FJ Cruiser Warrior Products Rack Install

The FJ Cruiser isn’t known for ample cargo capacity, so when Tony started looking for a way to carry his gear an aftermarket roof rack was the perfect solution. 

I’m a big fan of the FJ Cruiser, I like they way they look and I like they way they handle off-road, yet I could never get over the lack of interior cargo space. By the time you load 2 adults, a grown dog, and all of your gear for a weekend trip, you’re pretty much loaded to capacity. To mitigate this problem Tony started looking at roof racks and he considered everything from modifying/utilizing the factory rack to purchasing a completely new aftermarket one.

After his exhaustive research, he decided to go with the Warrior Products Platform Rack due to its low profile and 1,000lb stated weight capacity. While we would never recommend carrying 1,000 lbs of gear on your roof, we know from experience that having the ability to have a few grown men on your roof may come in handy. The rack came packed very well from Warrior Products, and it arrived in perfect condition; we left a lot of the plastic and foam on the rack during the install to prevent scratching the roof in the event it slipped or rubbed by accident.

Specs:

• 1-1/4″ Steel Tubing
• 1″ Square Steel Crossbars
• 11 Gauge Steel Mounting Brackets (load capacity 1000 lbs)
• Low profile, 3 inches lower than factory roof rack
• MSRP: $690 (Shipping to DC was $150)

The Install:

Installing the rack is pretty straight forward, Warrior Products supplies you with good-enough directions (one page front and back) and 2 guys should be able to knock it out in under 2 hours. I would highly recommend utilizing a friend to do this install, while there are ways to get the rack onto the truck by yourself, an extra set of hands makes it that much easier.

Tools:

• 14mm Deepwell Socket
• 14mm Wrench
• 6mm Hex Key
• Flat Head Screw Driver
• Pliers
• Hacksaw

You’ll also want to break out a good looking sweater, preferably something with elbow pads. You might as well look good while you work on your truck.

The first step will vary depending if you have a factory roof rack or not, if you do – start by removing the factory rack. If you do not have the factory rack start by removing the roof rack mount covers. For this review Tony had already removed his roof rack and installed the covers. In order to remove the covers push them in the direction of the marked arrow and use a flat head the gently “pop” them out of their slots.

 

Once the roof rack mount covers are removed, go ahead and use the 14mm socket to remove the 8 bolts from the mounts.

Once all of the bolts are out you’ll notice the black bracket that was under them. You can either use a flat head screw driver to pry them out, or grab an end with a pair of pliers and pull them out.

Next you can go ahead and start to install the brackets. The front brackets are the small ones, and the rear at the longer ones. In order to fit the brackets you’ll need to remove the gutter trim and cut them down about half an inch each. This is necessary in order to be able to fit them back in the gutters after the brackets are installed (Warrior mentions this in the instructions). Make sure to use a hacksaw because while the trim is plastic, there is a metal rod in the center of the trim.

Installing the brackets is relatively straight forward, just line them up and use the 5mm hex key to tighten the bolts.

Now that you have all of your brackets installed you can replace the cut down trim and prepare to put the rack on the roof. The way we did it was we lifted the rack up together and put it on the passenger side brackets. Then one of us went to the other side of the truck and slowing pulled it over. Make sure to read the directions carefully at this point because you have to bolt the rack down in 3 separate places. You’ll need a 14mm socket and wrench for this portion of the job.

I included plenty of photos so you can get an idea of the profile of the rack. At the highest point of the FJ’s roof the rack only adds 4″ in overall height which is roughly 3 inches lower than the factory rack.

So far we haven’t been able to test it, but I climbed up there and walked around to remove the plastic wrap and there was just a little bit of flex. The other thing that I noticed is that the initial powder coat quality is great, there weren’t any chips, cracks, or blemishes.

We’re looking forward to doing a long term test on this one, and we’ll be sure to keep you updated along the way. I know Tony is going to be happy now that he has a place to store an OzTent.