Alternative Roof Bar Option?

What do you think?

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Raymond Hicks

Newbie
I'm so Excited! After Much research I have purchased the SeaSucker Monkey bars roof bars for my 2013 lil hoot. They are STRONG. They are expensive ($550) No drilling needed.. I can now mount my awning..my water tank.. or whatever. I can carry my kayaks atop my campinn instead of my tow vehicle. The beauty of this setup is that it is so versatile. It is not permanent. I think its going to be great. www.seasucker.com. The mounts are Audak universal bull bar tube clamp brackets from amazon. My goal was to have the awning at a height that allows for standing upon exit. I can now use my arb tent under the awning as well. Many options now!

Let me know what you think!?
 

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Cool application!

Just saw mention of these on a car forum for use with bike mounts, reported to be very "sticky" capable of hauling lotsa weight.

Let us all know how it goes for ya over time.
 
Great pics. This clearly looks like the way to go. A trip to Wisconsin is not in the cards and these look like they work perfectly.

How are they working so far?

Suction is OK on the aluminum?

Is there any way to prevent theft?

Thanks,

Kyle
 
I *really* like those L brackets CI fabbed out of aluminum c-channel. They do the job much more elegantly than what I did as a home-brew project.
 
I like suction cups for temporary mounts of small things...I'm not sure I would trust my $1000 kayak to a suction cup though, even when properly tied down as well...

I do painless dent repair, and have a LED light bar that uses similar suction cups to stick to the car I am working on. Its holding a light that weights a pound or so. It sticks TIGHT...until it doesn't. When it fails, it fails catastrophically, and my lights are hitting the floor. EDIT: I Just looked --- it is the same sucker mechanism.

I would not trust a suction cup to hold anything of value --- especially something as heavy as a kayak or the canopy. Static use, while sitting in a campground this wouldn't be a problem, but when moving --- never. If the roof rack comes off your car it could cause an accident with the car behind you having to swerve to miss it.

I suppose this is your choice - but it seems like a liability risk to me.

Those cups -- UV eats rubber. They might stick now, but when they dry out -- the car behind you will know before you do.

In theory this is great --- but I'd never trust something like this.
 
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hey all.. I have to say I am really impressed by these roof bars.. They hold way stronger than you can imagine. I have taken two trips now..only 2.5 hrs drives..with my awning attached to one side of the roof bars.. there has been no issues. ONE suction mount showed signs of release after two days...and I re=pumped (that sounds nice) and it was fine. I am really impressed and I think they will be the solution for me. NO DRILLING...and no issues. ( this is after two trips..and pretty rough trips as it it difficult gravel road to get to my property). pictures soon
 
one last thing...the night owl pics..we named our land in honor of Bev (we purchased our 2013 from Bev last year) She had named the camper Lil Hoot. The land we purchased is FULL of owls..its on a hill..so the we named the place Lil Hoot Hill.
 
Kyle Hollasch said:
Great pics. This clearly looks like the way to go. A trip to Wisconsin is not in the cards and these look like they work perfectly.

How are they working so far?

Suction is OK on the aluminum?

Is there any way to prevent theft?

Thanks,

Kyle
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I don't know how you could prevent theft....I just hope that in general there are not enough people out there where I am that would even know the value in the roof bars. We will see how that strategy goes..! Suction on the aluminum is good, I don't think that will be any issue. I have had no marks or anything. I'm telling you I was impressed.. after spending that much money I was real nervous..but they are great!
 
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Raymond Hicks said:
I don't know how you could prevent theft....I just hope that in general there are not enough people out there where I am that would even know the value in the roof bars. We will see how that strategy goes..! Suction on the aluminum is good, I don't think that will be any issue. I have had no marks or anything. I'm telling you I was impressed.. after spending that much money I was real nervous..but they are great!
Click to expand...
Pretty good review, I would be nervous long term on the suction cups after being in the heat/weather. Keep us posted on how these perform. Land looks great and the Lil hoot owl
 
They are not designed to stay on permanently. I left mine on for over a week with no loss in suction. They were holding and awning bar on one side as well. The pumping mech shows you if they are loosing suction with orange coloration on the pumping mechanism. (you could even see this orange color from your rear view mirror) ( I have never seen the orange color show after 3 trips)

You do have to position them correctly so that the suction cups do not have too much curvature to deal with.. as pictured in my previous pics. After 3 trips now I assure you...this can be a solution if you want roof bars without drilling.
 
Thank Mr. Hicks for the very helpful information.
I just came across the Monkey Bars on youtube. Then researching the Seasucker web site I saw the picture of your trailer. I have a 2011 550 model and have been looking for ways to get a shower/changing type awning on my rig. My wife said it was an absolute must have. I thought I'd just get the Camp Inn side tent but it's been out of stock so long I decide to look for other solutions. Im so glad I checked this forum for your post:)

Did you use the 48" or 60" version?
 
I just bought these while there was a 15% sale going on. I will report back with pictures, etc... My one concern is that they recommend affixing the suction cups to areas where there is "structure" underneath the skin of the vehicle. Based on poking around the 550, it appears that the aluminum skin is well supported near the front of the camper, but has about 1/4" of give near the rear. My concern is that over a bumpy section, the cups could come loose due to deformation of the skin, or could possibly deform it. That being said, I'm taking my chances.

My main application will be a side awning, but potentially bikes or SUPs.
 
I have my Monkey Bars in-hand. They do seem very solid and I'm confident they'll handle an awning and bikes no problem. I did notice that you can't put the front dual-cup mount too far forward as the curvature of the teardrop shape puts the two cups too far out of plane. It looks like the original poster has found about the maximum forward position for them, and that requires adhering one of them and then pushing down hard while you suction the other one. I considered putting the 2-cup mount in the rear where the Camp-Inn skin is flatter, but there is a reason for the 2x cups needing to be on the front. The forces from drag while driving are predominantly on the front of the rack, so you need the extra adherence and redundancy there. Someone skilled at fabrication could make a curved mounting plate which connects the two cups and the bar mount (it's just a solid block they are simply bolted through). That would allow moving it forward a few more inches, but I think it's fine as shown.

I will post some pictures once I get my Yakima Slim Shady attached.
 
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