Don't know about Australia, but here the the US of A, the roof rack rating is listed in the owner's manual. I've owned Cherokees, Blazers, Suburbans, Land Cruisers, Expeditions, and Explorers from 1971 to today and all had the information listed in the owner's manual. I talked to an automotive engineer at a big off-road rally and he said the rating was NOT what the vehicle structure could hold before buckling. It was determined based on the relationship of the height of the vehicle on the OEM tire/wheel combination, the tread & wheelbase, and the center of gravity of the stock vehicle. A change of any one of these could change the roof rack rating. The main factor was the center of gravity. We got into the discussion because he noted that my brother's Suburban was, in his words, "A rolling death trap." He said the roof was dangerously overloaded and said we should move much of the gear onto the trailer and inside the truck.

Another consideration is how this affects the vehicle tilt angle capability. Also, the more weight up top, the more danger of rollover in an on road collision avoidance situation when there is a lot of lateral weight transfer.

This is your one of your best videos Ronnie. When I bought my wagon just after your mishap it saved me a lot of any potential hassles. I always had an understanding of the importance of weights and ratings however both of this videos really cut through the minefield. I’ve had plenty of work mates ask me about GVMs etc and refer back to your videos. One of the important things I tell them is that Car dealerships, accessories suppliers and fitters are there to take your money. It’s up to the owner to do their research to do the due diligence. Also if there driving along after I refer them to your videos it’s still their personal responsibility. I quote to them “now that I’ve told you if your rack disintegrates due to being overloaded and goes flying through a soccer mums car with her kids in it and causes a fatality expect to sit before a coronial inquest”. Being careless now becomes reckless. Thanks for the video

So glad you made this video! I would like to add the roof ratings for my vehicles: - Honda CB500X: 0kg - Kawasaki Concours14: 0kg

Great video! I used to work at Autobarn roughly 10yr years ago. We would pump out the rhino rack sales. I remember they had a bar rating and also car roof manufacturers load rating, in their guide book for some vehicles. I'm unsure if they give this specification now. Definitely great to highlight this issue, as most people wouldn't even consider roof loads.

Excellent video and a shame that the industry is not transparent about this. Thanks mate.

Thanks for shedding light on this matter. So hard to get the basic facts. Manufactures and salespeople of both racks and cars need to be consistently transparent and informed on this

Very informative video, thanks for sharing. I wish the list included the LC100 series.

On my roof racks is a basket a light bar, 4 maxtrax, a shower awning and a solar panel that's all I use it for, my roof top tent and awning on a tub rack and the rooftop tent is 55 kilograms I have tried to spread the load and keep it as light as possible

An excellent informative video. It’s frightening to see how overloaded the roof racks are on many vehicles using our local tracks (Victorian High Country). When I bought my 200 series in 2019 the Toyota dealer was very helpful and accurate with roof loads.

In germany the roof load ratig is noted in the vehicle registration document you always have to carry with you. So you dont have to do any research.

I’m surprised the data isn’t in the owner’s handbook. My Range Rover owner’s handbook specifies max roof load (including roof rack) of 100kg on-road and 50kg off-road.

Great video, informative, no ego and well explained! So much hidden behind the big numbers people are after. I wonder where it all sits in the insurance fine print!

Great piece for new to the 4wd scene. I had a Jimny and you are right, I had the rack, swag, awning, chairs etc and by god it was way to top heavy, great car but not practical for the loads I need to carry. Done a lot of research and picked a vehicle better suited to our style of camping\touring and now have an 2023 Outback. Now with a rear draw\cargo area layout to keep the weight down low and I am today about to sort the roof but this time Ive picked the lightest but strongest roof bars to only carry our swags etc so by my estimates I should be under the max 100KG load rating by a fair bit. Do your research and choose wisely is the best and safest advice we all need to consider before jumping on the popular dual cab train!

