another option would be to have your rack lowered, you could have all the uprights on the basket cut, maybe an inch or two and welded back together.
I thought about this, and even talked with a fabricator already. They believed it would be more work than it was worth. Since it's already powercoated, they'd have to grind away the PC in all the spots where they had to re-weld, and then it would need to be finished again (either painted or powdercoated). He also mentioned that sometimes with aluminum, the powdercoat penetrates the metal pretty deep and it becomes difficult to get a good, strong weld without removing a good amount of material (this was all my neighbor that you met, by the way, so I don't think he was blowing smoke up my behind). He recommended removing the entire side rails behind the front "basket" area and just welding a new bar from the basket to the (now flat) platform area. I don't really like that plan, because it wasn't designed to be strong as just a platform, and without the side rails it could flex pretty bad with weight on it.
In the end, it would end up costing me much more than just selling it and buying a new one. If I could weld myself and had a hookup on powdercoating, it would be worth it. Plus, I'm liking that frontrunner rack more and more as I keep looking at it. I like that it's wider, which would move my awning another 6 or so inches off the side of the rig. With the shape of the Xterra body, I lose almost a foot of floor space in my shelter/room that attaches to the awning, and it proved to be a little bit of an issue when we used it camping last time. I think the flat shape would give me some of my MPGs back as well, as would moving the light bar under the front of the rack like Toro and PainRoller have theirs. I went from 10 MPG to 11 MPG just by swapping out my front bumper. If I could get another 1 MPG out of a lower profile roof rack, I'd be happy.
