2001 Sequoia and roof rack weight limit

[Ryker]

Hello. I know this topic has been discussed but I can’t seem to find it specific to the first Gen sequoia. The goal of my post if to make sure I’m not overlooking something to cause a weight issue. I have the Sherpa Belford rack on order which is 60 lbs. The main plan is to carry 4 fishing kayaks that weigh 52 lbs each. Well, just the rack and the kayaks are 268 lbs. The Sherpa limits are 300 dynamic and 600 static. I’m a little more concerned about the link to the sequoia than the rack itself as I can’t quite get a good number on its limits. So it would seem my plan of adding a batwing awning, or any awning for that matter at 47-50 lbs is gonna be pushing the limits.
Now the kayaks will be double cam strapped in the middle as well as front and rear hood/hatch tie downs, which will help I’m sure, but am I making a mountain out of a molehill here?
thanks in advance for your assistance.

 

[Boort]

Hello. I know this topic has been discussed but I can’t seem to find it specific to the first Gen sequoia. The goal of my post if to make sure I’m not overlooking something to cause a weight issue. I have the Sherpa Belford rack on order which is 60 lbs. The main plan is to carry 4 fishing kayaks that weigh 52 lbs each. Well, just the rack and the kayaks are 268 lbs. The Sherpa limits are 300 dynamic and 600 static. I’m a little more concerned about the link to the sequoia than the rack itself as I can’t quite get a good number on its limits. So it would seem my plan of adding a batwing awning, or any awning for that matter at 47-50 lbs is gonna be pushing the limits.
Now the kayaks will be double cam strapped in the middle as well as front and rear hood/hatch tie downs, which will help I’m sure, but am I making a mountain out of a molehill here?
thanks in advance for your assistance.

@Ryker

Toyota does not publish much good info on roof weight only the roof rack weights (at least for the 4Runner) Which are generally limited by the strength of the Rack materials rather than the roof mounts.
I have a Sherpa rack on my 4th Gen 4Runner some tips for lightening the load to get one more item.. :)

1. Do you need al of the cross bars for what you are mounting? if not pull a few out to save a few lbs
2. Consider a Sail shade in place of a bat wing it will take a bit longer to set up but should be much lighter and the shade can possibly be stored in your kayak if it has a lidded storage area. (Here is a site that makes custom sail shades Buy Sun Shade Sail in Different Colors | Covers & All No exp with them or their products just found through a quick search.)
3. If you are up for some DIY work see if you can mount the awning bat wing components directly to the Sherpa side plates removing the Awning's back plate. I suspect this will require having both in hand to compare the mounting locations of the hardware and seeing if it can be fit within the plates.
4. Reach out to the Sherpa team and see if they offer an acrylic / poly carbonate / Carbon fiber air deflector. (The Aluminum one on my rack is quite heavy and I'm not sure if it is structural or not, They can tell you.) If the structure comes from the cross bar(s) behind the aluminum air deflector and not the aluminum plate itself switching to a lighter weight deflector could save 2/3'rds of the weight of this plate.

Be sure to check out @Jim SoG Tree build page. He has lots of good 1st Gen Sequoia upgrades. In that thread I mentioned some things to watch out for from my Sherpa installation on the 4 runner ( 2005 Tree Build aka "The General" )

Boort

 

[Ryker]

GREA

@Ryker

Toyota does not publish much good info on roof weight only the roof rack weights (at least for the 4Runner) Which are generally limited by the strength of the Rack materials rather than the roof mounts.
I have a Sherpa rack on my 4th Gen 4Runner some tips for lightening the load to get one more item.. :)

1. Do you need al of the cross bars for what you are mounting? if not pull a few out to save a few lbs
2. Consider a Sail shade in place of a bat wing it will take a bit longer to set up but should be much lighter and the shade can possibly be stored in your kayak if it has a lidded storage area. (Here is a site that makes custom sail shades Buy Sun Shade Sail in Different Colors | Covers & All No exp with them or their products just found through a quick search.)
3. If you are up for some DIY work see if you can mount the awning bat wing components directly to the Sherpa side plates removing the Awning's back plate. I suspect this will require having both in hand to compare the mounting locations of the hardware and seeing if it can be fit within the plates.
4. Reach out to the Sherpa team and see if they offer an acrylic / poly carbonate / Carbon fiber air deflector. (The Aluminum one on my rack is quite heavy and I'm not sure if it is structural or not, They can tell you.) If the structure comes from the cross bar(s) behind the aluminum air deflector and not the aluminum plate itself switching to a lighter weight deflector could save 2/3'rds of the weight of this plate.

Be sure to check out @Jim SoG Tree build page. He has lots of good 1st Gen Sequoia upgrades. In that thread I mentioned some things to watch out for from my Sherpa installation on the 4 runner ( 2005 Tree Build aka "The General" )

Boort

GREAT reply, thank you. The awning option is one to consider and I’m going to dig into that. Sherpa doesn’t offer anything on their site but it’s worth digging into. i could use their current deflector as a template and diy something. I would suspect fiberglass would be the best, most cost effective option as carbon fiber would be $$$.
I don’t need all the cross bars so I could easily remove 2-3. I don’t know what each weighs so I’ll need to do the math there.
I could utilize the sunseeker awning which is only 27 lbs. removing a few crossmembers may allow me to squeak that it.
ive been watching Jim’s build and there is some really good info, I’ll check yours out as well. Thank you!