Great vid as usual Ronny. Very much enjoyed and found informative the vid in 2021 and this one also. As A tradie that has ran ford Utes for over 20 years as the main work vehicle (on road) I always fitted a fiber glass canopy. Racks were installed on the canopy. Was only rated for 75kg (Canopy) but that suited as I ran light bars and only used the racks for carrying ladders/steps. After starting to look for a replacement vehicle for the ute, Decided on a duel cab (nothing out in the market place at the moment). Either with tray and canopy, or tub and fibre glass canopy. Canopy's would be the only place for any racking, except maybe one bar on the cabin roof (for long load support but not structurally taking the weight and only lightly tired down on this bar). This is because of cab chassis design. Allows canopy to move independent of the cabin (not talked about much if at all). My preferred option ($$ Approx 5k for canopy, 1.5k for racking system and accessories): Fiber glass canopy e.g. ARB min-100kg Dynamic, 350kg Static. The canopy is reinforced. (loads depend on canopy model) Tray and canopy ($$ How deep is your pockets ?? 10k goes nowhere)- varies from manufacturer to manufacturer, racking type etc. Will achieve min 100kg dynamic load and 350kg static (if not more) but there is down side of suspension work needing to be done, GVM increase etc. To maintain a reasonable load carrying capacity, balance and smoothness of ride and legal requirements. I haven't checked out the offroad load ratings yet. That will be my next step or research when I am closer to purchases.

Good video Ronny, this is why I have put my RTT on my canopy which has a roof load rating of 150kg and only small accessories on the roof its self.

after a year of dealer enquiries and bs online you’ve sorted it in one video Ronny - our upcoming Simpson trip just got better / safer with this info mate. brilliant.

Great work Ronnie, when I got my BT50 in 2008, I didn't bother trying to find out about roof ratings because I thought it would be too hard to find. I only ever put roof racks on the canopy with their internal frame (now I have an alloy canopy).

Thanks for a very clear explanation, I feel most vehicle manufacturers and accessory companies try to make it as hard as possible to get a hard fact to avoid costly payouts

Excellent Ronny! We changed the way we loaded up for camping when you pointed this out before. So important to be legal and safe. (Fellow West Aussies here :)

Thanks for the help, you always give us things we didn't think about ❤

For reference the rating for a Fortuner is only 50kg which is a major pain, I bought one during covid as I needed a car in a hurry and there were no troopies available. When it came to adding a roof rack finding the rating from the Toyota dealer wasn’t much use but thankfully my local Rhino rack dealer had access to a database from Rhino who had done the calculations given the accesory bars Toyota supply are a Rhino product.

You should add the outback wilderness trim which has a roof rating of 700lbs (317.5kg) the only limiting factor is whatever roof bars you buy, which most are at 220lbs/100kg

Always giving out great info Ronny, Your last vid was the reason I went and did tons of research to pick the current rack I have now and make it safe.

This is why i bought a smallest/lightweight inno roof box i could find for my cx5. It only weights 20 pounds and i can still fill it up up to 60 pounds worth of camping gear in it. I see people carrying rooftop full of camping gears on lifted 4runners they look unstable af

All important details that manufacturers need to make available to consumers. When I bought my Frontier (Navara) in 2015, after installing my topper, the topper dealer installed a sticker on the door jamb stating my vehicle capacity had been reduced by 325 lbs, the weight of the topper. I’d never seen that before.

Back in the 70-80’s any 4x4 roof rack was attached to the vehicle through roll bars bolted/welded to the frame rails. There for weigh was more secure then, nowadays due to current manufacturing practices vehicles are lighter from the bottom of the glass up.the lack of solid roll bars compound the problems.✌️🙂

I really learn so much watching your videos. I was looking for the LC 120 since a while now. thank you. 👍👍👍

I learned almost everything about off-road vehicles from you. Thanks a lot.

I’m glad you put this information together for customers. It’s critical.

It might surprise you to discover that our Adventra has two distinct ratings. The roof racks themselves have a separate carrying capacity, distinct from the rear roof loading. On LX models (highest spec) there's a luggage carrier at the very back of the wagon equipped with its own aircraft-style tie-down points. For example, we can securely place a spare rear tire on this section, and the weight is considered separate from the roof rack's capacity since they are independently bolted to the roof and we arent riveted. Nut and bolts the whole way.

Great information in this video. If anyone needs a big weight capacity for your roof racks, just get a Jeep wrangler with a gobi rack, 300lb/111.97kg driving load limit, and 800lb/362.87kg static load. This is due to the way the rack is attached, it's mounted to the chassis in the rear and to the windshield frame bracket up front. Unfortunately the jeep The downside is you can't fold the windshield down with it installed, but its a beast of a rack setup. Jeep says the hardtop isn't made to support any additional loads. Most folks have come to the consensus that 100-150lb is doable. I definitely strap my 55lb canoe up there all the time but I'd not put anything heavier than that up there even with one of them aftermarket rack setups. I can't wait to get my Gobi rack, then I can get an awning, some maxx tracks and move a few other bits of kit out of the cargo area. Plus I can add a propane tank to the mix as well as get the hilift jack off the tailgate and add some trail lighting to all 4 sides and some camp lights as well. It looks like the FJ40 has a similar setup to the wrangler for a gobi rack. They dobhave some higher rated numbers on some of their other racks, like the Toyota 4runner for example, but those are roof mount style so I'd consider the advice presented in this video regardless of the ratings given. The wrangler and FJ40 are unique in that the rack isn't attached ti the roof at all, in dact with the wrangler you can use the rack with a hardtop, soft top or no top at all so that's prety cool.

