shower.

@AllThingsOverlanding

3 жыл бұрын

That sounds awesome. Definitely shoot me pics or drop them on the FB page! Love seeing what you guys are working on!

When you made your traction mat hangers you cut away the strength of the unistrut so you could get a wrench on the nut. You should just get another stick of strut and then span the whole width to maximize the designed strength of the strut. They make spring nuts that are captured in the strut too, so you don't need a wrench at all. You can get them in different sizes too so you don't need to oversize your hardware. Hope this helps...

@AllThingsOverlanding

3 жыл бұрын

Yeah, you're totally right. I was just being cheap, to my detriment. I've also seen that they make special sockets for unistrut which also would have made it easier. They did ok up there for the time I had them on, but they were a pain to remove, which kind of defeated the purpose of them being there. They also made it pretty tricky to get the cover back on the RTT. So, back to the drawing board. I've got a couple of new ideas that I'm playing with that will be more secure for sure. Thanks for the tips!

I’m using same struts but I just used some 2 1/4 U bolts muffler clamps to mount it on the factory rails. I’ve use it for my cvt rtt and arb awnig. Good stuff for a cheap mod. 👍🏽

@AllThingsOverlanding

3 жыл бұрын

Glad to hear it! I've been really impressed with it. For the money, it's a great, cheap option!

Just stumbled on your channel and look forward to working my way through your videos...thanks for sharing! I'm also just north of Indy and am learning about unistrut to outfit my box truck with solar panels. Seems the uses go far beyond that too...cool!

@AllThingsOverlanding

3 жыл бұрын

Awesome and welcome! Feel free to drop comments on any videos that you have feedback or questions about. Appreciate you taking the time to leave this one!

Dude! Going through your playlists, you've got some great content 👍 Just recently started working with some unistrut to modify my roof rack, great for this application! -Josh

@AllThingsOverlanding

3 жыл бұрын

Thanks a lot! I'm loving unistrut. Trying to come up with some new projects to do with it now, :D.

@MountainRoots

3 жыл бұрын

@@AllThingsOverlanding 😎

Cool project! Thanks for sharing.

@AllThingsOverlanding

3 жыл бұрын

No problem! Thanks for the comment!

Been working on my own for about week now, bit by bit, as weather permits. It's going to mount inside the oem side rails on an R51 Pathy, replacing the factory cross bars, so its lower profile than anything else I found anywhere online. Adding some commercial steel grid to it for additional tie down points & it looks good.

@AllThingsOverlanding

3 жыл бұрын

Dude, that sounds awesome! Love those Pathy's too, :D. Pop over to FB and drop a pic when you're done or if you're bored on the All Things Overlanding page. I'd love to see it.

@essequamvideri

3 жыл бұрын

@@AllThingsOverlanding - i'm not on fb but i'm happy to share pics somehow when its "done" (recognizing that it will probably be a perpetual work-in-progress since these strut bars are like big-kid building blocks)

@AllThingsOverlanding

3 жыл бұрын

@@essequamvideri Sounds good. You can always email me at allthingsoverlanding@gmail.com too if it's easier!

Awesome idea, Thanks

@AllThingsOverlanding

3 жыл бұрын

Glad it was helpful! Thank you!

wow the price for Unistrut has almost doubled... still cheaper than buying one of the prefabricated roof racks though. thank you!

@AllThingsOverlanding

Жыл бұрын

Crazy! Glad it was helpful though!

Really great! Thanks!

@AllThingsOverlanding

2 жыл бұрын

Glad it helped! Thank you!

Ty for ur videos, you do a great job

@AllThingsOverlanding

3 жыл бұрын

Thanks Brian! Appreciate it!

Next time you draw out something like this, use multiple colors of dry erase. Then your different pieces will be easier to understand. Great project!

@AllThingsOverlanding

3 жыл бұрын

That's a great idea too, haha. Maybe you should be doing this instead of me, :D.

this helped me out big time

@AllThingsOverlanding

2 жыл бұрын

Awesome! Glad it was helpful!

