Mod 24: Plano Roof Storage

Pretty quick little mod here. Normally I would say it’s nothing to write home about, but here we are….so…..

Anyway, as I was building out my drawer system, my brain started thinking of the various other places that I am not utilizing storage very well. The first thing that came to mind was the Gobi rack, so I decided to pursue that a bit further. I mainly wanted to accomplish two things. First, I wanted some kind of semi-permanent storage on the roof that wasn’t going to add another 1ft+ of height to the rig (and result in more drag, etc) or take up a huge chunk of the rack. And second, I wanted to have a fairly weatherproof solution to keep things mostly dry.

After some searching around, I stumbled across Plano cases. I’ve seen quite a few people use their larger boxes on their roof racks for all kinds of storage. Luckily, Plano makes a 36” case that fits PERFECTLY in the back section of the Gobi Roof Rack.

So I ordered one up and drilled a few holes in a brand new storage case less than 30 minutes after I opened it. To secure it to the rack, I drilled 4 holes and used a combination of stainless bolts, washers, lock nuts, and rubber washers to protect the finish on the rack. All in all, it was an easy process, although wrangling a wrench on to the lower bolt was a bit trickier than I expected. In the end, it has a bit of room on either side for adjustment, just enough room to pop open the latches without being a pain, and plenty of room for the hinge to swing open.

After a Fall trip to the off-road park, my tow strap got soaked in water and mud, and I decided to use the case to store it on the way home. And just like that, the case turned into a full time utility/recovery box. I now keep all of my recovery gear up there, including tow/snatch straps, shackles, a small shovel, some jumper cables, a few other bits and bobs, and an extension cord for my shore charger. Definitely happy with the way it turned out and haven’t seen any water get in yet!