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Unaka Explorist.life Edition Roof Rack Install (Full Video)
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May 2, 2025
Join me as I install the new Unaka & Explorist.life Roof Rack with included mounting brackets for 58 Watts of Solar! Check out uncut footage from our 3 part livestream install: PART 1: https://youtube.com/live/MKlwj_q-WDw PART 2: https://youtube.com/live/BN8MVw0VpPs PART 3: https://youtube.com/live/qgSWBL0I-RE Don't forget to check out Odyssey Custom Vans latest build currently for sale here: https://www.odysseycustomvans.com/ Whenever you’re ready, there are 2 ways we can help you: 1. If you need a vetted parts list, download our → FREE DIY Van Build Cheatsheet to help you save time and money on Van Parts and Gear: CLICK HERE: https://van-builder-hq.ck.page/846c83ab54 2. If you want to get Done-For-You Van Build help, book a → FREE Consultation with my Calendly Link: CLICK HERE: https://calendly.com/odysseycustomvans/intro-call?month=2023-07
View Video Transcript
0:00
[Music]
0:08
hey everyone welcome back to the shop getting ready to install uh the unaka
0:13
roof rack so this is the exploris doli unaka rack and we've got all of our
0:19
Hardware we've got our fairing for the the front fairing then we've have our roof rails and then the side rail
0:26
supports so we're going to go ahead and since we have everything we're going to start prepping for the install so
0:32
besides putting all this stuff together and kind of going through that I really quickly want to talk about roof prep so
0:38
up here on the top of the van we're going to have eight locations for mounting so we have the front this one
0:45
gets skipped so we have one two three and four and then once we take these
0:51
caps off we'll use a heat gun and I like to just take a little bit of a razor and kind of cut this cap off so it doesn't
0:59
peel the paint it makes it a little bit easier I think in my opinion take the cap off underneath this cap is a
1:06
threaded stud that is made into the van one thing that's kind of quirky about the Fords is the rail may be offset just
1:14
a little bit so when you take this cap off if you see that the threaded insert is moved you will have to take a Dremel
1:20
tool and kind of cut out to expose that bracket so the first step we're going to do is we're going to take our rails so
1:28
there's two sets of rail rails one set is longer than the other set and the
1:34
longer set goes to the front and the shorter goes to the back then we'll take
1:39
these side plates we'll get our hardware and we'll Bolt the side plates to the
1:45
rails and then once we get to that point we'll take our mounting hardware over here that actually connects it
1:52
to the roof and then once we do that each one of these packets is labeled so
1:59
set of four so you'll set these at their appropriate locations to help you bolt
2:04
this together then we have some block these little powder coat pieces of Steel that are going to join the panels
2:12
together again these are the feet and this will all make sense once we get further they do give you some anes and
2:18
lock type that we're going to use for the bolts but when this and this come together with the hardware that'll be
2:25
your first part so you'll have one run for the passenger side and one side for the the driver's side and then the next
2:32
step will be to set the spacing for your solar panels so if
2:37
you're using this kit as it is intended to be used with the explore. life solar
2:43
panel kit as well so if you guys did not see in the previous video there is a set
2:51
of solar panels so we have two 200 Watts for the front then we have our two 55
3:00
for the middle and then the rear which will be flanking the uh air conditioner
3:07
or nomatic cooling AC so what we'll do to actually Mount those and these two
3:12
pieces of uh kind of cardboard wrap paper wrapped pieces these are the
3:17
spacers and supports for these solar panels so that'll be the next to final
3:24
piece of this and then the final piece obviously is the front fairing
3:30
so that front fairing will be a kit in its own it has two ends that slip onto
3:35
the 8020 rails and then we have some rubberized trim so this will allow it to
3:41
not scratch roof and also provide a seal so when you're coming down the road uh
3:48
we have a nice seal and the wind will blow up over the roof rack all right so this a quick overview of the parts and
3:55
what we're going to do for setup the best way to install this this is for any
4:00
roof wreck this is not just for the unaka roof rack but I just I have two ladders so I have a ladder on the right
4:06
side of the van and a ladder on the driver's side but right now what we're
4:11
going to do is we're going to come over here and we're going to start unwrapping the roof rack components do a
4:17
little time lapse and start putting this together uh what I may do is I think I
4:23
may take this sheet of plywood and kind of move it scoot it over and go ahead
4:29
and start assembling one of those rails up here so we'll see how that goes uh so
4:35
we'll look and stay tuned for the next
4:42
[Music]
4:58
clip all right we are back in the shop and we have assembled one side of
5:07
our unaka explor St life Edition roof
5:14
rack so a couple things I wanted to talk about this there is a real time video
5:20
it's a live stream we did of me putting this together and going through all the measurements this is the short version
5:26
that you guys are watching right now but I wanted to go over what happened in the time lapse when I was putting this
