Rival Aluminum Platform Roof Rack on a 2-Door JL

[danm]

Just got done installing the Rival 4-Door roof rack on my 2-Door JL. Left out the extension kit to make it fit. Also, needed some fine tuning to the brackets, but it fits very well in the end.

The edges of the rack are flat, making a direct install of the lights possible.

Here are some picts of the finished install.

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[DBjeepNY]

how much wind noise are you getting? what's it like with freedom panels off?

 

[danm]

how much wind noise are you getting? what's it like with freedom panels off?

Ya, it’s really noisy. Mostly whistling. You can hear it clearly with the windows up and everything buttoned up tight. Haven’t tried without the freedom panels yet.

I’m going to experiment with putting tape over the open slots on each slat. And maybe making a wind deflector with some weatherstripping.

I have to give props to @Rival 4x4 for the high quality. The rack is very well made.

 

[Rival 4x4]

Ya, it’s really noisy. Mostly whistling. You can hear it clearly with the windows up and everything buttoned up tight. Haven’t tried without the freedom panels yet.

I’m going to experiment with putting tape over the open slots on each slat. And maybe making a wind deflector with some weatherstripping.

I have to give props to @Rival 4x4 for the high quality. The rack is very well made.

Looks really good with those led lights!
We also offer our wind deflector, all in stock.

 

[RisingEagle]

as a note - they also now sell a two-door version (it's on the web site) to provide exactly what you did - delete the extension part.
at least on the 4-door, feedback has been with the wind deflector there isn't any noise; so I have a wind deflector coming with my 2-door version and we'll see if I get a bunch of wind noise or if the deflector takes care of it. I'll follow up with feedback here after I get mine

 

[DBjeepNY]

Just got done installing the Rival 4-Door roof rack on my 2-Door JL. Left out the extension kit to make it fit. Also, needed some fine tuning to the brackets, but it fits very well in the end.

The edges of the rack are flat, making a direct install of the lights possible.

Here are some picts of the finished install.

What lights are installed on the rack.

 

[danm]

What lights are installed on the rack.

They’re Quadratec 10 inch LED light bars. I could have done a single 40”, but I liked the look of the three.

 

[ZBRA]

They’re Quadratec 10 inch LED light bars. I could have done a single 40”, but I liked the look of the three.

I agree. Three smaller bars looks better.

 

[ZBRA]

Is the rack square (same length and width)? If so, could you rotate is 90 degrees so the slats run front to back?

I have the Rhino-Rack on my JK, which looks a LOT like this rack. My slats run front to back. There's no major wind noise, and zero whistling.

 

[danm]

Is the rack square (same length and width)? If so, could you rotate is 90 degrees so the slats run front to back?

I have the Rhino-Rack on my JK, which looks a LOT like this rack. My slats run front to back. There's no major wind noise, and zero whistling.

That’s a good idea, but unfortunately it’s not square.

 

[MauiSteve]

With the lights that far back I would think they would not be too effective. Also, would you get a big glare off the hood?

 

[danm]

With the lights that far back I would think they would not be too effective. Also, would you get a big glare off the hood?

With the lights that far back I would think they would not be too effective. Also, would you get a big glare off the hood?

Actually it’s quite the opposite, unlike a windshield light bar, there’s zero glare on the hood since they’re set back.

Also, they’re far enough forward that there’s no dark spots in front of the Jeep.

It really is perfection.

 

[RisingEagle]

After chatting with the Rival rep (through the forum) they 'created' a 2-door package of their rack (so you don't have to buy a 4-door and leave out the extension to fit a two-door)
it arrived yesterday; packaging was perfect, everything wrapped well, no damage whatsoever etc. Directions were fine - couple very small minor difference-changes but nothing significant. there are a LOT of nuts-bolts to this thing; it took me ~4hr to put it all together and get it right. I did have to reset a couple times (squaring the rack is important before tightening everything down, for example).
rack is pretty light; my wife helped me get it on top of the jeep. the mounting feels really solid as well; it did take some adjustments on the jeep also (the little support-feet that rest on the roof, not the gutters, had to be loosened and set but once done were great). I did have to mash the front mount in a little bit to get it to fit; it felt just a bit wide and wouldn't drop by default into both gutters. the back ones you put on slightly angled which I thought was odd but they went right in.

my largest concern - whistling and noise - did NOT show up as an issue. I drove in to work and back, I usually get up to around 65-70mph going in. There may have been a bit more "jeep-noise" than normal, but I had zero out of the ordinary. Not sure if the air-dam resolved that problem - but something definitely helped and I had no more noise than if I was running slightly larger tires or something.

I do know with previous racks, I had to cover the "bottom" grooves; I had already planned to cover all of the undergrooves with black gorilla tape if I got any whistling, but it wasn't necessary. basically the top grooves seem to be fine but the bottom ones catch the wind off the roof and cause the extra noise and whistle.

Overall I'm very pleased with the rack; the price point was fair to good (cheapest I was finding was a DV8 and that one had very narrow slats), appears to be very high quality, and once all attached and put together feels very solid and part of the Jeep. If I was outfitting another Jeep (what jeep owner ever buys just one jeep in their life) I would not hesitate to put the same rack (or the longer one) on the next one.

we'll see how it holds up long-term; the next challenge is to find four foot long storage boxes to put on top, and an awning to mount

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