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Front Runner Gutter Mounts

6K views 22 replies 10 participants last post by  Beets 
#1 ·
So a mate of mine just gave me his Front Runner roof rack, he used to have a 2007 LWB GU. I have a 2012 GU. I believe that Nissan have at sometime changed the design of the roof rain gutters.

They are about 20 degrees upturned now. This does not allow the clamps to hold, initially we were able to fix the rack, but it is not secure for offroad use, and also with loading.

See attachments

As the bottom threaded clamp is torqued, the clamp L-shape part slides off.

I was wondering if anyone here has tried the newer style clamps from Front runner on these newly designed rain gutters from Nissan?
 

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#3 ·
Yes emailing the manufacturer, and they are not sure, and only found out that the design from Nissan has changed since I started emailing them.

Hoping that someone here has come across this, manufacturer mentioned that a patrol from 2010 onwards they just had in the workshop has the angled gutter.....awaiting what they were doing to that patrol, hopefully fitting a roof rack!
 
#5 ·
Yeah my thoughts exactly, but the answer is probably Renault and cost cutting!

I am hoping someone here with a ARB/TJM rack chimes in, I am in Dubai and customer service is non-existent here, if I turn up with a product from another manufacturer, the sales person will crash and require a re-boot.
 
#6 ·
Gutter change is news to me.

But those Front Runner brackets in your third pic are exactly what I have been looking for, for a custom alloy rack I have. So, thanks for that lead :)
 
#9 ·
The roof has never changed on the Y61. I fit all Front Runner in the Philippines and as I buy direct from the main office of front runner in South Africa I know the prodcut very well. I only use the brackets in the top picture as they are the best. I have 2012 Patrol and 2014 Patrol and they are the same. The roof rack also fits all models from 97 to 2014. Both my 4.8 are middle east and the local ones are all the same including SA Patrols. So what your been told about a roof change is not so true.

To make it fit you need to loosen the clamps and with two people and you lift on the roof rack. The you pull it around abit till its dead center and make it all semi tight. Once dead center of the roof you pull the brackets that are semi loose and do up the locking clamps. Once these are tight you tighten up all the bracket bolts.
There is no way that roof rack will fall off even as shown in picture 1. But what you need to do is loosen the top bolt and hold the clamp on the gutter. Then once tight just nip up the center bolt. If you do it over tight it pulls the clamp out as it has done in you top picture. Also you need to fix some rubber or it will rub in the gutter joint and crack the gutter rail and make a noise more then anything.

Picture attached to show how it should be. Its very important to make sure the rear of the roof rack is level with the rear doors and roof. If it to far forward it will not fix correctly. Your looks to far forward and is already on the the down curve of the A pillar. This it the wide point of the roof and it will not fix correctly.
 

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#12 ·
The roof has never changed on the Y61. I fit all Front Runner in the Philippines and as I buy direct from the main office of front runner in South Africa I know the prodcut very well. I only use the brackets in the top picture as they are the best. I have 2012 Patrol and 2014 Patrol and they are the same. The roof rack also fits all models from 97 to 2014. Both my 4.8 are middle east and the local ones are all the same including SA Patrols. So what your been told about a roof change is not so true.

To make it fit you need to loosen the clamps and with two people and you lift on the roof rack. The you pull it around abit till its dead center and make it all semi tight. Once dead center of the roof you pull the brackets that are semi loose and do up the locking clamps. Once these are tight you tighten up all the bracket bolts.
There is no way that roof rack will fall off even as shown in picture 1. But what you need to do is loosen the top bolt and hold the clamp on the gutter. Then once tight just nip up the center bolt. If you do it over tight it pulls the clamp out as it has done in you top picture. Also you need to fix some rubber or it will rub in the gutter joint and crack the gutter rail and make a noise more then anything.

Picture attached to show how it should be. Its very important to make sure the rear of the roof rack is level with the rear doors and roof. If it to far forward it will not fix correctly. Your looks to far forward and is already on the the down curve of the A pillar. This it the wide point of the roof and it will not fix correctly.
Thanks for the reply, I am guessing now that the method of tightening the clamps is key here, I just went about torqueing as much as I can, but that would slip the clamp out.

If possible, can you post a good pic of your clamps on the patrol, so that I know how much the nut travels down the threaded bolt.

Thanks for the tip on the rubber, I was trying to use old rubber hose for this as well.

To make it fit you need to loosen the clamps and with two people and you lift on the roof rack. The you pull it around abit till its dead center and make it all semi tight. Once dead center of the roof you pull the brackets that are semi loose and do up the locking clamps. Once these are tight you tighten up all the bracket bolts.....

above you mention to place it dead centre and then do up the locking clamps.....I don't understand here as I only have the top bolt on the threaded clamp to tighten and hold tention.....no locking clamp. Or are you referring to the legs clamps here?

Are you using the grub screws, as my legs threads have disappeared, but that can be fixied easily.
 
#11 ·
I have also just today been looking at roofracks and at new GU patrols. As far as I can see the guttering has never changed from 2000 right through to 2014 GU are the same.

BUT there does seem to be a bit of variation on how different roof racks manage to clamp to the slightly angled gutter particularly so further to the front it does seem angled up.