Well done ! I am looking for this just to secure my 2.5 awning. The LX oem roof rack is too small for that.

@AllThingsOverlanding

8 ай бұрын

Thanks! Glad it was helpful!

Great video. Thanks! One question - would carriage bolts have helped the assembly of bolts inside the channels? (If their square part under the head would match the slot widths)

@AllThingsOverlanding

2 жыл бұрын

Appreciate it! Actually, that's a great point. They may help, assuming the square part matched up to the holes in the unistrut. You may have to cut down the rounded heads to make those fit into the channel too. They also make some rectangular pieces (threaded nutserts) that you can screw half inch bolts into and those fit into the channels and lock in place when you turn the bolt inside of them. Here's a link to what I'm talking about and these work pretty well. amzn.to/3lFfHum Hopefully that's helpful, but let me know if you have any other questions!

Unistrut nuts would have been perfect for your situation available on ebay a-plenty or from Home Depot, but there they come with springs, that are easy enough to rip off if needed.

@AllThingsOverlanding

3 жыл бұрын

Always learning, haha. This is part of why I post these videos, so that I’ll learn a better way to do things, 😄. Thanks for the tip!

you should make the awning a slide out like a drawer so it can be closer to the main body while driving, and slide out when you want to use it. just a thought.

@AllThingsOverlanding

Жыл бұрын

That's a good idea! I've seen some similar things on trailers recently, where you can keep them down while driving and then raise them up when parked.

I would like to see a follow-up video that shows how the cut pieces of unistrut held up to vibration and off-road use. The traction board mounts and your awning L bracket looked kind of weak. Just curious how they held up.

@AllThingsOverlanding

3 жыл бұрын

Great idea George. I can work on one. It’s still on and now with a heavier RTT up there which I drive to Georgia to get (and then back) and no problems so far. I’ve worked on some slight changes since the original idea but mostly things like orienting the unistrut to make bolting it together easier (the channels can make getting bolts tight challenging for example). I’ll work on some updates and drop that vid as soon as possible. Great question!

What an awesome way to mount the traction boards how are they holding up?

@AllThingsOverlanding

3 жыл бұрын

Thanks man! They are holding up fine, but the do bounce a bit on the highway. Here are the two things I've learned since building this: 1. I will probably cut longer pieces of unistrut that span all the way across and stick off the side for more strength holding the traction mats. 2. I ended up making a sort of "quick release" for them that involves some M8 bolts and hand turn knobs, but it's still kind of a pain. So, I'm going to try to work up a better, easier, quicker way to get them on and off. 3. Storing them upside down like I have means they catch water. So, I'll probably upgrade at some point to a nicer set of traction boards with a storage bag and mount them on those same cross members but in different way so that they don't hold water. Hope that helps!

Very nice. Do you have much road noise coming from the slotted channel?

@AllThingsOverlanding

3 жыл бұрын

I really haven't noticed any additional noise. But, to be honest, I'm also on 33" MT's so that makes enough noise to make up for it, I'm sure. Also, I put in a 10.1" touchscreen Android unit and I have the 9 speaker Rockford Fosgate system that came in the SE trim Xterras so I don't notice a whole lot sound wise on the highway, :D.

Great video, really inspiring stuff! Please forgive me if you addressed it in the video, but why did you cut the flanges on the small sections of strut where you bolted them to the main frame (9:16 and 14:42)? wouldn't that greatly reduce the bending strength of those parts?

@AllThingsOverlanding

3 жыл бұрын

Yeah, I did touch on it a tiny bit in the video, but that's a great question. So, when attaching two pieces of channel the way I did, using just bolts and nuts (which isn't ideal to be honest), you can't really get a socket or wrench down in there. What you SHOULD do is just buy the right hardware to attach it without cutting out the boxed portion. I mainly did it on the short stub attachments that I'm using for the traction mats since they don't weigh much. The main structure and box are all full channel and I put them together using the v shaped attachments rather than bolting the 2 pieces of channel together on top of each other. They do make some channel nuts that can slide within the channel and then you can bolt them together and that would have worked better, TBH. Great eye and great question!

