Can I Use Roof Rack Without Crossbars?

Roof racks are an easy installation package especially when you are going for holiday adventure with family. If you are going to bring more luggage, then you can easily fit all of them in the roof rack. We have explained below, how roof rack stability will affect without crossbars.

Can I use roof rack without cross bars? Yes, we can use the roof rack without crossbars for binding luggage depending upon its capacity. In that case, only the longitudinal rails will help you. But with the help of cross bars, there will better protection. In other words, cross bars can provide us double protection and no cross bars mean the only fastening is with the longitudinal rails.

Can I Use Roof Rack Without Crossbars?

Toyota and Ford used to charge extra for roof racks. But most people do not know how to use these, so it seems like little silly until you do not fully enjoy it. Experts say, it would not be useful to use the racks without cross bars, but still, there is a positive sign that you can use them.

You can also know different methods to stop your roof rack from vibrating.

But keep in mind, when you will not use the cross bars, protection to bind things cannot be same. For heavier things, always use crossbars. But if you are trying this only for some lighter weights such as some little boxes that will be okay. While going for camping, you can wrap your tent and can enjoy this.

Now, imagine the situation with cross bars, you can even fit heavy bags, bikes, and cycles if the rack is a little adaptable. So, the benefit lies in using cross bars, as you are already paying for the rails so it would be recommended to enjoy a better version by changing things a little.

Effects of Roof Racks On the Performance of Vehicle

The surface area increases the drag force, so the vehicle has to use more of the energy.
More energy consumption means more usage of the oil.
Energy consumption also affects the engine performance.

Because of the increase in drag force, the burden over the car will increase, and car performance will be lowered.

Types of Roof Racks

Although every roof rack can be fitted on every type of vehicle. But there will always be a gap somehow, and you can adjust that if it does not match with the category. Here are all the categories of roof racks to be explained:

Flush Rail

As the name shows, there lies flush within the roof, and there is no space between the roof and the rack. Flush rails were introduced by the European market and these are handy in terms of aesthetic point of view. These are the latest ones and are superb in their functioning.

Raised Rail

Installment of these racks involves foot packs and load bars. These are the most common type of racks and mostly wagon-type vehicles use these. A big advantage is raised rails are very simple to fit. The length of these are almost of the roof size of the vehicle as there lies no space for the borders.

Rain Gutters

Rain gutters are the most old-fashioned racks and were used when there are no alternatives for the racks. These cannot be used without the involvement of cross bars. Most loading vehicles are used to install these racks nowadays.

Half Rails

These are the simpler ones having only two rails on both sides. Additional to the above, half rails do not involve any contact with the crossbars. Rails lie on the parallel sides and you can install a potentially safer track.

Installation of Roof Rack in Your Vehicle?

While traveling, roof racks make it easy to manage the luggage maybe it is in the form of suitcases or large bags. Most pickup truck cabin is of the same size so with a little change in the variation you can use any of these in the vehicles.

The thing you need to notice is from the front and rear of the cross bar, the design should smoothly fit with the length of the roof. This can be done by removing or adding caps or plastics from the bar depending on the situation. After that you can follow these steps:

At first, start with the roof racks, set these by keeping in view the above area. Connect the cross bars with the rails where these are needed.

A frame will be made by following the above step, but this frame will be at the top of the vehicle and set the positions by leaving enough borders.
To get help with the alignment problems, you can use any of the measuring instruments like a meter rod or tape.
If you do not want to use these steps, then you can simply buy a properly aligned frame or template from the factory. But then you need to drill this according to the hole positions.

While drilling, be careful with your hands, a simple mistake can destroy your whole roof of the vehicle.
Then put a screw there and move this for nailing. If there lies a little imposition, you can set these with the help of a rubber hammer.

All these steps can be completed, within an hour. And after this, you need to do some finishing. Take a soft cloth and wipe out all the extra rough material that’s been roughed out from the holes. Now, your roof crack is ready to use.