Garvin's roomy roof rack and accessories allow elbow room inside the truck while ... so you don't have to leave out the kitchen sink.

Garvin offers the Wilderness Roof Rack in a vast array of rack sizes, attachment systems, and accessory mounts. Clever component-based design allows Garvin to deliver standard components that assemble into a rugged steel rack to match your truck, or dozens of other vehicle applications, as well as fiberglass truck caps.

In the Part I of this review, Project WomBAT reviewed the rugged rack itself, a steel frame MIG-welded from 3/4" steel tubing (.065" wall thickness). With Garvin's outstanding reputation, I knew the rack would fit well and stand up to extreme use, but Garvin's wealth of accessories really make it an effective system.

The Accessories

The problem is that with as many toys as there are to put on a rack, designing, manfacturing, and stocking brackets is a HUGE task. Unlike their peers in the rack marketplace, Garvin garvin decided to make their rack systems work with rack accessories from other rack manufacturers. This allows consumers to use existing accessories for other racks on a Wilderness Roof Rack, choosing the best accessories for their needs from Garvin, as well as other vendors. With all the companies in the roof rack market, the choices are almost limitless.

This flexibility allowed me to accessorized Project WomBAT's rack with the key specialty items manufactured by Garvin and sample other manufacturers' options.

Pull Pal Mounting Bracket

Garvin's clever brackets safely suspend the jack overhead.

Hi-Lift Jack Mounting Bracket

That's it.

No jack falling on your head, and no one-handed jack-balancing wrench-retrieval ballet. The two bolts go through ratchet holes on the jack upright, so a mud-coated Hi-Lift mounts just as easily as a clean one. Garvin also supplies a lock plate for securing the jack with a padlock.

Garvin has other brackets that cradle Forrest Tool's Max Tool and a full length shovel.

Max Tool Mounting Bracket

32-inch tires won't fit too many places, but Garvin's roof rack is big enough for multiple spare tires. Several of the other pictures in this article show the tire and its mounting from a side view.

Spare Tire Bracket

The bracket clamps the spare tire, holding it on its side between the rack floor and a triangular plate that slips over the rim center. Bolt length and a number of fine-tuning options allow mounting a wide range of tire/wheel sizes. The large Y-shaped handle lets you crank the wheel plate tightly, silencing potential rattles and squeaks. Garvin provides a chain and ring system to accept a padlock.

Retrieving the spare when needed and replacing it when finished does take more effort, but keeping the tire outside the vehicle and up top keeps it and your vehicle's interior much cleaner.

The gas can holder allows fast and easy attachment and removal.

Gas Can Holder

If you use only one or two gas cans, like most of us, the Garvin bracket works great. To carry a full expedition's worth of water and fuel, though, a custom-built holder would secure more cans in less space.

Bike Rack Adapters

Project WomBAT tested Garvin's bike adapter with Yakima bike brackets. Garvin's adapter essentially creates a short section of round Yakima-style crossbar, allowing use of Yakima's standard C-clips just as you would on a real Yakima crossbar. The adapter mounts to the sides of the rack with Garvin's usual over-built powder-coated steel clamp system. Strong, solid, and simple, this design allows one Yakima carrier per adapter.

Need to mount more bikes/holders? Add another adapter. Need to mount a fleet of bikes? Garvin's Yakima or Thule crossbar adapter mounts the bars from your old rack (or steel pipe of a similar size) atop the Wilderness Rack's sides. With these bars in place, you can mount most Yakima or Thule accessories to the bar, and thus, the Wilderness Rack.

Assembly

Unwieldy recovery gear stows on top. Really, where else COULD you store a sand ladder?

One quibble: the bolts that retain the brackets are not always the same size between brackets. Making them the same size would reduce the amount of clambering about to obtain the correct wrench. This minor detail only pertains to the setup phase.

Thoughts on Mounting Locations

• Distribute heavy items like a Hi-Lift or spare tire in the center of the rack rather than on a side.
• Mount brackets on the side rails to preserve floor space.
• Mount regularly-accessed items, like roof bags, where they can be easily accessed.
• Plan on rearranging several times.

The Max Tool/shovel bracket protrudes significantly to the side, and in heavily wooded areas, saplings and branches can bend the long bracket bolts. Branches can also wedge themselves between the cargo and the rack side rails. I borrowed an idea from Camel Trophy trucks and adapted Garvin's Universal Light Brackets to run brush cables from the brush guard to the rack. These cables help guide overhanging flora over the rack and its contents. Another trick is to mount the shovel blade with the tip of the spade pointed inwards.

Garvin's universal light brackets provide a sturdy platform for WomBAT's PIAA lighting system.

Conclusion

The components use standard hardware store nuts and bolts, and you can even mount everything from PIAA lights to a sea kayak to a sand ladder on it. What more could you ask for in a rack. Hmm, how about a universal ladder accessory?

Project WomBAT crossing the Golden Crack, on Golden Spike Trail in Moab, UT. The Garvin rack makes a handy place to hang some 'rail meat' when trying to cross tippy challenges.

Check out the Wilderness Roof Rack, Part I Review for coverage of:

• the rack
• flooring kit
• standard light bracket
• universal light bracket
• Pull Pal holder