Good video... too many people don't read the manual, or aren't aware that there is this load limit on top of the car.

Great to see you talking about this again. After your video & Tyler's video a few years back losing his rack on K'Gari I did some research for my Gen 3 Pajero. I could find nothing online, nothing in the owners manual, nothing in the workshop manual and asking in forums especially FB gave me nothing but BS. I contacted Mitsubishi & was told then Gen 3 & Gen 4 Pajero (2000 - most recent (Not Sport) had a Dynamic load rating of 100kg BUT.......... They also told me I should be reducing that by 30% on Unsealed Roads (Many people think Offroad is hard corrugations and difficult 4wding but this means any dirt road or beach). That gives the Gen 3 and Gen 4 Pajeros and Off Road rating of only 70kg which must include the weight of your roof rack system. Using the Side Rails that come on many of the Pajeros as well dramatically reduced that load, some are only capable of around 35kg yet I see people putting RTT's on them.

Thank you for clarifying how it all works. Are gutter mounted racks different in weight carrying capacity?

This is an excellent and much needed presentation that we should all take careful notice of. Other things to consider are the increased effects on dynamic stability on vehicles with modified suspensions increasing the overall height, the overall weight on the roof reducing the balance of the allowable load carrying capacity of the vehicle and the significant increase in fuel consumption that results from the wind resistance of bulky less than aerodynamic objects placed on the rack. While 4wd enthusiasts may be happy to pay the price for leaving their 4wd accessories and recovery equipment on show on their racks while driving around town the costs associated with disregard for legally enforceable weight limits has the potential to ruin lives.

Huge work from your team, a big thank you guys and a fresh one 🍻...I did "hear" about this ,but never in so much details

100% Ronny, Far to often we see brands hiding the truth and leaving this sort of information out...That's why you should consider buying Tracklander Roof Racks, Australian based company that will give you all the information you need every time.

Making the complicated easy to understand. Doing a great job, thanks for the hard investigation. I’m sure it was frustrating! I’m a FJ cruiser owner and strangely happy to not see a number I’m shocked about! In denial maybe?? Good video 👍

Great vid mate 👍 Never thought about this being a tradoe , when i chuck heaps of timber up there .

Great video Ronny , thanks for posting .

best 4wd channel hands down , cheers Ronnie keep up the great work with your videos.

all good info, plus the hit on long range fuel needs had me get rid of my top rack

Land Rover actually included the static and dynamic loads for the Defender in their promotional videos at the time of the launch. Whether anybody would choose the Defender for their overlanding vehicle or not is a different kettle of fish. Manufacturers should be made to include these figures in their handbooks supplied with the vehicle. After all, it all relates to road safety.

Late last year we took delivery of a Prado 150 with the factory bolt on roof racks We emailed Toyota and they indicated they no longer give roof rating for the Prado. Only a rating for the Toyota roof rack fitted with their bars to the rack that came with the car 75Kg. According to our dealer they used to give the Prado rating, but were unsure if it is still applicable and indicated if in an accident [or checked in say QLD] the 75Kg would probably apply. I have heard of a few people now pulled over in QLD and weight checked. Not towing either, just roof rack and vehicle loading.

This is probably why higher quality roof racks are integrated into cages, so the weight is on a lower part of the frame, and on a stronger structure. I know my personal pickup, a 3m steel tube was enough to buckle the unibody, but the rack I'm putting on it will float about a handspan above the cab roof.

The 120 prado only has a 80kg rating, and 100kg with the triple factory load bars. Definitely doesn’t not have 150kg rating (that’s coming from the manual)!!

You're a bloody legend, from idea to research to execution

Good Video and I feel your pain trying to get the information, it took me weeks to get the numbers for my 2004 LR Discovery II. It is about 75 KG dynamic, with gutter mount roof bars, as far as I could find out. With 3 roof bars, a small RTT and awning I am just under.

