This paper presents the development process of roof carrier assembly using a one side release system for a vehicle. An RV(Recreational Vehicle) or SUV(Sports Utility Vehicle) has a roof carrier system on an upper surface of a roof panel for loading large or long size baggage. Such a roof carrier system is comprised of a roof rack longitudinally mounted on a roof panel and cross bar perpendicularly installed in the horizontal direction. Several locking mechanisms used in most vehicle roof carrier systems are composed with both side releasable locking ones. The obvious drawback to this arrangement is that when the user desires to reposition the cross bar, first one of the locking members must be unlocked and then the user must walk around to the opposite side of the vehicle to unlock the other member. In this paper, we proposed a newly locking mechanism, which allows a user simultaneously place both locking members of the roof carrier in locked and unlocked positions. In order to estimate design compatibility, structural and modal analysis is performed. Furthermore, a prototype based on the proposed design has been made, and then durability test carried out. From the simulation and experimental results, the proposed roof carrier system is proved effective and safe.
