Camper Conversion part 16: homemade roof railing

In Built in the workshop, inspiration by bianka

The car should definitely get a roof tent to travel with more than two people. If the children come along, they can have their own kingdom there.

And a roof box for extra luggage must also be on it.

The problem, though, is that there aren’t enough mounts on the roof for crossbars. There are only 3 pieces per side – so called mushroom heads. That means, you can mount only 3 crossbars by default. With three crossbars you might get a roof tent on it, but not an additional roof box.

So what to do?

I have long researched on the Internet and found people who had similar problems. Some have had a carrier made, which usually costs from 1000 EUR upwards. But I didn’t want to spend that much for a roof rack and besides, it didn’t feel good to take such a custom solution when you could actually build it yourself.

Then I found someone who has specially made a mushroom head holder for the mushroom heads and especially also for the model Boxer/ Jumper/ Ducato before 2006. This is basically just an angle with exactly the cutouts it needs.

If you have 3 angles per side on the roof, you can of course attach to it, for example, an aluminum profile and then you can mount on it as many crossbars as you want.

No sooner said than done. I first ordered an angle to see how it fits. And it did, very well in fact. That’s why I also ordered the other 5 angles and also 3 bars of aluminum profiles with a 40 x 40mm cross section.

cutted aluprofiles

I sawed the long sides to 2.80m and then I cut 6 cross beams with 1.60m each, got screws and nuts from the screw specialty store, as well as Locktite. And then mounted the whole thing, where I fortunately had help from someone who has already successfully mounted this on his own camper. What a luck to have someone like that around ;D

ready mounted roof rails

cost for 6 angles: 110 EUR

Cost for 3 bars of aluminum profiles, bolts, nuts, washers and locktite: 300 EUR