Does anyone have a roof rack on a w123? I'm planning on building one for my car(s) and was wondering if anyone had any ideas or was willing to post pictures or opinions of anything you might own. Aftermarket is great and if MB made one pictures would be awesome.

As of now I'm planning to make A shaped feet that sit in the gutter rail welded to steel tube (16ga) as a cross bar. For clamps I was thinking L shaped tabs that bolt on to the A's outside of and under the drip rails.

Open to thoughts, particularly as to how much anyone thinks the drip rails will hold. Anyone ever seen one rip off? Anyone had to do body work around there and know how they are attached? It looks like the aluminum is pressed over a steel lip underneath, but without being destructive, I can't tell how substantial that is.

Any ideas would be appreciated.

P. S.
The metal fab work is not a problem for me. Pleanty of experience making stuff from scratch.

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'83 300D turbo diesel (334k daily commuter)
SOLD '80 240D 4 speed manual, #2 piston pitted from crushing a 10mm nut. Running it 'till it burns through.
'78 F-150 300cid 4spd od (with my great unkle's original sales receipt)
SOLD '66 Ford P-350 delivery truck (almost driveable)
'49 Dodge B1D (1 ton Pilothouse era truck) not running but all there, candidate for om617 and 4x4 conversion when money permits.

The wagons came with them, but they're bolted to the roof. They're a bit long for a sedan, but shortening them wouldn't be a problem. If you wanted a stock look.

-Rog

I have Thule racks on my W123. Go to Thule or Yakima's (as good as Thule though I never owned one) site and look at the model # needed. Look on Ebay or the local Salvation Army or thrift shop. You should be able to get them cheap since cars have not been made with drip rails for quite some time.

I think the Thule will carry around 150 lbs. Look at Thule's site and the W123 owners manual on how much it can carry to be sure.

Advise is buy used, do not build. The first Thule set I bought new for around $200. With age (after 10 years?), the paint on the feets peeled off and the aluminum underneath oxidized ..... looked real ugly, when I found a Thule set at Salvation Army that looked almost new for $20 with 2 bike carriers.

So now I own 2 sets. If you were closer I'd sell you a set.

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85 300D turbo pristine w 157k when purchased 167,870 July 2025
83 300 D turbo 297K runs great. SOLD!
83 240D 4 spd manual- parted out then junked

I used a Thule on my 123 and had no problems with 320 lbs but placement of the racks on the gutters did have to be just right. My only problem was it took 2 years to sell the racks not many cars have gutters anymore.

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92 e300d2.5t
01 e320
05 cdi
85 chev c10

I have a roof-mount bike rack from the 1980s that fits my W123. Made by La Prealpina. I'm missing one of the clamps for one of the feet, so I haven't used it in years. I have another rack and haven't gotten around to fabricating a new clamp.

I can put up snaps of the stock rack on my TD and details.

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CC: NSA

All things are burning, know this and be released.

82 Benz 240 D, Kuan Yin
12 Ford Escape 4wd

You're four times

It's hard to

more likely to

concentrate on

have an accident

two things

when you're on

at the same time.

a cell phone.

www.kiva.org It's not like there's anything wrong with feeling good, is there?

Yakima calls their towers the 1A Tower.

Looks like this,


Has any one mounted this style with their 300TD rails?

The drip rails are pretty solid, solid enough to carry more weight on top of the car than you probably should.

If going the DIY route, have a look at vintage roof racks for VW Bug and Bus. There were several feet/clamp designs used over the years. Could give you ideas for your own design. A vintage looking rack for a vintage Benz would be pretty danged cool.