@kendallflemmer5444

3 жыл бұрын

@@AllThingsOverlanding Good point! I used unistrut to attach a small overhead winch to my garage ceiling, and was able to tie everything together using 3/8 bolts and washers. You might be able to get away with those here, but 1/2 inch definitely makes it nice and stout! I'd rather not like to see my tent fly off the back of my vehicle going down the highway!

@AllThingsOverlanding

3 жыл бұрын

@@kendallflemmer5444 Yeah, for sure. Definitely agree that stronger is always better, :D.

i just fiddled with those .75" tall unistrut 14g - little bit of flex across 4' span X_X - although i do like how it works. I haven't figured out what to put up there yet lol.

@AllThingsOverlanding

3 жыл бұрын

Nice! Yeah, I now have my awning (about 60 pounds) plus my new RTT (approximately 180-200 pounds) up there and I've put about 3K miles on it and it's holding strong. It's really cool stuff for the price if you don't need the fanciest/prettiest roof rack, :D.

@Hibbard1986

3 жыл бұрын

@@AllThingsOverlanding I really like it so far - had to add a bungee cord to the front one to get rid of the whistling. I was thinking of buying a cargo box skinny for the driver side, then stick awning or leave some space for surfboard/kayak.

@AllThingsOverlanding

3 жыл бұрын

@@Hibbard1986 Nice, sounds awesome! I've heard from people on these (and even purchased aftermarket roof racks) that they get wind noise. I'm either completely oblivious or really lucky. I've never really noticed anything loud or annoying enough to classify as a whistle or wind noise from mine. Maybe I've just got my music up and don't pay attention, haha.

Do u have a video of ur solar setup?

@AllThingsOverlanding

9 ай бұрын

Good question. I should probably do an updated video on that, but this is the closest thing that talks a bit about the set up: kzread.info/dash/bejne/h6Sp1JOsqc3WgJM.htmlsi=SyzjjWg9N7lHKAgj. And I've had this Renogy 100W panel for about 5 years now on 3 different vehicles and it still works perfectly. This link includes the solar panel, wiring, and the controller which regulates the flow of power to your battery and it's a great way to start (no need for the more expensive REDARC stuff that I have in that video above): amzn.to/3Mr5eD7. It's also on sale right now for about 42% off according to Amazon.

Anyone brings up the difference in how from the tent is overhanging on the one side (1 1/2") keep those traction boards easily accessible so you can smack them upside the head. Good solution for the problem of fitting all that up there.

@AllThingsOverlanding

3 жыл бұрын

Ha! I like that, :D. Ordered the stuff that I'm going to try as a quicker/easier release for the traction mats and then I'll have a video up on that final solution as well.

Ok so I have a wired pool table light above my 9 foot pool table. I wanna get a ping pong top to play ping pong too but light is in the way.. I was thinking of adding a plug to the light and connect it to thoese retractable extension cords. The retractable extension cord will be plug in into garahe ceiling outlet...then I wanted to mount light on two unistrut rails with a trolley to move it out of the way whenever we wanted to play ping pong. Can this be done and do you think it will work?? Basically wanna move pool table light back and forth when playing pool or ping pong..that's why I wanna get the retractable extension cord so it can retract when rolling light out of the way to play ping pong or move it back to play pool

@AllThingsOverlanding

3 жыл бұрын

I mean, that's a totally different application than mine, but the unistrut has tons of way you can use it, so I'm sure you could do something like that. Seems like a solid idea!

Thank u

@AllThingsOverlanding

3 жыл бұрын

Anytime!

I am building a wedge tent. Sides will be 1010 aluminum as they don't really support the load. But for base I am looking for 72" long unistruts bolted on vehicle roof rails (48" apart). What do you recommend?

