7 replies to this topic

[TangoAlpha]

After promising some photos of my boot rack to someone (sorry, can't remember who ) on the Island Idle, here they are.

It's a bit fiddly and after about ten minutes I gave up and decided that some of the allen bolts were a bit short. A quick visit to the local ironmongers and I had purchased 4 new bolts (about 0.5" longer) for 60p

The easiest way to attach the boot rack is to loosen the legs on one side and slide them all the way across so they extend beyond the edge of the "top". After loosening the (new) bolts the legs clamp onto the side of the boot lid. Tighten the bolts and then loosen the legs on the other side. Slide the top all the way across to the left, clamp the right-hand legs to the boot lid and tighten the two bolts. All four legs should now be firmly attached. Slide the "top" until it is central and tighten the bolts, two per leg accessed from "underneath" each leg, that hold the "top" to each leg.

It's not a quick job but should only take about ten minutes after a bit of practice.

[DanL]

Looks rather handy.... On another note, how did you get your PH sticker to stick? Mine's convinced it wants to live on the floor... Dan

[TangoAlpha]

On another note, how did you get your PH sticker to stick? Mine's convinced it wants to live on the floor...

Lick and stick Just make sure there are no air bubbles

[speedyK]

I had a rack identical to this on my Fiat X1/9 many moons ago. Just have to be careful that the engine/boot cover is correctly aligned so that the mounting clamps of the rack don't foul and damage the adjacent paintwork. Paint on the clamps started to fail (crack open) after a couple of winters carrying skis and it began to get rusty and tatty looking BTW, looking at your pics I noticed that you've mounted the rack with the retaining bar towards the front. I think it's more usually placed at the rear so that under acceleration the luggage is supported and doesn't just rely on how it's been tied down – less strain, so less likely to fail. Or don't you accelerate that much? Out of interest, what do GM say the maximum load weight for this rack is on the VX?

[TangoAlpha]

BTW, looking at your pics I noticed that you've mounted the rack with the retaining bar towards the front.

Well done, you spotted my deliberate mistake Yes, you're right, it would be better the other way round although, for fitting, it makes no difference.

what do GM say the maximum load weight for this rack is on the VX?

No idea

For those interested in getting one, see Ebay or www.cartec-eckey.de.

[stevemgvx]

I'd be very careful as there is nothing supporting the rack other than thin air and the seal at this point - you might get some support from the lip of the clam but I would't want to rik anything too heavy on here. I think the original GM rack had through the body mounting for this very reason cheers Steve

[laidback50]

I bought my rack from Vauxhall and had it fitted by the dealer. I think it looks good on the car and it has been very useful during a weeks touring down to Cornwall. The mountings are permanent on the car and the rack locates at the front and clips on with two toggle clamps at the rear. The clamps each have a torx security screw to make it a little less esy for some kind soul to make off with it. When you attach it to the car,you plug it in to a small socket (supplied as part of the rack) so that the brake lights on the roll bar are disconnected and the bank of brake lights on the back of the rack are made active. This way, anything tall on the rack doesn't obscure tthe brake lights. I also had an aluminium case tailor made to fit the rack to make best use of space. The whole rack is aluminium with stainless fixings so it won't corrode. Rear visibility is OK with just the rack but obviously zero when you have anything strapped to it. The rack is fitted and removed in around 2 minutes.

Attached Files

•  rack_pic_01.jpg   86.14KB   0 downloads

[laidback50]

Another picture of the rack.

Attached Files

•  rack_pic_02.JPG   97.05KB   0 downloads