5:33
together so there's two pieces so we got the front piece and the back piece just
5:39
like this they're separate then we're going to link them together right here to these back
5:44
plates this is upside down so just kind of think about that see how the feet are
5:49
like that and the plates go on the
5:55
inside the longer piece of 8020 is going to go to the front and then the shorter
6:00
is going to go to the back and then what you're going to need to do is when you get to the point where
6:08
you are spacing out the
6:13
feet what you're going to want to do is have some type of table or you can do this on the floor line this up right
6:20
here take your tape measure and then you're going to come all the way down
6:27
here go ahead and lock your tape measure and then what I did is I went and I took
6:33
a permanent marker and I put a
6:39
mark So on the drawing that you get from
6:44
unaka the PDF they'll have starting from the front of the van
6:50
where this curve is they'll have a measurement from here to here and that's where you place your first
6:56
piece put a line for your second put a line for your third a line for
7:02
your fourth you'll do the same thing for the corresponding holes on the back that
7:08
Bolt the 8020 to this setup now keep in mind when you get this
7:16
on the roof uh you may have to adjust this bracket so I would go ahead and while
7:23
you're down here use the Loctite that's applied in your kit
7:30
and go ahead and do your Loctite here and on these this side or the Arches
7:36
these plates so locktite them on but wait and keep these just hand tight to
7:43
get you up into the uh top of the van cuz these holes from
7:50
Ford they should be relatively accurate however remember you're going to have to come up here and cut out these caps so
7:59
in just a minute we're going to show you how to uh remove this cap and then we're
8:05
going to raise the bar up and then we'll just clean we'll clean everything up if
8:10
we need to do any rust preventative from what we dribbled out we'll do that um and then other than that we'll
8:17
go ahead and get some black RTV put it around here and we'll get our first side
8:25
on so let's go ahead and
8:30
uh get the roof prepped get those caps off and we'll move on to the next
8:36
step all right guys we are on top of the van and this is our plastic that we're
8:43
going to get off um there's a couple tools that we want to use and I left one
8:51
downstairs okay that is the that is this uh razor blade
9:00
you technically don't have to use a razor blade but if I were you I would use a razor blade CU what
9:07
you want to do is um you're just going to come around here and you're just going to
9:14
score uh where the paint is so you're not going to cut this off
9:21
we're going to use the heat gun to soften the adhesive that's on
9:27
here so just use this this to it's almost like you're kind of
9:32
cracking the paint off that's been sprayed over it that's the first thing you're going
9:37
to do next thing is we want to we need to
9:43
have a couple tools this is a plastic scraper so instead of a metal blade it
9:49
has a plastic blade so it doesn't scratch the paint that's going to get the gummy stuff off uh for the cap
9:55
itself we're going to use these body panel tools uh you can get these from Harbor
10:01
Freight and then we're just going to get some heat on [Applause]
10:09
here and then start working our way
10:14
[Applause] around don't get too hot you can overdo
10:20
it with the heat um you know you don't want to mess up
10:27
the paint around your [Music]
10:33
van so if it starts to get kind of hard just let's give it a little bit more
10:38
heat but don't go
10:48
[Applause]
10:57
crazy there you go go so that's the cap that comes off and
11:03
then look at that there is a hole underneath it so this is
11:08
the uh worst example so we're going to have to actually cut this out right here
11:15
we're going have to cut this out with the Dremel because the hole is
11:21
offset if they didn't show good up on camera then I'll uh I'll do it again so
11:27
next what we're going to do is you're going to start shaving this adhesive off we want to get a
11:34
majority of it off first with the razor and then we're going to come back in with the uh some denatured
11:40
alcohol and get the rest of it up we want to get all this off as much as possible one because we want the plate
11:48
to be nice and level to get the best seal that it can and then two we need
11:54
this clean so that when we do the rust preventive it's got something to adhere to and you will have to do this eight times times so this is a little bit more
12:01
of the tedious part of the roof wreck install Okay once the big
12:06
stuff's out of the way what I did is I took a rag and I soaked it in denatured
12:13
alcohol and so I'm just going to go ahead and let it sit on there for a second if it gets really stubborn you
12:18
can just kind of soak it in denatured alcohol I mean use a lot cuz that stuff won't hurt anything
12:24
won't hurt the paint all right so that's our first one done and then go ahead and grab a permanent
12:33
marker what you want to do is come in here and
12:39
Trace the material like make a circle of what needs to be cut out
12:46
with the Dremel in order to expose the good part of the uh screw hole so
12:53
for example I need to cut this much out in order to get a good X
12:59
access to my my bolt location I'm going to get a bracket just to show you kind
13:05
of how this works so after we cut this we do Rust preventive on here we're going to take our
13:11
