So based on a little nudging from Ken (paddlenbike), I bit the bullet months ago and bought a Sherpa Equipment Co Matterhorn MKII (MK2). Off the top thoughts:
- Quality materials with little nits though. There were many areas with tiny gouges in the metal from who knows what. Not enough to be truly upset about, but enough to notice and mention
- One of the bar's threaded holes was off center requiring me to muscle the bolt through. Not sure if that thing will ever come out and be able to be threaded in again. EDIT: I ended up buying a $9 tap (1/4" - 20 NC) to chase the misaligned thread and cleaned it up. Now it threads perfectly.
- Fitment otherwise was pretty simple even for one person, but two would've been much easier. I had to go from one side/end of the truck to the other. Totally doable as I said, but a bit tiresome. 80/20 is pretty cool
- Looks: still getting used to it. Not in love, but I don't dislike it either.
- If it matters to you, just buy the black hardware if you plan on painstakingly painting the bolts and washers. Took me forever and while 50% of the bolts and washers I painted still are perfect, the other half not so much. Its about $45 for an MK2 without lights. Oh and I've scoured the internet for 2 days trying to find these bolts (specs: 316 Stainless steel in black, ¼"-20 x ⅞, which are the most commonly used size for this rack), but I haven't found them. I'm still looking though, no pressure on time. EDIT: I did find Black Oxide stainless steel bolts and washers. It does look pretty good but some have claimed that they rust over time and also as a hex head, be careful cranking them down too much. Which is why a bolt is superior when you really need to torque something down. See the image of my order.
Tools:
- Two 11mm wrenches or the SAE equivalent. One geared one and one non-geared would be the perfect combo
- Blue Loctite
- Combination square (used to center the bars against the mounts)
- Optional: powerdrill
While this is still on the top of my mind, some painting tips:
- There's a verrry thin coat of something on all the metal. Wipe down with clean shop towels and acetone or grease and tar remover.
- For the side panels, scuff them up with a scotchbrite or some other kind of abrasive no grittier than 220 to give the primer something to grab onto.
- I did 2 coats of primer, 3 coats of paint, and 2 coats of clear. For the most part, the paint survived all but the most nastiest metal against metal movement
- Just buy the black hardware from Sherpa if you want everything to be black. It was a pain in the ass to paint all the hardware and the chipping from the tightening down of the hardware left about 50% of the bolts chipped
- Wear a filter mask or paint outside. Use a filter rated for spray paint (usually marketed as vapor control)
Fitment tips:
- If you're doing solo like me, build everything on the roof. If you did build this on the ground, it's a pretty long and awkward thing to carry and depending on how tall your 4Runner is and how tall you are, lifting it without damaging it and/or your vehicle might be challenging
- When I assembled the feet onto the existing square rack rail inserts, I loosely tightened them so as to allow them to be moved around. That goes for everything. Just barely tight. Do all 4.
- Mounting the bars on the 4 mounts was pretty simple. No instructions needed. I used 11mm wrenches (stubby and regular sized one). I used a combination square to make sure the bars were centered. From the bar ends to the side of the mounts I believe was 3-¾". But don't quote me on that.
- Fitting the side panels solo was actually not as bad as I thought. Just start one bolt while holding the other end up with your other hand once done. I pressed my body up against the panel so it wouldn't fall down and held up the other side with my hand and against the fitted bar. It's not difficult. Thread all 4 bolts. One of my bolt threads though was machined oddly to the point that I really had to crank down to thread it. This was the only problem I had with their rack system.
- Fitting the front valence was a bit challenging because of the assembled weight. It kept sliding down. Also you don't want the bottom to be touching your roof. It will result in all sorts of micro abrasions on your front part of your roof. Tighten down all four bolts.
- Fit all the remaining bars in. Now here's where I really screwed the pooch: I was trying to muscle a bar from one side and gouged the paint on the other inside. See the pic. Man that pissed me off. So two things: 1) when you move the bar, make sure the other side panel is sufficiently loose, 2) make sure that you push from the middle of the bar and gently tap. I plan to re-paint the scratched parts (requiring a lot of masking for overspray grrrr), but once I find/buy the right hardware, I'm going to fashion some plastic material with holes as a gasket between the bar ends and the inside of the panel. My thought is it'll slide a lot easier and of course protect the paint at the same time.
- Once you feel everything is centered, tighten away. I corresponded w/ the company and they said 8lb/ft is the torque spec
- They give you plenty of bars. I installed them all. I think it's bar overkill, but what do I know at this point as I haven't mounted anything on them yet.
- Now the most difficult part is securing the front most mounts. There's two parts to them with a total of 4 bolts. The bottom most bolt secures to the bottom side of the front bar. Slide the entire thing towards the sides until it hits the rain run off channel. Tighten the underside bolts down. Then the instructions say to lift the bars as high as possible. Since I bought 2 sets of Sherpa Smilies, I wrapped two of them in a microfiber cloth and then wedge them underneath the bottom part of the side panel. This worked perfectly and allowed me to secure the bottom most bolts with the nylok nuts. You have to use two 11mm wrenches to do this and the hand space to do this is lacking. Maybe the best thing to do is to NOT install the valence until last, thereby creating much more hand space on the front side of the vehicle.
And that's pretty much it. The absolute worst part of this was the painting. But I really didn't want to fork out the extra money for the powder coating. However my strong advice is if you want black bolts and washers, just pay for them. The ~$45 or whatever the cost will be well worth it.
I'm a bit ambivalent on the look but I hope the functionality pays off.
I'd like to build a fuel carrier plate up there for the Rotopax stuff I bought and a table for now. No plans for lights except maybe some for the back. I plan to buy an awning too and hang that off the side. Not sure about Hi-lift. I'm still trying to figure out if I can hang it off the tire carrier or not.
Haven't been on here for a while but came looking to see if you had posted anything about your rack. I'm seeing the 80/20 style rack on just about everything these days.
This rack is really nice to have. It's dead-flat across the entire roof, which makes it incredibly easy to carry just about anything. I loaded up a bunch of 4x4x8 pressure treated posts (heavy), redwood 2x12s and a bunch of 2x6s, and of course they sit nice and flat and were easy to tie down.
In under 2 hours I was able to come up with various brackets to securely mount my folding camp table, my TredPro traction ramps and my Rotopax. You know how difficult it is to mount anything on most racks...each piece of mounting hardware is usually specialized and expensive.
I've had this truck for 16 years now. I did most of the modifications back in 2005. (Lift/sliders, tires, etc.). Supercharger went on in 2011. Haven't touched the truck other than routine maintenance, so another 4Runner modification was long overdue!
I haven't worked on the rack since I installed it. Too many other projects. One thing I will say though is that this rack is loud on the highway. I hit 70 mph and this thing whistles. I don't know what that guy at Matterhorn is talking about over at T4R, but this shit is loud compared to my old Thule. I haven't made any mounts as of yet.
I can't tell from your pics, did you end up getting the half-fairing and no light bar? If so, maybe that open slot is letting more wind hit the rack. Mine is quiet...occasionally I will get a sound from it when the wind blows at a very certain angle, but otherwise it's quiet.
Yup, half fairing, no light. As I understand it, all you need to do is to break up the air flow that goes up and over the fairing. I may clip some large binder clips up there to experiment.
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