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Transit High Roof 148" Roof Rack

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#22 ·
We recently installed a FVCO Low Pro Roofrack, Ladder, and Front Fairing, along with a Fiamma F45S awning. They are a terrific additional to our build. Our Solar panels fit great on the roof rails. The fairing is effective in reducing wind noise. And, the ladder is very stable. Of course like many projects it took more time than anticipated to complete these installs. Communication and customer service was exceptional. During each step of the process, I had a few questions which were answered promptly. Shipping was timely, and the products are well made.
 
#23 ·
OTG-AWD said:
We recently installed a FVCO Low Pro Roofrack, Ladder, and Front Fairing, along with a Fiamma F45S awning. They are a terrific additional to our build. Our Solar panels fit great on the roof rails. The fairing is effective in reducing wind noise. And, the ladder is very stable. Of course like many projects it took more time than anticipated to complete these installs. Communication and customer service was exceptional. During each step of the process, I had a few questions which were answered promptly. Shipping was timely, and the products are well made.
Click to expand...
Great to hear. I am ordering the Low Pro extended and fairing next week when they are back in stock. Silas says they are going to be a little slow to have more ladders in stock due to Corona. Awesome customer service thus far with my questions. Seems like a great company.
 
#27 ·
Interested in this roof rack, nicer than what i have seen before - dont know how I missed it!

Is there another production run of 148" high roof kit ongoing?
 
#32 ·
I just know that I have gone into a 10ft door, it was close but I couldn't see up that high to see exactly how close. I had fully stock van that was mostly empty when that test was performed.
 
#35 ·
EnviroProf said:
Brought the new van home Friday and the FVC gear sitting in the garage was installed over the weekend.

View attachment 138444
Click to expand...
Looks awesome! Any tips or advice on the ladder installation? Particularly around mounting the lower plate to the pinch weld? @bitburger seems to have had a good experience, how was yours? (sorry, I'm still a good month out before my 2020 arrives so all i can do is "plan")
 
#36 ·
NW Traveler said:
Looks awesome! Any tips or advice on the ladder installation? Particularly around mounting the lower plate to the pinch weld? @bitburger seems to have had a good experience, how was yours? (sorry, I'm still a good month out before my 2020 arrives so all i can do is "plan")
Click to expand...
Thanks, I'm pretty happy with the setup. It is very solid. The rack went together very easily and FVC has a video describing how to assemble and install it on the van. On about half of the nuts welded to the roof I had to expand the sheet metal a bit to make room for the mounting bolt. I used a dremel tool and a vacuum to capture the metal shavings. I see that others have used magnets. I painted the edges of any bare metal. The ladder actually took longer to install than the rack. I hate removing trim clips and spent a fair amount of time trying not to break any. The ladder didn't come with any instructions. I found a writeup on Facebook with photos and that helped. The screws that were provided for the bottom mount (self tapping perhaps) didn't work. I ended up using some others that I had.
 
#37 ·
I installed a Fiamma 45S awning today. Really happy with the results, but it was bit of a rocky road over the last couple of weeks.
Pro tip -- double check the awning model that is printed on the outside of the huge and heavy box before unpacking it. They are so big (10 ft. long and about 90 lbs.) that they have to be shipped by truck. My driveway is not semi-truck friendly, so I met the truck driver at a local outlet mall where he had plenty of room to maneuver. I got it home, unpacked the most elaborate packing I have encountered, and then after talking to Silas at FVC, discovered Fiamma had sent me the wrong awning and mounting kit. Big PIA getting it repackaged, but was feeling lucky I didn't let my dog play with any of the cardboard packing. It took about another week and two more times meeting the truck driver, but they finally sent me the correct awning last Thursday.
Pro tip No. 2 -- When installing the FVC roof rack, there is a little wiggle room from left to right. I centered mine as best I could. It turns out that if you do that, the awning will not clear the vertical brackets that mount the rack to the Transit roof on the passenger side. I could have loosened everything and shoved the rack to the passenger side, but after talking to Silas decided to add spacers instead. I had some .25 inch aluminum left over from another project and cut a few squares out of it to extend the Fiamma mounts past the roof rack brackets.

The awning works great. I was concerned that the height of the HR van would make it difficult to roll out the awning and pop the legs out. Turned out not the case for me at 6ft., but my wife won't be unfolding the legs without a step ladder. I'm looking forward to using this new outdoor space. We have loved our awnings in the past and use them a ton, mostly for rain rather than sun.

140631


140632
 
#38 ·
EnviroProf said:
I installed a Fiamma 45S awning today. Really happy with the results, but it was bit of a rocky road over the last couple of weeks.
Pro tip -- double check the awning model that is printed on the outside of the huge and heavy box before unpacking it. They are so big (10 ft. long and about 90 lbs.) that they have to be shipped by truck. My driveway is not semi-truck friendly, so I met the truck driver at a local outlet mall where he had plenty of room to maneuver. I got it home, unpacked the most elaborate packing I have encountered, and then after talking to Silas at FVC, discovered Fiamma had sent me the wrong awning and mounting kit. Big PIA getting it repackaged, but was feeling lucky I didn't let my dog play with any of the cardboard packing. It took about another week and two more times meeting the truck driver, but they finally sent me the correct awning last Thursday.
Pro tip No. 2 -- When installing the FVC roof rack, there is a little wiggle room from left to right. I centered mine as best I could. It turns out that if you do that, the awning will not clear the vertical brackets that mount the rack to the Transit roof on the passenger side. I could have loosened everything and shoved the rack to the passenger side, but after talking to Silas decided to add spacers instead. I had some .25 inch aluminum left over from another project and cut a few squares out of it to extend the Fiamma mounts past the roof rack brackets.

The awning works great. I was concerned that the height of the HR van would make it difficult to roll out the awning and pop the legs out. Turned out not the case for me at 6ft., but my wife won't be unfolding the legs without a step ladder. I'm looking forward to using this new outdoor space. We have loved our awnings in the past and use them a ton, mostly for rain rather than sun.

View attachment 140631

View attachment 140632
Click to expand...
Looks good but sticks out the front a bit. Any wind noise from that? Is that the 10ft length, I assume that since you mentioned the box was that long.

Greg
 
#39 ·
gdufour1 said:
Looks good but sticks out the front a bit. Any wind noise from that? Is that the 10ft length, I assume that since you mentioned the box was that long.
Greg
Click to expand...
It is 10 ft., and yes it sure does stick out front quite a bit. It reminds me of some of the instruments that stick out of the front of military aircraft. I'm following the "form follows function" philosophy. I might not have mounted it that far forward if I hadn't found a couple other photos of people doing the same with the same rack setup. The idea was to provide coverage over the entire slider door. Even as far forward as it is, the right side of the slider area might still get a bit wet, depending upon the angle of the rain and and any wind. We're going to try it in that position for a while to see how it does. I haven't had it at highway speeds yet to report on any wind noise.
 
#40 ·
One more awning installation tip I learned over the weekend while installing my MaxxAir fan. I had to move one of my rack crossbars forward a bit to make room for the fan and discovered that the awning blocks access to the allen screws that attach the crossbars at each end. Luckily, the bolts I used to attach the awning were about a half an inch longer than they needed to be, so I was able to loosen the bolts to gain access and didn't have to remove the entire awning. I also had to cut about a quarter of an inch off the end of the allen wrench to be able to fit it in the gap and loosen the screws. The lesson is to plan your crossbar placement as best you can before installing the awning, and don't go too short with the six bolts that hold it to the rack. :)
 
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