bracket and our bracket will already be bolted to the rail and our
13:17
case and we're just going to put it down like that but before we actually put this down and seal it what we'll do
13:25
is around this ring here where we cut everything out we're going to put some
13:31
black RTV and then we're going to take
13:36
this and then we're going to bolt it down and then we'll get the whole entire
13:42
rail rail where we want it RTV everything then we're going to lock it
13:48
down and then once we finished with this we'll go ahead and take our lap cyant and we'll uh put it
13:56
around this uh perimeter and then we'll just put do a dollop right there on top
14:03
all right we just finished up each one of the holes the next step is to go and Dremel out these two these we don't have
14:11
to do anything which is cool so we'll get the Dremel we'll clean up these to we'll do some Rust preventive and then we'll move on to the next step all right
14:18
guys we just finished up with doing the Dremel so we just have a simple Dremel right here with grinding bit on the
14:26
top and that's pretty much what you want to do uh to open up the hole so you can see
14:32
right here what we did is we we had this is right here is our black permanent marker mark and we just want to make
14:39
sure that the hole inside so for example if I just put this drmo bit in there see
14:45
how the bolt can go down freely if this was the
14:51
bolt yeah so that's what we're going to do and then we're just going to do some Rust prevent around here and then where
14:56
we kind of skipped off during our process just want to make sure that this is sealed this one over here was we
15:03
barely had to do anything to it so that's good that's good once we do
15:09
the breast preventative this is the black RTV that I was talking about uh and then this will go around
15:17
the hole and then yeah once that goes around the hole then we'll be able to put our plate
15:24
on and for us the whole rail is going to be coming down and bolting onto
15:30
here all right moving on to the next step all right guys I got a new trick
15:35
this last one I always trying to you know change up how I get these off so they're easier what I did was I just
15:42
heated it up and I let it absorb the Heat and let it sit for a second and I came back and just did half the
15:49
side and then if you just take it and rip it off like
15:57
that makes you have to do less cleanup so
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uh that is my new method of taking these caps off so I don't have to clean up so
16:23
much all right believe it or not this rack is pretty light
16:29
so you'll probably be able to do this by yourself if you're in that situation let's set this down and see how close
16:37
our mounts are that's pretty good that is pretty good so next what I'm going to
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do is I'm going to place this over here and we're going to gently sit it
16:51
down because what we need to do
16:57
is just really quick see how far our holes
17:02
are off they look really accurate yeah they it's really really
17:09
good so this measurements pretty good we have our rust preventive down we've
17:15
grinded our holes we got all our uh openings opened up so the next thing we got to do is we already cleaned
17:21
everything with denatured alcohol so we're going to take our RTV and just put a little circle around
17:28
the perim perimeter of the hole we're going to flip it over uh we'll go ahead and bring our bolts
17:35
[Music] up so you're going to need your bolts that come with a kit lock
17:42
tight and then there's this washer that goes with the bolt it's rubberized on
17:49
the bottom so you'll need four of those and just kind of place them
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near your spot if you're doing this
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Solo 1/ in wrench is what you're going to need so let's go get our RTV and we'll
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keep
18:27
going
18:52
all right guys I had to pick the phone off off the ground because it fell over on the tripod anyway we're back up here
18:59
and I'll tell you what I did I went ahead and went through and made sure that this was nice and true so I went to the very back and you can see like line
19:06
of site that it's nice and straight so I'll show you that in a second then I went through and uh to my surprise every
19:13
single one of these bolts were perfect I mean this brackets were in a perfect location for the holes in the van which
19:20
doesn't always happen uh so pretty good build on the part of
19:26
unaka then going forward just set everything up on this side now yes it is
19:33
true you may want to put both in and see if you need to move them side to side
19:38
however where the holes were they're kind of one's offset here one's here one's here one's here I don't actually
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see how that would be possible to actually move it a considerable amount this way or this way to fix a problem
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with alignment over here so that's when I went that's why I went ahead and uh bolted everything down and that
19:58
is is in its place forever right there if I do have to go back and fix it I'll let you know and tell you that that was
20:04
something I missed but for right now I just don't see with how it's laid out
20:11
that I'm ever going to be able to adjust this enough to compensate for something that was maybe missed or you know out of
20:19
