roof rack

My father-in-law (same Prado) has a Rhino that looks pretty good. Has a nice 'sides' to it (not too big, but big enough to act as a side). He carried a spare wheel and other junk like stretcher beds and chairs on a 1/2 lap last year, including along GRR & into Bungles. Survived fine.

I might have to borrow it :)

Cheeres, Nige

Pistol,
I purchased the Rhino Rack for my 95 Series Prado in June. Used it for a 5500km trip from Sydney to Innamincka, Coongie Lake, Walkers Crossing, K1, Warburton, Hay River & QAA Line in July. I carried a spare wheel, spare casing, toolbox, a full jerry can (for part) and in a Rack Sack chairs, bedding & a tent.

The whole thing took a hammering especially out to Coongie and I cannot give it enough praise. I guess though you would need to make sure your gutters are up to the task.

Tbreak

Not sure why you are set on an alloy rack. There are plenty of considerations apart from the fact that the Prado only has a 10kg limit, including the rack and bars.

First is that if you are going to be putting it up and then removing it on a regular basis then perhaps a wire type is an option. Another consideration is tying stuff into the rack. Alloy and steel racks tend to limit your flexibility for tie downs.

Now let me explain in more detail. We use Rhino commercial bars and a wire basket and have on the last three cars. Our choice was made for the following reasons. Wire racks flex which is great when off-road(which we are for around 60% of each year) this flex means shock loads are not transferred into the mountings and A, B and C pillars. We have seen lots of cars with cracked pillars, particularly C pillars, from overloaded roof racks. As per above the wire basket gives us plenty of flexibility to tie the small stuff down. We alway use the ROK straps as they are much better than the normaly occy strap, albetit also the price is higher but you pay for the quality. Ours are now eight years old and in good order. Lastly we take the basket off when on shorter trips so I can do that by myself. I can also add there are absolutely no issues with the strenght of well made wire racks at all. We had to transfer all the stuff from a vehicle that had a total suspension failure as we entered the Simpson one year and the rack was definately well over the roof limit. Never a problem and it has been on three cars and covered I reckon over 150000 km off-road

Regards

RobA