@AllThingsOverlanding

8 ай бұрын

Unistrut typically comes in 10' sections so you should be able to pretty easily measure it out to 6 feet and cut it down to the sizes you need.

@tsk1979

8 ай бұрын

@@AllThingsOverlanding Thanks, I see 20' sections too. Probably cut into 3 pieces!

@AllThingsOverlanding

8 ай бұрын

There you go! I only had 10' pieces at my local home depot, :(. @@tsk1979

Attach the max trax mount to the awning, two more L brackets, It will give it more strength.

@AllThingsOverlanding

3 жыл бұрын

Hey! That's a great idea. My only other thought was to put full length bars all the way across, like I did for the awning itself to give it lots of strength, but that's a great idea too. Thanks!

Nice rack, Fletch. Now how about showing us your vehicle lift, I'm intrigued.

@AllThingsOverlanding

2 жыл бұрын

Weird, this comment just popped up as "not replied to" so I'm replying! Thanks Jim! Glad you're still hanging around in my comments a year later, :D. Hope you're having a great week!

Bro got 14 extra inches of over hang.. 😂😂😂 Congratulations dude

@AllThingsOverlanding

3 жыл бұрын

I work with what I got, 😂.

Today I noticed that the perforated steel in the hardware section costs a lot more than the Unistrut in the electrical section at Home Depot. If I didn't know to look in the electrical section, I would have paid twice as much and gotten a worse result.

@AllThingsOverlanding

2 жыл бұрын

Good info! Glad you found the right stuff. Good luck with your project!

if you flip the frame before you put the cross members on you wont need to cut access and weaken anything

@AllThingsOverlanding

2 жыл бұрын

Yep, I've learned a lot since I first shot this video. It's still going strong though and working great for holding up the awning and RTT.

I'm so jealous - a 10 ft piece is $67 at HD here in Canada!!

@AllThingsOverlanding

Жыл бұрын

That's crazy!

A rack on a rack on a rack.

@AllThingsOverlanding

2 жыл бұрын

Sounds like a rap song. :D

It would make it a lot easier to visualize what you’re doing if you started with a shot of the finished product and then begin the build….

@AllThingsOverlanding

2 ай бұрын

Good tip. Wish I could go back in time and change it. I guess the chapters with the final product walk around are about as close as I got when I made this. You’re right though!

The unistruts at my local home depot were very heavy. I felt they were too heavy to use on top my cargo van.

@AllThingsOverlanding

3 жыл бұрын

Yeah, it's not the lightest material. Historically, most roof racks aren't all that light though. I'm sure it is significantly heavier than an all aluminum rack, but you'll probably pay 10 times as much to purchase a pre-made rack like that so it's kind of a balancing game between budget and usefulness. I imagine on a large van, a unistrut rack would be pretty significant (and heavy)!

@jkyoft78

3 жыл бұрын

@@AllThingsOverlanding Yeah, I am building my own roof rack, to save the money & have it be a custom size, but I am trying it with aluminum. My solar panels are only 18 lbs each...I have one at the moment, likely to get one more. So I don't think I need a heavy unistrut or superstrut. I may just use what I can find at Home Depot & Loews...or order extruded aluminum channels online, but I am not sure I need the flexibility, you know, how they give you the ability to slide them around.

@AllThingsOverlanding

3 жыл бұрын

@@jkyoft78 Yep, makes perfect sense. For a light application like that, you may not need a full roof rack, but could just do a unistrut base at the length you need for the solar panels and then a few unistrut crossbars at the fixed distances you need to mount the solar panels? Like, say that your solar panels are 24" each and you want them a couple of inches apart, you could do a 50" run of unistrut on each side of the van, then mount 3 unistrut cross bars that line up with the mounting brackets for your solar and just bolt them on. You wouldn't need it to be boxed or particularly strong since you're not mounting multiple things to it, but I bet that would be plenty strong for solar panels. It's still fairly heavy though, so maybe just flat aluminum stock with holes drilled at the proper spots would be better! Sounds like a fun project! Good luck!