spec from Ford alignment wise so we'll just have to see when we get there but yeah it
20:25
looks really good it's very strong so so let's go ahead and hop on to the back
20:33
here and let's see what the alignment looks that alignment looks
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like so as we come up here you guys can see this thing
20:52
is perfect so the front was perfect this back end was out a little bit this way
21:00
and I turned it this way so now everything is super
21:05
true you can see how straight that is excellent very very
21:11
good so what I'm trying to say is I don't know how I would be able if
21:17
the other side is off at all for these crossbars I'm not I'm hoping they have enough adjustment on the inside here
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like that that's what I'm talking about but yeah this side went in very
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well so let's go ahead and get the other side finished and then we'll move on to the
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next part which is uh the fairing so we'll assemble that and then the final
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part will be assembling the uh the supports for the solar
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[Music] panels
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[Music]
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all right guys I must say I'm very impressed with this roof rack it has gone together extremely precise it's
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either the roof rck or the van or both but this has been uh
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this is a very well-designed roof rack accuracy wise um usually you can't get
23:36
away with bolting this into place making it flush and doing that one and then these cross barss they just lay in here
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perfect I mean they are barely touching on each side it's
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uh yeah very very accurate let me show you the back here
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so I didn't even adjust for straightness this whole roof rack is
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uh it's very nice so what's even better is when we get the
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uh cross bars mounted to the solar panels and get all that put on I think this is going to be an excellent roof
24:16
rack so I like it so far all right next step is to we're
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going to take a break and we're actually going to let me get this a little wider
24:27
a shot here if I can well maybe
24:35
not so we're going to uh work on the front
24:41
fairing but everything is good to go we got everything locked tight down got our
24:47
RTV so the right the passenger side and the driver side is finished this is will be its permanent home you can bolt in
24:53
the rear temporarily and the front crossmember members to get it square and
24:59
then I just popped in the middle two uh above the brackets so you can see right there
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um yeah and everything is excellent so we're going to step down
25:15
here and next shot is we're going to be uh unboxing
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this and we'll be assembling it so stay
25:25
tuned for that we're almost finished with the roof rack
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[Music]
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install
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[Music]
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okay we're going to bring our get our tools up here with our bolts make sure they don't fall all over the
27:24
place we have the rubber on the bottom here so we should be able to just set it nicely without
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this scratching anything on the roof so that is a plan if you have
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another person it' probably be good idea to do to do that so we're going to go on
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the outside over here gently put it down just like
27:52
that all right perfect now we're going to make sure we have our wash
27:58
washer on our bolt we're going to go ahead and
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just gently put this one in and then we're going to hop to the other side CU we want to make sure that
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we uh get this bolt into place okay so
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let's just temporarily hold hold in here and we're going to hop to the other
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side okay now just for our bottom two bolts
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and then what we're going to do is hop back on the other side with our wrenches and we'll start to
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align this fairing to the to the
28:56
van we're using a/2 in wrench and we're
29:01
using a 316 allen
29:26
wrench
29:41
next we come on this side do the same
29:49
thing so let me show you what I'm doing here real quick so you see these holes like that
29:57
the slots I want to make sure that that hole is not seen from the outside the van so
30:04
what I'm doing is I'm moving this back so watch this I'm moving it back to
30:10
hide that and then I'm going to level this plane out and then this right here
