1998 gu roof and off road roof weight

[mullie 79]

Hi all,
I am thinking about getting a roof rack but I am a bit confused on what is the roof weight and I have just seen on you tube that there is a off road weight any information would be apricated. Cheers Grant.

[MudRunnerTD]

I have had an Alloy Rack for over 10 years. Crossed a couple of Deserts and done a heap of Tourering with a full roof. A steel rack will take most of your roof load.

[mullie 79]

Thankyou but what is the off road load weight

[Brissieboy]

My GU wagon has a max roof load of 100kG, and that must include the weight of any rack you put up there as well as the contents.
The rack load capacity is pretty meaningless as this is almost always the limiting factor.
And do not forget that the load rating should be reduced by on-third for off-road.
If you buy an aluminium rack, get a good one. The cheapies are usually way over rated and will not last (from personal experience).
You want at least 3 mount points each side, more is better. It is the side to side movement when off road the causes most problems, so good solid mounting is a must.
And be very careful of any rack that attaches by means of pop rivets to the roof, unless it fixes to something a lot better than the basic paper thin roof panel.
Just my opinion from experience and observation. Do your research.

[rusty_nail]

Thankyou but what is the off road load weightThe same as on road? Just a hyped up term

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[Brissieboy]

The same as on road? Just a hyped up term
Probably true for the roof load limit of the vehicle - I could not find anything that suggests reducing this limit. I am fairly confident that this is the same for both on and off road.
But definitely NOT true for the rack. Most reputable brands (Rhino for example) now specifically state that there should be a reduction for off road - usually by one-third with some more and some less.
So what if you have 100kg roof load limit; 150kg rack limit. The max load (including the weight of the rack) cannot exceed 100kg in any situation. If you take it off road, do you just reduce the limit of the rack by 1/3 (to 100kg) and you still are OK with 100kg total load, or do you reduce the previous max of 100kg?
This from a Rhino-rack leaflet supplied with my Pioneer platform:
"Ratings:
The vehicle manufactures recommended load rating is the maximum permissible load per pair of crossbars including the weight
of the cross bars, 5kg (11lbs). When crossbars are to be used in off-road conditions, please build a safety factor of 1.5 into this
load limit for off-road use. Although the crossbars are tested and approved to AS1235-2000, Off road conditions can be much
more rigorous. However, increasing the number of crossbars does not increase the vehicles maximum permissible roof loading."
Which does not really clarify it.
As I understand it, only the rack load limit needs to be reduced for off road. Please correct me if this is wrong.
I think I will try to stick to the lower of the two limits.
This is a fairly serious issue as safety, insurance and warranty issues can arise if you can be shown to be over weight - and fines of course.

<edit>
This just came to my attention:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mLTJ6SpdUx4&ab_channel=L2SFBC-RobertPepper-autojourno
or search youtube for "Roofrack loads and weights".
Robert says BOTH roof and rack weights must be reduced!!
He also says the GU Patrol has a roof load limit of 200kg. Can anyone verify this with a genuine authentic verifiable source?

<another edit>
And here is says it is 150kg:
https://mr4x4.com.au/not-load-roof-rack-cautionary-tale/

[mullie 79]

Cool so looks like my gu wagon has 150kg limit so if i get a 50kg rack i still have 70kg pay load off road 100kg on road?
Cheers Grant

[Brissieboy]

Cool so looks like my gu wagon has 150kg limit so if i get a 50kg rack i still have 70kg pay load off road 100kg on road?
Cheers Grant

I'm not convinced that the roof limit is any more than 100kg. Just because it was somewhere on the web does not make it correct. I want to see something better than someone's opinion (and I don't care who they are) before I will believe it. And the GU has had several iterations over the years - are they all the same limit?
There is no mention of any roof load limit in my owner's handbook.

[pollenface]

The more weight you put up there, the more top heavy you become.

I saw a dualcab with an ATV on the roof rack once in my travels. I couldn't believe it.

[Brissieboy]

Because I could not find any roof load limits for my GU wagon either in the owner's manual or on the web, I made a query to Nissan.
It took a while, but here is their response:
83019