I'm lookin at putting a rack on top of my camper shell.

Can anyone give me some advice on what product to use. And what all I have to buy.

 

The top shell will need holes drilled, which means you'll need to make them weatherproof. So measure and align your holes carefully and accurately. Then you can use either rubber O-rings around each bolt, or caulking or a tube of liquid gasket maker. Blob it on in excess, and just wipe away the squeeze-out. I'd treat it like you were doing a faucet or a sink's drain, using plumber's putty.

 

Does your shell have a reinforced top? The shell (don't know what brand, but a cheap one) I just sold did not but someone had installed ribs to support something on the top. The bolts for those ribs are painful to the head when I bumped them even though they were covered with RTV or something.

The shell I recently bought off craigslist is an ARE model and it appears to have a sheet of plywood molded into the top. It's a much better made shell.

 

I know some guys here have the ARE cap with yakima rack on top.

 

If you can find a store that sells Sex Bolts (sometimes called barrel bolts) then you can have both sides with flush surfaces and still have good holding power.

Do a quick Googling for sex bolts or barrel bolts, and you'll see what I'm talking about.

 

I bought and installed rhino rack rails on the top of my Raider topper.

Rhino rack.

I have kayak mounts on the crossbars and transport our kayaks up there when towing our trailer.

I had to drill 5 or 6 holes through the topper for each rail. They came with plastic covered nuts that sit on the underside, inside the topper. They are 3/4 deep and don't cause any issue inside. You could even add some other mounts (for fishing rods, etc) to the same nuts inside. I don't keep the crossbars in place unless I need them. They remove in a couple of minutes.

Amazon sells all the rhino stuff at pretty good prices. Easy to install.

 

hi thanks I am also curious about this. Can someone dumb this down for me? When I got to home depot or lowes, which screws/bolt do I need to get, which caulk, and glue? Noted that there are a million options and variations of things... and I am a newbie to this.

This is for mounting solar hardware on the top of the topper, which is fiberglass I think, with carpet liner on the inside

thank you!