30:16
will meet up to this and then that will square up to this so hopefully that
30:24
makes sense
30:35
but you do have to get it tight first be careful you'll cut your knuckle on the
30:41
outside of
30:56
this
31:01
once you get the top one where you want it uh you'll actually want to tighten it
31:07
down pretty good um and you want to make sure that
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you're maintaining the
31:21
uh that contact with your front pad
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so back
31:47
up okay so I need
31:56
to
32:18
go now we didn't tighten this top one all the way we need to do the bottom of
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first
32:39
not sure what the video looks like let's see here here we
32:56
go
33:14
and keep it just a little bit of tension on there so we can get our angle where
33:20
we want it so that right there is right there is
33:26
perfect not sure how we
33:33
can we may need to put a wrench over here like
33:40
that that we can dial this in there you go that looks
33:50
good okay let's see if we can hold that perfect all right all right I got
34:18
it okay so unfortunately we won't be able to keep this flat I just wanted to
34:23
see if I could do that we are going to have to lean this down so let's go ahead
34:29
and start doing that all right so let me show you guys what I wanted to do versus what I'm
34:35
going to have to do uh ignore all that that's just my knuckle okay see how this is flat and flush so I wanted that to be
34:44
flat and flush so that this curve right here will be clean and we didn't have any holes here so here's the
34:52
issue this is not touching so what that means is this is
34:58
going to have to be loosened this can stay in place but this is going to have to be
35:04
loosened so that this front can tilt
35:09
down so I wanted this to be like that but it can't be because this
35:16
uh this is not touching so the whole point is to get that to touch so yeah I'm gonna clean off my
35:24
blood and I'll go back and uh tilt this down so let's go ahead and
35:30
get the camera back over here and then we'll tilt it
35:38
down sorry if you guys are squeamish at all it's
35:44
just what we got to
35:52
do okay so we just loosened it okay we got it pushed
36:00
down um the next step is this fin needs to come out so we're going to
36:08
[Music] tighten we're going to we're going to tighten these
36:14
first and then we'll tighten these so this first to angle it
36:22
down and then before we lock it in we need to do these first
36:29
lock it down and then we'll do these
36:36
last course I may have to get a socket as possible I have to get a socket for
36:42
these then tighten it good and then we're going to lock in
36:48
the
36:54
front now we're going to go in the other other side and do the same thing so let's just move the camera
37:11
over okay so on this side see that one's got a really good
37:17
compression this one's got we're just going to do the same
37:25
thing
37:40
[Music] wrench in there to help us
37:55
out
38:04
okay we've got a really excellent seal now perfect this yeah the rubber is
38:11
compressed really well so I'm happy with that we going go ahead
38:21
and finish tightening these up
38:28
now come through with our 716 and 53 second
38:39
wrench tightens bottom P bottom
38:51
pieces actually now we got to go back so we're going back because now we bent it
38:57
down but now it's down and this can actually uh push well
39:13
see okay now we've got it in place now the hard part's going to be so
39:20
what I did was I just kind of bumped that down into
39:25
place let's see I may have to do that on the other side as
39:36
well yeah I just kind of have to mess with it until you get
39:42
it the way you want it to look and set onto the
39:55
van
40:00
so what I'm doing in the front is I'm pushing it down is I want this inside Gap to be very minimal it's not really
40:08
mainly for wind I mean it's two things for wind and for Aesthetics I want it to look like a
40:16
nice clean
40:25
install
40:46
looks good the top
40:55
one
41:01
right so the seal looks really
41:06
good we got this Gap closed as much as we can we'll look at the other side but
41:12
I think it's as good as it's going to get there's not really any way to move
41:19
this side to side because it's already good to go so now finally we can go through and
41:26
just do our final tightening on the last four screws going this
41:40
direction right perfect finish up on this other side and
41:46
then we'll move on to um here I'll give you guys just a
41:52
look over here
41:59
okay so right here you guys can see we get that nice
42:07
profile what's the most important is this compression here of the gasket so
42:13
we don't get that wind noise now it's going to be hard on the two sides
42:18
because they're pressed down as much as possible the middle is going to be a little bit high and that's just due to
42:25
the rest but it's we still have contact and then one thing that I wanted to make sure was that this Gap is nice
42:32
and tight and then the way that this comes together this seam is is good so right
42:40
now everything is exactly the way we want it don't worry about this kind of
42:46
coming up there's nothing really that you can do about that because if this
42:52
seam is perfect right here that just has to do with how they ended up bending
42:58
that piece so but don't worry from down here you won't be able to see anything there'll be a slight angle
43:04
here so you can still achieve the no hole poking out look which is that's
43:10