Dynamic, has more to do with how much the extra weight high up affects stability… So tyre size, lift and GVM upgrades would also affect everything 🤔

I did alot of research also and I have to roof bars with no awning on my Jimny. Just put table and gas bottle up there only

Nice video man! Very interesting. I'd like to add something though. Static loads are calculated using 1g acceleration and dynamic loads use 3g (in general, this could be more depending on the risk of the component breaks). This is why we can see (in general again) a 3:1 ratio between static and dynamic loads.

very informative video no one is talking about thanks for the recommended ratings your vid can be a quick reference. I can only imagine those people who loaded so much stuff that is unnecessary and over the recommended ratings this video is an eye opener great job mate

Good topic! Lots of misuse of roof racks (and bars!). Happy to have a 20 year old Defender 110 with 150 kg capacity!

If you put cross bars on your roof - OEM or aftermarket - they are part of the roof load so must be counted.

This subject is one of my pet peeves. I read a lot of « The roof of your car is made to support 3 times the weight of your vehicle, you can put what you want on top ». This make me mad, even more when it comes from people that sales RTT.

This has been very handy. I've got an MN Triton and can't find the roof rating, so all I have on my racks is the awning and a solar panel. I'll admit I've had way too much weight on the racks going of the rack manufacturers load rating, but only for a short, steady trip home to keep the dynamic load low. I also have a canopy that takes the bulk weight of the awning as it's a 270°. I will be fitting internal support bars in my canopy to take a RTT even though the canopy is rated to 100kg, but no mention if that's static or dynamic.

From the Chinese social media I found out people are claiming that the "official" dynamic load rating for Tank 300 is 50kg and the static load stating for Tank 500 is 300 kg.

Great video - would love to see one done on tub racks!

Excellent video Ronny, I have had this argument with so many people & now (thanks to you ) I can just share this video 👌

Thanks for posting the list of dynamic loads at the end! I see my Prado 120 has 150kg, which is more than the 100kg I thought it had? What an awesome surprise. I'll continue to budget for 100kg though, to be safe.

You're missing a big piece of the puzzle, Ronny. Is the rack mounted on the roof or the rain gutters. The latter are mounted to the sides of the vehicle, not the roof. Completely different capacity. I have a jeep XJ with a gutter mounted basket and I've had 200kg up there without incident. Roofs are weak, A, B, C, and D pillars are strong.

Well put. Thanks Ronny.

Amazing video! Thank you Ronny!

Awesome information in straight forward term. Thanks

Great video!!!!! Finally somebody pours clear water into the cup

When working out my roof rack situation I found that only front runner didn't have a different on road/off road rating.They just rate it for both which is good. Also when contacting places for install, they were all going to just rivet the rails on. None of them wanted to go through the effort to take the roof liner out. I ended up doing it myself, bolting it down properly.

Thanks for this info. I've got an aluminium rack and two kayaks on my 22 Triton weighting about 65kgs all in but wasn't sure.

I had a roof rack on my jeep that sat on the steel bumper in the rear and the mounting point in the front pillars. I drove it off road for 2 weeks with 400kg on the roof rack. Loaded it like that several times snd never had a problem.

no info on the 80 series? 🥺 Eye-opening video, thanks Ronny.

Spot on, Ronny! Weight high on a 4x4 is no good from all angles. So badly misunderstood. Keep weight low, keep gear organized, keep gear weight down for a better trip, for better vehicle performance, and better off-road performance and experience.

I own a dual cab ute and built myself a full size roofrack (2450mm×1230mm) that bolts onto a frame that itself bolts onto the edge of the ute tub so any weight i put onto the rack is supported by the tub. Ive had easily 150kg on the rack with no issues

Hey Wes Siler, now there's two people doing load math for 4x4. Starting a movement.

Great work Ronny Thanks for this.

Centre of gravity is important. You see people with gear permanently on their roof. This stays there whether they have a load in the back or not. Why bother to remove it day to day. Have it there so we just add a go bag and we are camping. They have also added a lift (2, 3 or 4 inches) and wide tyres for the sand. Hit a patch of water or an oily patch of water and you have a problem. Traction is lost and if the lower momentum slows faster (like hitting a kerb or a dryer patch of road) the vehicle just wants to lay on its side and sleep.

Nice overview. But to further complicate things a change in shocks springs and lift which most 4x4 adopt will effect dynamic loads?, and possibly positively in the jimmy case where the soft suspension is replaced by a firmer set-up.

Thanks a lot I am thinking of adding a solar panel to my Colorado and sons Ram 1500. Looks like we need to do our research thoroughly. Thanks again It looks like you saved a headache down the road. LOL

Thank you and your team for this information.

