Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
Yes, the price is for us to make your roof rack and fit it to your car.
Surprisingly, no. In fact, we are a lot cheaper than some roof rack manufacturers that only supply prefabricated racking products. Even though everything is custom, our pricing is pretty standard. In most cases, the price is only affected by length – standard or longer, and whether or not you want mesh or rear rollers. Rails up or down, one up and one down, rails all the way around with a solid plate wind deflector, hooks and brackets, need it a bit wider – these variations won’t increase the price of your rack.
Yes, on a tray back vehicle they can be unbolted from the headboard and in the rear of the tray. A roof rack on a well body is unbolted from the inside of the tub wall.
Every rack is custom built to your specs but there are 3 options regarding length. A standard roof rack extends up to 700mm past the cab, or shorter if you like. An upgraded rack extends up to 1200mm past the cab and is made from 46 x 3.5mm tube sleeved with 38 x 3.5mm tube. The 7mm wall thickness of the tube provides the strength and rigidity to extend the roof rack further over the cab. Final option is to extend the roof rack all the way over the cab and mount it to roof bars, provided by the customer or supplied and fitted by us. We use clamp on bars rather than fixed track variety and make custom feet for our roof rack to allow small amount of flex between cab and tray. Please note it’s not a suitable solution for someone who does a lot of hard core 4wding.
Yes, you can. We build an internal frame inside your fibreglass canopy which we mount our roof rack to. Our frame is custom made to gain most strength and so it doesn’t interfere with storage space or windows.
We specialise in making roof racks that are super strong and well supported so they are ideal for your truck. Our tool boxes are made to your specifications with the exact shelving, brackets and storage design you want. We make any kind of brackets, side steps, ladder holders and framework and you don’t have to give us a fancy drawing to follow either. In short, we can set up your truck to suit exactly what your trade needs.
Absolutely. You tell us what you want to carry and we’ll come up with the best design to suit.
Every roof rack is custom made from scratch so if you provide us with your tent make/model or dimensions, we will build it to suit.
That’s ok, as long as you have an idea of the style of tent you will be buying, we can make it a generic rack to suit.
In most cases, yes. But, there are some dinghies that are oversized and not suited to being carried on a roof rack. We will always err on the side of caution and ensure that our roof rack design is suited to the load, so sometimes we have to suggest another solution. Most times it’s just a case of telling us the length, width and approx. weight so we can ensure that it fits and loads well. We can even supply and fit 12 volt hands free winches with loading frames to get your tinny up top with minimum effort.
Depends on what you will mainly be carrying up there. If you regularly load up lengths of material, it makes sense to leave the mesh off as its easier to load without it. And the cross bars on our racks are less than 400mm apart so they’re great for carrying smaller stuff if you don’t want the added expense of mesh. A mesh floor in your rack is ideally suited to camping roof racks where you have lots of smaller items to put up there. However, if you want to use your rack for camping AND work, we can add rear rollers to your rack to make it easier to get lengths up there.
We love an outdoor adventure and build all our products for the trips we love to take – off the beaten track, with plenty of corrugations and red dirt! A favourite pastime is following the travels of our customers around the country with posts on Instagram, photo updates and even videos we are sent – check out one of our canopies in action by clicking on the About Us tab, and drop down Video menu.
We have partnered with one of the best upholsterers in the business so you get top quality covers to go over your Great Racks canopy. Our partnership also ensures that the products we manufacture can be covered in the best way possible. For instance, we use square tube for the rear bar of your canopy frame because it gives the best shape under the stitching on your cover. We allow ample room for the aluminium tracking used to mount canopy curtains and we ensure high enough pitch in our centre bar to prevent water pooling on the roof of your cover. Just drop your car to us and we will take care of it all.
Black and grey are the most popular colours but there are a whole range of fabric colours available. We can add pressurising vents to the cover to help keep the dust out of the canopy when you’re travelling off road or extra zips to create another door for easy access to your fridge.
A window behind the cab can help you check on your furry friend in the back of the ute and another in the rear of the cover increases visibility.
Flyscreens are very handy if you want to sleep in your canopy. They allow plenty of air flow while keeping the mozzies out. They are made as a separate panel that can be rolled up out of the way when not in use. Or clipped to the door on a cage canopy.
Yes, our canopy frames are bolted together so they can be removed and stored easily. Or, if you have an unpainted aluminium headboard, we can fully weld your canopy if you prefer, same price. Our cage canopies and solid canopies are also removable and have the option of lift off points built in if required.
It depends on what you are having built but we have free courtesy utes available so that you don’t need to arrange lifts or be stuck without a vehicle. We book jobs in and put a team of tradesmen to work so that we get you back on the road in your own car as quickly as possible. Below is a guide of time required for each product –
1 day | 2 days | 3 days | 4 days | 5 days |
---|---|---|---|---|
Tradesman roof rack | Canopy frame and roof rack | Cage canopy | Cage canopy and roof rack | Cage canopy, roof rack and cover |
Canopy frame | Canopy frame and cover | Canopy frame, roof rack and cover | Solid roof, rear and front panel canopy with mesh doors | Solid roof, rear and front panel canopy with canopy curtains |
Standard cover | Internal frame and roof rack on fibreglass canopy | Solid roof and front panel canopy with roof rails and cover | Canopy frame, roof rack, cover with flyscreens | Solid plate canopy |
Canopy frame and surf bars | Truck roof rack | Canopy frame and cover with flyscreens | ||
H bar or Y bar |
For any other questions you may have, call me on 0432 940 441, I’m more than happy to answer any queries you may have. Alternatively, pop in to our Great Racks workshop with your car or truck to get a custom quote on the spot.