I've used Yakima's and Thule's. Carried lots of canoes and kayaks on top. Far easier than building and readily found used on Craigslist. One advantage of the Yakimas is that 1/2 galvanized pipe slides inside Yakima bars so it's easy to make extensions which slide in and out by inserting a piece of 1/2" pipe with a cap on the end to stop it from going all the way in, into the Yakima bar and drilling a hole thru the end of the Yakima bar and a number of holes thru the 1/2" pipe so you can extend it to a variety of distances and hold it in place with a hitch pin. This allows you to use the short Yakima bars so they don't stick beyond the roof edges very much (you don't hit your head on the bars getting in and out) yet have a wide rack when needed.

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1977 300d 70k--sold 08
1985 300TD 185k+
1984 307d 126k--sold 8/03
1985 409d 65k--sold 06
1984 300SD 315k--daughter's car
1979 300SD 122k--sold 2/11
1999 Fuso FG Expedition Camper
1993 GMC Sierra 6.5 TD 4x4
1982 Bluebird Wanderlodge CAT 3208--Sold 2/13

Sorry I could not post this earlier as I had to re-discover it and in fact only found part of it in the garage.

If this is posted too late for the OP maybe someone else can use the info.

It is made from angle iron salvaged from the metal bed fames the people throw out. It is bolted together so you need no welding.

The main part of the picture is of the part that goes into the rain gutter but you will see a red circle. That is a different positon that it can be moved to to fit another one of my cars.

When I used it I just put electrical Tape on it so there would be less chance of the raing gutter getting scraped up. Something like dip grip ought to also work.

The last pic is of the clamping part.As the OP said the outer part can be L shaped.

Attached Thumbnails

   

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84 300D, 82 Volvo 244Gl Diesel

911 what a neat way to do it! Love the clamp.

I used Thule and Yakima from yard sales and rummage sales. $15-$25 for the feet and bars.

Funny the w126 needed a special Thule foot that is rare. The rail mount that everyone buys won't fit. So for the 126 I went to Yakima 1A. I used black pipe from Home Depot wrapped in shrink tube as load bars.

I noticed clamping the rails created a tiny hairline crack in the paint a long the gutter. I'm hoping the gutter won't rust out. I'll hit the gap with rust paint one of these days. The body will probably outlast the rest of the car though.

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79 300TD “Old Smokey” AKA “The Mistake” (SOLD)
82 240D stick shift 335k miles (SOLD)
82 300SD 300k miles
85 300D Turbodiesel 170k miles
97 C280 147k miles

I have the yakima gutter 1A mounts. The cool thing about them is that if you really want to do it on the cheap, you can buy the mounts and go to the home depot and buy steel tubes..spray them with truck liner and it gets you to the proper diameter.

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1985 300d Turbo Diesel

If I had a really sturdy rack I would not hesitate to put 500# on it. I think the gutters would hold it with no protest.

I suspect nobody designs a rack to carry that kind of weight because it would make the car so top heavy they would not want sued if it tips over.

I carried a basket ball goal, about 400#, once on my TD rack from the welding shop home. The car really sat down on that side as I did not center it because I feared collapsing my cross bars.

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[SIGPIC] Diesel loving autocrossing grandpa Architect. 08 Dodge 3/4 ton with Cummins & six speed; I have had about 35 benzes. I have a 39 Studebaker Coupe Express pickup in which I have had installed a 617 turbo and a five speed manual.[SIGPIC]

..I also have a 427 Cobra replica with an aluminum chassis.

I've carried over 400 lbs on the yakima racks I had on 300D, took it like a champ.

Probably the best thing the previous owner did to that car was install those.

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'85 300D ~ 381k, HD Bilstien shocks, 27.50x8.50x14R General Grabber AT2 tires, 4 E-Code headlight upgrade with 90/130w bulbs, boost turned up, new timing chain, and injectors. SOLD

'85 CJ7 ~ OM617 swap, Tarus electric fan, T5 trans, Dana 300, 4.88 R&P, Mile Marker locking hubs, ALDA removed, AMC 20 rear disk brake conversion, Aussie locked with 33's and 5" Rough Country lift.

The stock wagon racks can be shortened to fit on a sedan. Give me a holler, I know a guy

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