Some of the best wheeling trips involve one or more overnight stays. These wonderful trips should be shared experiences with the people we care about. Unfortunately some of the best vehicles for off-road camping are very limited in space, meaning part of the family is left at home while bulky gear takes their place. Unlike Jeeps, the choice of racks for a Samurai has been limited, and until now there were no 'rumble-style' racks made for the Samurai.

The Problem

Over the years many Samurai owners have had to modify a Jeep luggage rack to fit on the back tailgate. Even with a Jeep, many of these setups interfere with the operation of the rear gate. A hitch-mounted luggage rack can also be a problem as the tailgate and taillights become blocked when loaded up and to top it off, a hitch mounted rack causes the loss of departure angles. High mounted roof racks have been an option ever since the Samurai first hit the American market, but they raise the center of gravity unnecessarily high and place all the gear right into the vehicle's slip stream, hurting fuel economy and top speed on the way to the trailhead.

The Answer

Addressing the shortcomings of other rack designs, Rocky Road Outfitters now offers the Trail Rack from GotZuk.com. The secret with this rack set up is with how it is mounted. Instead of being attached to the tailgate or the rear of the body, this rack is mounted to the in-sides of the bed rails. This, along with the slight taper to the rack's supports, makes for a very stable and strong mounting platform. When opening the tailgate, oversized spare tires clear the rack supports because of a 'trick' bend in the tubing. Also for oversize spares, the support arms are specially bent to a different height, so make sure you let the distributor know your spare tire size when you order.

What You Get

The rack arrives as three pieces along with a parts bag and instructions. The rack's basket is a single piece. There are separate left and right support arms that run down to the bed rails. A third brake light mounts to the underside of the rack, along with provisions to mount your Hi-Lift jack to the front of it; both are very nice and useful features. The basket of the rack itself is made out of small diameter tubing. That basket is really nice because unlike the square tubing found on common racks, the round tubing loses the hard-edged look and also is a perfect fit for bungee cord hooks.

Impressions

Again, the third brake light and the Hi-lift mounting bolts are a really nice touch. The High-lift mount hangs below the basket, in-between the rack and soft-top. This helps keep the high lift out of knee-banging range and out of trail dirt and dust. It is also fairly concealed from view and driving in the rain won't wash out all the jack's lubricant as easily as before.

Loading up the Trail Rack with camping gear is what really makes this rack special. The rack is low enough to fit most of your gear below the top of the soft-top, which keeps a majority of the gear out of the vehicle's slipstream, without blocking too much visibility through the rear window. It is also easy to hang coiled tow-ropes and a trail-garbage bag from the underside of the rack. Best of all, when the rack is empty it does not create any additional aerodynamic drag like a roof-mounted rack would.

The rack's mounting arms have a clean appearance because you don't see them bolted onto the outside of the body like with other racks. The mounting arms slip through the bottom end of the zipper on the soft top and attach to the inside of the bed rails. When I first saw this I thought buttoning up the soft top would be very hard. But even though the zipper no longer completes the last inch or so of travel, all the snaps still lock down easily to a snug fit.

The depth of the basket is just the perfect size for a plastic Igloo cooler, two sleeping bags side by side and a two gallon bottle of water. All this while still keeping the overhang on the back of the truck small enough so you don't knock your head on it every time you pass it. In-fact, the rack only sticks out about two inches further than a typical 9.5 inch spare tire.

On The `Con

It was really nice to have this Trail Rack along for the ride when we went on the annual Suzuki's on the Rocks Rubicon trip. I put two sleeping bags, my tent, a 2 gallon water jug, and a duffel bag full of blankets in the rack. The added space in my rig resulting from the removal of the bulky gear made it easier to get at supplies and tools when I really needed them fast.

During this trip, I was putting the new Spidertrax Full Floating Rear Axle to the test and had all but forgotten that I had the new Trail Rack riding behind me. While navigating the trail between some trees, the rack must have leaned hard against one of the trees, for when I got to camp, the side of the rack was covered in sap and some minor scrapes. But the rack held up without bending or loosening up of any of the bolts. For its light weight and simple design, this rack is very strong and very well built. I recommend it for all.

--Adam Leach