The Grand Cherokee 2011-2021 has an interesting roof set up. Jeep put these 12 threaded buttons (6 per side) on the roof. Nice right. Well almost. First of all they used the front and back ones to hold the fancy channels used to take roof bars, then are held down via the 4 in the middle. Biggest problem is they are located on a section the the roof that can’t really take much weight at all. Hence why Jeep gave the roof some crappy load rating. This is because if you put more load up there you’re going to damage your roof.

Then we have some roof rack manufacturers (not Offroad Animal) who mount their roof rack directly onto these buttons. Tsk Tsk, bad choice. Say hello damaged roof if you put anymore weight up there (don’t forget to add the weight of the roof rack too.)

Offroad Animal is kind enough to offer our Roof Rack mounting rails to those wishing to make their own roof rack or upgrade the mounting system from a competitor’s product. These super slim rails push the load to the strongest part of the roof (join of Roof and sides). Not only that but they use the rolled steel rail to join all 6 roof buttons per side for one strong system. So just like that you can potentially increase your roof loading to 264lbs. Nice right. We think so.

Here is a picture of a damaged roof button from putting to much weight on the factory system.

Fitting competitor racks is completely up to you, we’ll just supply the rails with all the nuts and bolts needed to mount them to the roof.

Features

Uses the same roof rail mounting system as the Offroad Animal Roof Rack
Increase roof loading to 264lbs dynamic (driving) and 528lbs static (sitting still)
Full steel constructions 3mm rolled section and 3mm rib
Zinc plated and powder coated matte black
Lowest cost option of any competitor, to increase roof loading. Did we mention, anywhere !?

Suits all Jeep Grand Cherokees 2011-2020, unless you got one of those crazy ones that don’t have the roof buttons.

If your WK2 does not have raised roof buttons let us know in your order comments and we will send you a spacer kit.

To maximize safe adherence to the load rating, we recommend mounting your 3rd party roof rack or cross bars as far outboard as possible to set the load paths to the roof corner (just like the Offroad Animal Roof Rack does).

Fitting time: 30 min

Fitting difficulty: 3/10