I would say that Front runner have come up with a better NEW design as they realise the old ones thend to bend out a little and slip off. This is not unique toi them, the Rhino mounts also tend to try and slip out from under the gutter at the front. (I ended up putting small bolts through my Rhino gutter mounts to stop this.

I am now looking at a new Tracklander rack as it has a better angle of mounting that is less likely to slip out.
 
#13 ·
I'd be putting some rubber in there to protect your paintwork on that nice car!

You could also get some plastic rhino feet and some 50 mm c channel and adapt them.

That's what I did as the original feet didn't clamp properly and the metal clamp was making a mess.
 
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#14 ·
This how we fix ours:

I removed the chrome gutter strip. I did this so once the days of this patrol are finished I shall put back the chrome strip and it be mark free.

The above post about extending the clamping legs with a full strip is very good point.

Also consider for future upgrade two center rails going from front to rear to make it more heavy duty.

1) Mark the center of the roof rack front and rear - I use masking tape
2) Use the rear view mirror as the center marker for the front patrol
3) Mark the center of the roof rack at the rear and roof
4) Mark the point were the roof start to drop down
5) Put a blanket on the roof to protect the paint work
6) Slide the roof rack on the roof from the rear and slowly lift it into position. I use 3 people at this point
line up the roof rack
7) front leg must be so its 3/4 is touching and 1/4 just of the gutter rail.
8) move the leg brackets so the sit in the gutter rails and make semi tight but not over tight
9) hold the clamping bracket into the under side of the gutter and do the front leg clamp first - leave grub screw loose
10) Hold the clamping bracket and do the rear just like the front - leave grub screw loose and it should be 25mm from the rear of the gutter rail.
11) Once the front and rear is clamped you will do the center clamps - leave grub screw loose.
12) Once all is good on the clamp legs you just nip up the grub screws. As soon as it start to pull the clamp out from under the gutter rail you stop.


Then road test and give it a good shake down. Ajust any bracket that is not secure after shake down. A common problem is the rear can vibrate but this due to a loose clamp. You know what I mean if you put some weight on it as the rattle will go. I use a tyre to check for rattles and move it back and forth to locate what cross section, leg is not 100%

I dont have any better picture.
 
#15 ·
As Dronus said, you definitely need some rubber for better grip & paint protection.

Sorry if this has been said (couldn't be stuffed reading all posts) but those clamps are the crappiest design I've seen. Those new ones shown at the bottom should be an easy fit. Just drill new holes if need be.

My '98 GU has identical looking gutters to yours there so not sure what's going on really.
 
#16 ·
OK I have figured out what was missing, some of the legs had missing grub screws, the ones that were there had nuts inside the legs that were rusted out, and hence the grub screw was not threading in. I replaced one of the nuts, and used the best non rusted grub screw. The clamps are solid. Will be using ss nuts and grub screws, along with hosepipe. Thank you all.
 
#17 ·
Glad to help. If you plan to fix a antenna on roof rack for two way also use a earth cable. If fixing lights run the cable inside channel of roof rack frame with spot of silicon to hold it inside.

Your air deflector can be updated by using that one fitted but increase it to full size.
 
#20 ·
dbsep couple of questions regarding wiring and grounding.

How did you get positive feed from battery to the roof, and where did you bolt the grounding cable on the body? My chassis and body have 2 extra ground wires already, 1 in the front and one around the middle chassis cross bar around the sub-tank.

I plan to run a rear work light, mounted to the rack and 2 fog lamps, where I live in Dubai, we get loads of fog in the morning and I do the school run, and most people are rushing to work or dropping children off to school at this time and the quality of driving from all nationalities is appalling at this time.

I also will mount my UHF to the rack and want to have option to power a LED bar in the future if I need.
 
#21 ·
Ho Lee Phuk, Like Squalo I thought those gutter brackets looked the goods so I went onto the frontrunner website to see if they had a low profile rack for a GUII (which I'm after), they sure do but it's 1,186 euro :(:(:(...... I don't want to buy the company, just a roof rack.
 
#22 ·
KRNP004T Nissan Patrol Slimline II
LASS014 No 1 Leg 120mm (Pair) 4
RRSTG11 Slimline II Tray - 1345(W) x 2166(L)
Price retail: 830 USD

The complete roof rack kit that we fit in the Philippines:
RRAC019 RRAC019 Slimline II Tray Expedition Top rail
FRUN29 SWCL001 Spare Wheel Clamp 100mm
FRUN2008 JCHO004 Double Jerry Can Holder
RTJER020 JCFU001 Jerry Can 20Lt - Black Steel
GBHO011 GBHO011 Gas Bottle Holder Universal
FRLR111 JCBR001 Defender Side Mount Jerry - not needed on roof rack
FRUN11 RRAC012 Tie Down Ring Female (Pair)
RRAC024 RRAC024 Spade Bracket Ratchet Type
RRAC023 RRAC023 Axe Bracket Mk2
JADA010 JADA010 Hi-Lift Jack Mounting Bracket

Complete kit is 1300 USD.

We can not sell it outside the Philippines. But you can go direct I can get you the details and my freight company I use.
 
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