what I wanted but yeah so this is now the roof wreck
43:16
installed so it looks really good so the next step is we're going to
43:21
come over here and we're going to put our first panel up
43:28
here and show you what it looks like we won't be putting these panels on in this
43:34
video that's because we still need to cut out the two holes so you'll see
43:40
these panels go in in a separate video um these will go in just the same as
43:48
this one so you'll put this one in with the two t-nuts you'll put this one in
43:54
with two t-nuts this one in two t-nuts so just think of each one of these as its own panel so even though you have
44:01
two panels like this they're still going to be installed just like this one those two just like this one they have two
44:08
rails Two t- Nuts here and then two t- nuts here so nice and
44:14
simple what we'll do later in a separate video as well will be the solar
44:20
connections so all the solar connections the branch adapters and the fuses for
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the solar the inline fuses that are going to go on top of the roof all right let's get our first solar panel in and
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go to the next step okay when you're installing stuff on a roof by yourself you're going to
44:38
want to make sure get a towel so that you can slide this
44:45
[Music]
44:53
across it helps that the roof is clean but I've already washed this and it's already got dirt and dust on it so
45:00
anyway we're going to move on from that uh we do need to put our tea nuts
45:06
in um first so we'll do two over here and then we'll do two over there and then we'll go get our
45:12
[Music]
45:24
panel
45:35
[Music] okay so we're going to take our teut put it in our
45:41
Channel slide it down here doesn't have to be perfect we'll fix it later other
45:46
teut come in and let's do the other [Music]
45:54
side
46:24
is
46:33
I'm also going to be covering this rail in case we need to lay it on here
46:39
we won't be won't be scratching the [Music]
46:54
rail
47:54
for
48:24
it's now when we do go to wire these panels
48:29
uh we need to keep all these panels loose so we need the T nuts slid in but
48:37
we need to keep these loose so that we can make sure that we
48:45
uh can actually lift it up for wiring of the solar panels so we'll
48:52
have to be able to do this to grab these wir wires out connect
48:57
them for example but I'm doing this panel here
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just so you guys can see uh how you're supposed to install this so you can say this this is for
49:11
demo
49:24
purposes
49:30
so again the reason we have the towel over there is because this is going to fall down onto that 8020 here in a
49:38
second don't worry we're not going to break anything prob be as nice and gentle as possible there you
49:47
go and it looks like that is very good on unaka part
49:56
they did a cut in the channel and it actually passes the screw so you can
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slide the panel all the way up to the front which that's pretty pretty good forth thought I'm
50:09
very happy about
50:24
that this up get our towel out from under
50:43
[Music]
50:54
here
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all right we going to slide this
51:23
forward I'm catching on something know what it is
51:31
um want to catch it on anyway while you guys are here check this out this is what's awesome look at
51:40
this they they uh they cut this channel out so that it
51:46
goes around the bolt um something's catching over there so we're going to grab that real quick
51:53
find out what it is so hang out here for a
52:03
second see if that is on the other [Music]
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side
52:30
I the bolt is the bolt is too low that's
52:42
hilarious well I was just praising the bolt so now we'll have to loosen this bolt and
52:48
then we'll slide it underneath and then we'll retighten it uh I just want to end
52:54
this video with this going underneath this lip
53:24
so
53:44
this should not loosen the front but we're going to see all
53:51
right it's not that bad let's see if we can get under now
53:58
well just [Music] barely yeah that's really
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cool it's cool that you can do
54:11
that heck yeah look at that that's so awesome yeah so we're going to keep that
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loose um because we'll need to slide the panel back out but yeah really really
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impressed with this roof rack this is a very well engineered roof rack
54:30
um everything is super clean Super precise very good job we have a nice 200
54:36
watt panel spanning the width of a Ford Transit which is awesome we still have access in this
54:43
channel to access our bolts which is awesome so yeah all right guys we're
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going to uh close out this video of the unaka roof wreck
54:56
install we're going to hop up here one more time we're going to go over this roof
55:03
wreck so this uh again excellent quality from maaka it's first time I've
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installed this and I'm very impressed uh everything went to went together very smoothly super
55:15
clean um this transition up here in the front is
55:21
just incredible so very precise as you guys can
55:29
see very good access to putting your get your te- nuts what's awesome is because
55:35
