There is a lot of options when it comes to roof racks on vans. With some of those options in the thousands, we decided to construct our own.

The Roof Rack Plan

Step 1: Research

The thought of getting a custom Aluminess rack sounded awesome after seeing a few photos online but the sticker shock sent us looking for an alternative option.

We had very specific needs for our rack and didn’t need a massive platform. We have no intention of storing gear on the roof at this time or using it as a party deck. Our primary objective is to securely hold two 100 watt solar panels.

I’ve previously seen a few builds use 8020 aluminum rails for Ford Transit roof racks and cabinet framing so I began my search for components to build a rack.

Step 2: Acquiring the Parts

After creating our design and getting a parts list together we ordered all of our parts from 8020.net. You order your material to exact lengths which makes the assembly process very straight forward.

For mounting the rack to the van we opted to use mounts created by Impact Products that you can get from their eBay store.

We chose to go with two 100 watt monocrystalline solar panels from Renogy which we got from Amazon. They are solid aluminum framed panels.

Step 3: Installation

Assembling the rack is not difficult but it’s important to do everything in the correct order. In our case, we chose to have most of the harware hidden in the corner joints which meant specifically assembling it in a set order.

You will need to drill holes into the sides of the solar panels to attach them to the rack. We opted to have our panels sit inside of the rails so they were not easily seen from the side of the van or sticking up above the rack. This helps with the stealth factor but also reduces some of the extra drag the rack will have when driving.

We used the factory rack mounting holes on the Transit van. You can find these holes under rubber plugs on the roof that are painted the same color as the body. We had to remove a little bit of metal around the factory mounting holes from the body of the van. (This is very common to find on Ford Transits from the factory).

With the rack and panels assembled on the ground I needed to get it onto the roof. I foolishly also decided to do this by myself. To make this somewhat feasible I built a H frame out of three 2″x4″ boards that were then leaned against the side of the van. This allowed me to lift the rack up and set it on the horizontal brace and then climb up the ladder to push it the rest of the way up.

It’s worth noting that we also drilled a hole and installed a cable entry port for the solar panels. We’ll cover that in another article though.

Our Experience

Performance

The setup works better than we hoped. It’s been flawless for over 2 years and hasn’t leaked or rusted yet.

In Retrospect

The only thing that I would have done differently for this setup is having a second person available to get the rack and panel assembly on to the roof. Doing as a one-man job was quite sketchy. 🙂

Also you should use a cable entry port with more ports than you plan to use so you have future expansion options in case you wish to add exterior lights or antennas. I’d like to add some additional rack lights but doing so would be mean adding a new cable port now.

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