Very good and interesting video mate!😮

Man, when I think back to the sheer quantity of construction materials I hauled home, carefully secured to the roof of my 1982 Honda Accord, with moving blankets between the load and the roof, and with no ill effects. Granted, I wasn't driving it off road lol. Considering the fact that vehicle safety regulations require that roofs do not collapse in the event of a roll over, I'd say that the manufacturer's specifications for maximum roof loads are very, very conservative, and, dare I say, not realistic. Of course the method of securing the rack to the roof probably plays the biggest role in limiting the load capacity.

Cardogan did a video about this and called out FORD for images used their advertising as being overloaded on the roof of the Everest. Forced them to change. It was great. Also I agree with some comments your videos are slick but the over use of awful music and and stock images is turning some of us off. Great content otherwise mate I have learnt a lot from your channel.

Indeed, a factor not explored in any video I’ve seen yet is that installing bigger tires (tyres in Straya) must further reduce the dynamic roof load* rating.

Great video, clear, concise, informative. Now I need you to make one explaining what a "kilo" is...

Perfectly timed for Aussie Arvos latest video

Great information all together! Too many times do you see vehicles overloaded up top(not to mention Towing) and individuals just don't seem to care at all. Also just to add, for any WD21 Pathfinder/Terrano out there that has a Factory Roof Rack, it states on the Left Side Rail that the maximum Load is 80 LBS Evenly Distributed. I'm going to assume that this is a Dynamic as many have gotten on the roof that weighs near 200 LBS and didn't have a problem. I still wouldn't take it over 80 LBS.

A better way to look at dynamic loads is as shock loads. Any velocity change creates a temporary change in force. Fixed load only accounts for static velocities. The leverage caused by how the load wants to shift dramatically increases the load on certain points even greater than the velocity change does by itself.

There is roofload rating where the loading 8s on existing support bars on the roof proper and not in the guttering or the old padded or suction cup mounted roof racks. There should also be a guttering mounted rating as they vary greatly.

Used to work for a big independent 4wd parts supplier / installer in wa and we have been saying this for years. Even before the whole rhino rack saga. It doesn’t matter how much your roof rack can handle when your vehicle roof can not handle that capacity. The first point of failure will be your vehicles roof, not your rack.

Thank you Ronnie and your team. Toyota is really hard to get detailed specs and information for. For example I have tried and failed to get any specifications for low beam height settings in standard configuration (i.e. factory tyre size and suspension) because with the factory heavy duty steel tray my lights are set too high and I want to be able to adjust them correctly in loaded and unloaded state. Edit: 79 D/C

Great video and thanks for tracing down all the info on various makes/models. Would you do same type of video for pickup canopy's and the back end weight limits?

Not sure if it helps my situation or not but I own a Jeep Rubicon with a soft top. Because of that I had to go with a Gobi rack which attaches 25% the way up the front windshield pillar and to the chassis in the rear, no weight on the roof (since I dont have one) Ive never experienced any problems with rack loads up to roughly 190 lbs / 86 kg. this does not include the weight of the rack which is easily over 100lbs / 45 kg. I have now changed all that for various reasons though. Vehicle handling, wind resistence, ease of loading, vehicle height are a few. I now have a trailer Ive modifyed to handle most of my gear + RTT.

Grate vid mate, I worked for a sa roof top tent manufacturer and there clients a often missed in regards to this area, go buy this rack and you can run out ten and awning and all will be ok, well it's not ok as I build up a fitout business on the sunny coast and ran it for 11 years before selling it and weight was always my number consideration when designing a system or canopy build. Most businesses in the industry will miss lead the client to get the sales, THIS NEEDS TO CHANGE!!!! PEOPLE please do your own research as company's will only tell you what they want you to here. This is why I had to move away from the mainstream industry.

I dunno, but the 'static' roof-top tent can get pretty 'Dynamic' at times. 😉😎

I own a Colorado RC and I found the dynamic roof load rating in the user manual which is 100kg.

Great video Ronny ❤ Unfortunately I can't find any information about the roofloadrating of my HZJ75 troopy 😢😢 please help

good information my Bronco apparently is only 50KG dynamic and 205KG static and I don't ever plan on a roof tent so I would only use it as a dynamic load which leaves me with very little... 😅

Roof load rating is usually printed in the owners manual… unfortunately you don’t get a copy of this until you’ve already bought the car

very useful information .. THANK YOU

Love this man, biggest contributor to society!

That is why you build a solid canopy with load bearing roof overhang. My roof overhang can take my weight 100kg easily. The rest of the canopy can take the same as my bed.