Garvin roof rack

bruceco

TJ Enthusiast
Joined
Dec 9, 2017
Messages
150
Location
Woodstock, ON, Canada
I have a chance to buy a garvin wilderness roof rack for my tj.
Anyone have one .I only need it at this point for a kayak but thought $400 is a good buy.I am sure in the future I can use it for camping and general use.
 
From what I’ve seen, the Gobi and the Garvin racks are the highest end roof racks available for the TJ. I plan to get one of those two myself eventually.

For $400 that’s a steal! New ones are on the order of $1200 USD. Unless it’s severely rusted or bent to heck I would buy it for that
 
Does that include a way to mount to a hard top or just the basket and outer tubes that mount to the winshield hinge and taillights? Either way I'd snap that up quick too.👍
 
I have an extreme terrain rack, which I think is the same as Smitty built, it is Rock solid. I do leave the basket off most of the time though. My only grip is that I wish it had some way to quick disconnect to take the entire rack off and on, but I'm sure that would introduce some rattles when it was on.
 
I was wondering in roof racks that are half bolted on the frame would add protection in case of rollover? Would that add a crumple zone at all?
Not that I'm buying one for this reason, but this thought came to mind and I thought of asking the pros :)
 
I was wondering in roof racks that are half bolted on the frame would add protection in case of rollover? Would that add a crumple zone at all?
Not that I'm buying one for this reason, but this thought came to mind and I thought of asking the pros :)
I'd actually be concerned that it would do the opposite. In a rollover the mounting points could shear off and the joints could break leaving a bunch of steel tubes flopping around which could easily injure the occupants.

Probably depends upon what type of rollover it is. A side flop wouldn't be nearly as dangerous as a full rollover.

I would probably want to install extra overhead bars like the Rock Hard 4x4 sport cage or one of the weld in cage kits like Poison Spyder or Genright to keep that extra steel out of the passenger compartment. That being said, it's probably a small concern and I wouldn't worry about it too much
 
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The smittybilt would definitely not offer any protection. Of course it wasn't designed to. It's not a bad rack for the price and carries gear just fine. But it should never be cosidered for use as an exocage.
 
I bought a used Garvin rack for 500.00 and was glad to drive almost 300 miles to So. Cal to get it....they don't pop up that often...I like the Garvin because all mounting point are inside the body line without chance of being ripped off in the rocks...I've had it across the Rubicon a couple times now with no rattles or issues....400.00 is a good buy
 
No roll over protection, but it does give a soft top and paint some protection when going through thick brush and limbs.