The Princeton from Sherpa Equipment Co.
Sherpa's racks are some of the toughest on the market and are designed to get your gear to the places that matter the most. The Princeton roof rack is built for 2003 - 2009 4th Gen 4Runners and is construction of aluminum.
One of the reasons we chose The Princeton is because of its size and shape. It is a full-length roof rack, so it gives you tons of surface area for mounting gear, roof-top tents, River Quiver's etc. Also, it is very wide and flat, enabling you to carry large objects. For me, my rig doubles as my "work truck", so being able to carry full sheets of ply wood on the roof is a huge plus. I have heard friends building a little platform out of wood and sleeping directly on the roof rack. It is very versatile.
Setting up the rack was a breeze. The first step is removing your factory rack, and in the process, you notice there are mounting points for a rack. Next up, you bolt down 4 Sherpa mounts, which just takes a couple minutes, then you are ready to start assembling the rack. Next up are the 2 main cross bars that attach to the mounts, then you follow with the 2 sides. Once all that is in, you simply fill in the rest of the cross bars, then you are done! I think the whole process took me about 30 minutes. Not bad!
Explore more and worry less with Sherpa's industry-leading ¼” thick aircraft-grade aluminum side panels and stainless steel hardware. Secure your gear by bolting into one of the 10 extrusion crossbars or by strapping it directly to the side plates. This rack is “drill-free” and requires zero modification to your vehicle.
A little bit more about the Sherpa team (from their website):
Colorado proud, we believe the Rockies offer some of the harshest and most diverse terrain in America. With a brutal testing ground right in our backyard, we design our racks to be tough. We believe in providing customers with quality they can trust to stand up to a beating, wherever their next adventure might take them.
Located on the front range of Colorado, we were a couple of adventure seeking, Toyota loving, videographers. On our travels, we needed a rack that would live up to the work load of our adventure video production. We were traveling with large amounts of equipment and camping gear but had very little place to store it. Constantly on the move, we needed a system that was adaptable and lightweight. Being a part of the 3rd gen 4Runner community, there was very little support for the platform. We quickly found ourselves designing a rack that packed in the utilitarian functions we all dreamed of.
We believe culture is everything, and as we expand our team, it remains an important focus for us. Members of our team are no stranger to the outdoors and share the same passion for their vehicles that you do. This passion carries over into every aspect of the business, from customer service to product design. On the weekends it’s not uncommon to find our team away on a trip together or putting in late night hours working on the team race car.