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We know what you’re thinking: If you’ve got long stuff to carry in your Ford Bronco four-door, you can just put the middle seats. While that is a great solution, what if those seats are occupied by your friends or children? They don’t exactly fold flat comfortably and getting them into another vehicle isn’t always feasible. While some cargo racks exist for the Bronco, getting stuff into them can be a hassle and a balance skill while trying to climb through doors and steps while holding your gear. Many times, these racks also force you to use them without a soft top or just do without a rack. Fortunately, Tim Rossiter has created a solution that not only works with the soft top, but also tilts back to make loading easier through his new company, 22 Winty.
What is 22 Winty?
While it sounds like something a fly-by-night overseas company would call itself on eBay or Amazon, Tim Rossiter explains that the name—22 Winty—is related to his family. “My father’s name, my middle name, and my son’s name is Winton and I shortened it to ‘Winty,'” explains Rossiter, “22 is just a number that I’ve always liked and also happens to be the year we started doing it. the racks.” So, the name has stuck since he created it.
Although you may not realize it, you are probably familiar with his work. Before creating these racks and his new company, Rossiter worked as an engineer in the entertainment industry related to physical special effects for things like, for example, a salmon cannon for a talk show or a large train set with fireworks going off, and many other pieces for film and television sets that require a high level of functionality, repeatability, and—most critical of all—safety.
Needless to say, with years of experience building these pieces that need to work, be prepared for multiple takes, and the person you want to engineer a piece like your roof rack won’t hurt anyone. Especially with something as innovative as the tilting roof rack for the new Ford Bronco.
A Rack That Doesn’t Just Work With Your Soft Top
The first thing you’ll notice about the 22 Winty roof rack is that it works with a soft top, both while it’s deployed or folded. This includes working with soft tops rear quarter windows, and you’ll be able to deploy it even with the rack installed. That’s because the rack tilts by removing the two front knobs of the four knobs used to install it in its bracket, and it rests on the spare wheel as you open or close the top. It also allows you to have easy access to gear that is usually on the roof and not the easiest to reach.
Rossiter also explained that the top is intended more for urban adventurers and not for rock crawlers or anyone who needs heavy storage like overlanders. The rack has been tested to operate with 80 lbs of cargo and up to 80 mph with no issues. It’s also been used on washboard roads around Mojave National Park, driving trails at Mosquito Pass in Colorado, and over 5,000 miles of real-world driving between New York, the Great Smoky Mountains, and Los Angeles.
Another bit of good news is that you don’t need to modify the body for the rack to work on your Bronco. All of this attaches to the existing hardware on the Bronco which is also used to attach the hardtop as well as the rear fender bolt holes. 22 Winty also provides plastic pillar protectors that attach to the C-pillar windows with 3M VHB tape. The tape comes off cleanly and the pillar protectors prevent any frictional damage caused by dirt between the rack and your new Bronco.
There are limitations
The only bad news is that the 22 Winty tilting roof rack was only tested on a four-door soft top with up to a 35 inch spare tire. He is currently looking for a two-door and a hard top version of both to test these racks to make sure they fit. He also makes additional parts and accessories, especially for those that don’t carry a spare tire on the rear cargo door.
One example that Rossiter has already developed is a front cargo bar that attaches to existing windshield hardware to tie down longer items like his canoe (which he says only weighs about 60 to 80 lbs), but currently, he only offered the latter. rack. “I got a request from a guy whose daughter is a pole vaulter with a 14-foot pole,” he said, but he expects most owners are looking for an easier way to carry items such as skis, snowboards, surf boards, and related equipment. or even an easy way to carry some lumber.
Other than that, he wasn’t really looking to build a heavier duty version of the 22 Winty cargo rack. “I considered it,” explains Rossiter, “however, there are engineering limitations to making a heavy-duty rack that’s still light, sleek, and easy to use. For those looking for that kind of use, there are solutions available.”
He also added that people have not only approached him to potentially make this rack available for other models outside of the Ford Bronco, but to also create a tubular version that would be “same concept and shape, different just looks.” For now, he doesn’t make anything beyond this version of the 22 Winty tilting cargo rack. The most important part for Rossiter, at this point, is getting more racks into the customer’s Broncos. “I’m making the first batch myself because there’s been such a good response,” he says, “but I plan to outsource soon. I want to get them out there.”
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