GX550 Roof Rack - Will it fit on my 1958?

LouNYC

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Jul 8, 2024
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Hello all, someone near me is selling a new GX550 roof rack. Will this fit on a 1958? Do I need roof rails as well?

Thanks In advance.
 
Yes, it will. I just sold mine to a LC owner. You will need rails and the rails are interchangeable as well. If you do not have rails mine are coming off my GX in two weeks. I live in San Diego, but I'm sure you can find a pair There is a you tube video on how to install and remove. Its pretty easy.
 
Yes, it will. I just sold mine to a LC owner. You will need rails and the rails are interchangeable as well. If you do not have rails mine are coming off my GX in two weeks. I live in San Diego, but I'm sure you can find a pair There is a you tube video on how to install and remove. Its pretty easy.
Thanks for the quick response. Looking for roof rails now, The GX550 roof rack is selling for a good price.
 
Talked to a guy that had the GX 550 with the roof rack and he was getting rid of it because of the wind noise. They look great though. Can anyone confirm the wind noise issue with this rack?
 
Talked to a guy that had the GX 550 with the roof rack and he was getting rid of it because of the wind noise. They look great though. Can anyone confirm the wind noise issue with this rack?
Every roof rack has a wind noise issue, it’s disrupting the flow of air over your roof, no matter if it has a front valence or not, it’s going to add wind noise
 
I have a GX that came with the roof rack. The noise wasn't bad at all, but I sold it because I'm getting the Westcott Design full rack along with the stock rock rails. I will be removing the rails when the new roof rack is installed which is in two weeks. If you still have no rails by then send me a note. BTW, I sold my roof rack to a LC owner. I think it looks great on the LC
 
This is what it looks like installed.
 

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Has anyone measured the additional clearance requirement these create above and beyond the rails?

For comparison, the crossbars add 3 inches. This GX basket looks, visually, to be about the same or trivially more.

But since we’re flirting with the 6’7” to 6’10” area already I’d love to know. I feel like many garages I park in have 6’9” or 6’10” clearance.
 
I tried to buy a GX rack today and here is what happened:

The seller’s rack did not use towers to clamp to the rails, like in the picture above. His rack had hardware to bolt directly onto the top of the truck, no rails.

I thought, “cool, will be lower profile that way.” But it didn’t work out - the side rail attached points on the LC did not match the location of the GX rack hardware. The GX rack, had we mounted it, would have hung over the back a couple inches and would certainly have impeded the movement of the rear hatch when opening.

I thought it was a little odd that anything like that would be different across the GX and LC. And also that some people’s GX installs seem to use towers to clamp to the side rails (including pictures of the rack on Lexus’ own site) and others don’t.

It turns out, if my research is right - Lexus has two mount approaches for their rack. One for the Overtrail model and another for the others. The Overtrail rack has the mount towers and mounts to the side rails. The non-Overtrail rack mounts directly to the vehicle and does not appear to be compatible with Land Cruisers as the mount points are in the wrong spots. Other than the mount approach, the Overtrail and non-Overtrail racks seem identical. On the Lexus parts site they are two different SKUs with the Overtrail SKU costing a bit more, now I see why. There is not an obvious aftermarket solution for the towers themselves.

TL/DR - if you have a Land Cruiser and want to use a GX rack, make sure the one you find is from an Overtrail and has the tower clamps.
 
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