we're utilizing 8020 you're going to be able to put you know whatever accessories you want to here you want to
55:40
do like a wee boost antenna and a bracket uh you got a lot of options to do your own kind of DIY
55:48
adding to this rail that's what 820 really expands the possibilities of what you can kind of modify and do to here
55:55
here for example for modification uh I typically will take
56:00
the Ford antenna and mount it up on top but I'm not seeing people do that so I
56:07
did it just because I thought it would have some interference um however that may not be the case so this one I'm going to test
56:16
and if it does come to where we need to change it I'll do that but it looks like
56:21
that's going to be fine if I did want to relocate it all I'd have to do is make a
56:26
mount here into the 8020 channel for example and then just pop that antenna
56:31
right up like that although I may not be able to do that because the the line might not be
56:38
long enough so that might have to that might hold this back anyway this is uh
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the unaka roof rack is awesome so to end this
56:52
video this panel what you would do is you have these t- nuts you would just go
56:57
and bolt your screw here and your bolt here to
57:04
secure the panel down so there's two bolts on this side there's two bolts on this side that go in the 8020 Channel
57:10
you would just rinse and repeat so next panel same thing third panel same thing
57:16
the final and fourth panel same thing so yep nice and easy the only tips that I
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would have in doing this is for these side rails is to make sure
57:28
that you know use these cross barss without the panels to square everything up make sure it's nice and square lock
57:35
it down uh when you get to this point before you put your solar panels on you
57:42
would obvious want to do your lab cyant on all of your tops up here since this
57:48
is not our final install I'm going to be cutting out the Max vanan and cutting out the pneumatic cooling AC unit uh
57:56
there's going to be a lot of metal filings up here and dust and so before I put the lap Sant down we're going to
58:02
clean all that off do rest preventive and then we'll lap seal the whole roof
58:07
the reason you don't want to do that or my advice for you that you don't want to do it is if you put the
58:12
lapant it stays tacky for a day or two and it can absorb those metal filings
58:21
and you don't want that so you want to make sure that you're done cutting and assembling anything on your roof and
58:28
then what you'll do when you're done cutting and assembling you'll go back do your lap cyant do it around your max fan
58:35
do it around your AC unit all in one go so that everything is nice and
58:45
clean for the front just keep everything kind of loose on this corner you want to
58:50
tilt it down first tighten this one this is your first one to tighten down down
58:55
angle it lock in the angle down here then do your final tighten of this final
59:01
tighten here that's going to bring that fin out and then this is going to further clamp it down and then you're
59:08
going to want to make sure that your compression on this seal is adequate cuz that's going to
59:16
keep you from that wind noise so that's something important to do yeah but if you guys do all that
59:23
you're going to have a killer roof rack one thing that I did not mention is this
59:30
so this is a plastic cap that goes to on the
59:37
ends that end and that end now remember if you put
59:42
this C plastic cap on you won't be able to slide that teut in easily so leave
59:48
this put this in a safe place and use that do that at the very last moment
59:53
like when you're done with this whole entire roof rack all right guys that is the full
59:59
install video of the unaka and uh explor stli Edition roof rack with the 580 WS
1:00:07
of solar panels if you have any questions put those in the comments below I'd happy to answer them um also
1:00:14
there is a three-part live stream series on this install in case you missed it
1:00:20
that live stream goes into details and questions that some people ask during the live stream covering this roof rack
1:00:27
install so the first one we do the side rails the second one we fabricate or we
1:00:33
assemble the front fairing and then the third one we come over here and we actually go and we lay out the solar
1:00:40
panels and and put the solar panel crossbar rails together so that's it for this video
1:00:47
hope you guys enjoyed it make sure you guys are subscribed to the channel like this video If you enjoyed it and then
1:00:53
share this video to anyone who is installing and unaka explor St life version roof rck I think it'll really
1:00:59
help them out also don't forget to check out our DIY van build cheat sheet it is
1:01:05
a cheat sheet that's essenti essentially an Excel document that I created from
1:01:10
the last 3 years of all of my Amazon purchases that I buy for the shop so all
1:01:15
the tools there it's over 250 curated items on that list you can it's searchable uh the best part about this
1:01:22
list is it's 100% free completely free all you got to do is go to vuer hq.com
1:01:27
click on the link and sign up for it it'll be sent right to your inbox um you
1:01:33
can also click on the link in the description below to download it and I think it'll really help you out on your
1:01:38
DIY van build Journey that's going to do it for this video and we'll see you guys
1:01:44
next [Music]
1:01:53
time
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