Pajero Owners Club of South Africa

Hi

I need some advise pertaining to a planned trip to the Namib in July 2012.

I will need to carry a few things (2 x jerry cans filled) on my roofrack with a tent / camping chairs. Currently it is mounted on the Pajero Rails.

Question: Are those rails strong enough to carry that weight and punnishment or should i go for the replacement feet.

The roofrack is a frontrunner.

Roelof

The factory rails are pretty strong and mine have held on for the last 7 years mounted like that on the factory rails. I am however of the opinion that it is critical that you get the mounting done with three clamps on each side, one above each factory rail foot, to get the load spreading right. This is on a LWB, not sure if the SWb also has three feet. All clamps should be mounted and fastened to take the strain evenly.

Having said that. My business partner has a Gen4 Pajero and he had issues with his factory rail mounted rack on a trip to Zimbabwe. I am not sure if the Gen4 and Gen3 rails are of the same material but the look exactly the same. So there are definately success stories and failures out there.

I believe a system which clamps directly on the roof will always be stronger, no argument there.

If you are gonna go touring in Namibia I would say the factory rails are fine. If however you are doing the Namib desert trails I would possibly consider the replacement rails as I think those trips excert a lot more forces on something like a roofrack. Keeping weight as low as possible on these trips are also of utmost importance so if this is your planned itenary and since you already have a rack mounted on the factory rails I would rather look at an auxilary fuel tank which mounts nice and low and leave the jerrys at home and still use the rack for light items like the tent and chairs.

All this obviously assumes that you have the LWB and not a tank fitted already.

CATS

Hi CATS


Thank you for your response.

I got a LWB but the roofrack is a 1.4m with currently 4 mounting feet attched to the rails.The configuration handled a few trips (excluding fuel) inclusing to Kubu Island very well but i doubt whtether this can be compared with the Namib.

If budget was not a concern, then i could have done evertything what i wanted, but.....

On the Namib, i guess that the 1st jerry can will be emptied after day 1 and the second after day 2.Thereafter, the main tank has to do it..

The pricing on the rails and so forth is horrendous (?) and i need to confirm whether it should be doen.

I would recommend the big country roofrack. Expensive but the guys do great work! One of the few ones that don't need to drill additional holes.

Sent from a Desire HD with Forum Runner