We're is everyone getting the unistrut cause incantations find any in Bathurst nb

@AllThingsOverlanding

2 жыл бұрын

It can be kind of tricky to find. Most big hardware stores do carry a small amount though. I’d check their websites or give any near you a call to verify.

You notice much added noise from it?

@AllThingsOverlanding

10 ай бұрын

Nope. I had it on 2 different trucks and never really had much if any noise. I do have a slight whistle from my solar panel, but not from the unistrut.

What keeps this from rusting and looking like crap in short order?

@AllThingsOverlanding

3 жыл бұрын

Good question. So, the metal is galvanized so it won't rust. Someone in the comments brought up a good point that wherever you cut it obviously exposes the metal that isn't galvanized so your best bet would be to paint it once you get it assembled.

@chapter4travels

3 жыл бұрын

@@AllThingsOverlanding it's electro galvanized which means it's a very very thin coating and not really intended for outdoor use. You might need to paint the whole thing.

@AllThingsOverlanding

3 жыл бұрын

@@chapter4travels Yeah, great point. Honestly, if you're going to paint any of it, you might as well paint the whole thing, :D.

That cut piece at the 9:24 mark, you mounted, will not hold up. Personal experience. Once the integrity is comprised it will fold over.

@AllThingsOverlanding

4 ай бұрын

Yeah, I definitely wouldn’t recommend cutting all the bracing out of it like that at this point. However, it is still on my old truck and still holding up fine. Obviously, though, removing the boxing from it is gonna remove most of the strength.

@a.barker7792

4 ай бұрын

@AllThingsOverlanding• You know this but, my foreman (and many others) at the time thought the thickness of steel would be enough. Glad it's holding up for you. We ..... learned a valuable and costly lesson that day because he pre-cut all of them thinking he was doing me a favor, off-site. Still works for me. It's the many others I'm trying to help.

@AllThingsOverlanding

4 ай бұрын

@@a.barker7792 Definitely makes sense not to take a boxed unistrut piece and remove the boxing, haha. I think the key (and the reason it’s still holding up) is just that I don’t have much load on it and it’s spread across multiple bars. But would definitely do it differently next time.

Lol V-Shaped connectors? Not an L shape?

@AllThingsOverlanding

2 жыл бұрын

Some people say L, some people say V, lol (or vov, :D).

V shaped brackets 🤣😂🤣😂 Do you know if the carry any "L" shaped brackets ?

@AllThingsOverlanding

2 жыл бұрын

Guess it depends on how you look at it, 😂

You keep saying you made a box. You did not make a box; you made a rectangle. A rectangle has 4 edges; a box has 6 sides. Not just being technical but a "box" is much more involved than a rectangle.

@AllThingsOverlanding

2 жыл бұрын

I suppose you're right semantically. I don't think I meant to say I made a "box" but rather a boxed rectangle. It's obviously not a box, haha.

100 my ass lol

@AllThingsOverlanding

3 жыл бұрын

Welp, I spent exactly $100. The breakdown is in the video if you watched it, 😄.

@dannyboyd1299

3 жыл бұрын

@@AllThingsOverlanding by the time it was installed , no chance, I watched the video and enjoyed it but 100 bucks, sorry brother

@AllThingsOverlanding

3 жыл бұрын

@@dannyboyd1299 I'm not mad at ya, :D. I guess technically you could include the u-bolts, which I had laying around already, but there are probably 20 different ways you could mount it so the cost for mounting hardware would change depending on how you chose to do it. I just titled the video that way because that was the literal total of the materials I bought to make the rack. Good point on the mounting hardware though, so maybe call it $120-130. Thanks for watching and keeping me honest!

@isabellamori299

2 жыл бұрын

Dude...get a nicer wig, you can up your rates.