@benc Not sure if you posted already, but what are the dimensions of the roof platform?
Dissent offroad modular aluminum roof rack.
- Thread starter benc
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dingoboyexplore
SILVER Star
Its looking like Im going to have to plan a road trip out that way for this and a rear bumper when im ready.
The Lexus got a new hairdo last night:
First off, sorry for the crap photos. Second, the rack is not adjusted correctly. More on this later.
Before that, let's talk about Dissent Off-Road and the awesome human being that is @benc . I have a family trip scheduled for tomorrow with a full load-out of gear and the stock rack wasn't cutting it. I really wanted to have the Dissent rack installed before then. I pestered Ben for days on the status of the racks and he worked a miracle and got it shipped out to me with a few days to spare. Little did I know that he was doing all this while his shop was without power or internet due to the wildfires in CA. Because of the rush job, he wasn't able to put together instructions, so he emailed me photos and we spoke many times about installation. He was even on call during the install for me to bounce questions off him. I don't know if mine is the first powder-coated rack in the wild or not, but man did he do back-flips to get it to me. This may not be news to those who have purchased his products before, but this guy really knows how to treat a customer. Thanks, Ben!
With regard to the rack itself. It's a thing of beauty. I'm an architect by day and I know good design when I see it. This thing is a piece of industrial art. I was amazed at how light every piece was, how intuitively it went together, and how nicely the lines flow with the lines of the car. The powder coat was flawless (it's a matt/semi-gloss finish), all the edges were eased and easy to handle, all the hardware is the same throughout so I only needed two sockets (10mm and 13mm) and the integrated nuts were a life-saver. The only negatives were a stud with some wonky threads that needed a touch up with a die, a few holes on the PC parts that needed just a hair more clearance for the bolts and some missing spacers for the extra load bars (Ben told me he didn't have them all available yet, so I knew ahead of time). Overall, it took about 3.5 hours for me, including removing the factory rack, channel molding and all the gunk accumulated in there. It's a one-banana job if you have the right tools (a couple of wobble bits and a 6" extension) and are young and agile enough to climb all over your car's roof.
The rack itself consists of adjustable height, two-piece roof channel brackets, the load bars, stiffener plates, three-piece side skirts and the front and rear fairings. Once it's all tightened down, the rack is extremely rigid, but during install everything should just be threaded on a few turns and no more. This is where I screwed up. Instead of following Ben's explicit instructions to leave everything loose until the very end, I thought I was smart and leveled and tightened all the load bars and brackets first, before putting on the skirts and fairings. It wasn't until the last piece went on (the front fairing) that I realized I had leveled the bars parallel to the ground, front-to-back, and didn't account for the hundy's stink bug stance, so the front fairing doesn't touch the roof. At this point, it was past midnight, I was cold and needed to be up by five the next morning so I left it, thinking, "how bad can it be?" Well, after a deafening, teeth-rattling commute to work, I can confidently say, do not run the front of the rack unsupported. It needs to make tight contact with the roof to work properly. I'll be adjusting it ASAP.
Overall, this is an amazing rack. Light, easy to install, good-looking and a real bargain for the price. As a bonus, you get to deal with a real stand-up guy. Hope to see more people's thoughts on these as they start to ship.
First off, sorry for the crap photos. Second, the rack is not adjusted correctly. More on this later.
Before that, let's talk about Dissent Off-Road and the awesome human being that is @benc . I have a family trip scheduled for tomorrow with a full load-out of gear and the stock rack wasn't cutting it. I really wanted to have the Dissent rack installed before then. I pestered Ben for days on the status of the racks and he worked a miracle and got it shipped out to me with a few days to spare. Little did I know that he was doing all this while his shop was without power or internet due to the wildfires in CA. Because of the rush job, he wasn't able to put together instructions, so he emailed me photos and we spoke many times about installation. He was even on call during the install for me to bounce questions off him. I don't know if mine is the first powder-coated rack in the wild or not, but man did he do back-flips to get it to me. This may not be news to those who have purchased his products before, but this guy really knows how to treat a customer. Thanks, Ben!
With regard to the rack itself. It's a thing of beauty. I'm an architect by day and I know good design when I see it. This thing is a piece of industrial art. I was amazed at how light every piece was, how intuitively it went together, and how nicely the lines flow with the lines of the car. The powder coat was flawless (it's a matt/semi-gloss finish), all the edges were eased and easy to handle, all the hardware is the same throughout so I only needed two sockets (10mm and 13mm) and the integrated nuts were a life-saver. The only negatives were a stud with some wonky threads that needed a touch up with a die, a few holes on the PC parts that needed just a hair more clearance for the bolts and some missing spacers for the extra load bars (Ben told me he didn't have them all available yet, so I knew ahead of time). Overall, it took about 3.5 hours for me, including removing the factory rack, channel molding and all the gunk accumulated in there. It's a one-banana job if you have the right tools (a couple of wobble bits and a 6" extension) and are young and agile enough to climb all over your car's roof.
The rack itself consists of adjustable height, two-piece roof channel brackets, the load bars, stiffener plates, three-piece side skirts and the front and rear fairings. Once it's all tightened down, the rack is extremely rigid, but during install everything should just be threaded on a few turns and no more. This is where I screwed up. Instead of following Ben's explicit instructions to leave everything loose until the very end, I thought I was smart and leveled and tightened all the load bars and brackets first, before putting on the skirts and fairings. It wasn't until the last piece went on (the front fairing) that I realized I had leveled the bars parallel to the ground, front-to-back, and didn't account for the hundy's stink bug stance, so the front fairing doesn't touch the roof. At this point, it was past midnight, I was cold and needed to be up by five the next morning so I left it, thinking, "how bad can it be?" Well, after a deafening, teeth-rattling commute to work, I can confidently say, do not run the front of the rack unsupported. It needs to make tight contact with the roof to work properly. I'll be adjusting it ASAP.
Overall, this is an amazing rack. Light, easy to install, good-looking and a real bargain for the price. As a bonus, you get to deal with a real stand-up guy. Hope to see more people's thoughts on these as they start to ship.
Couple of new pics of the rack in action. I adjusted it and got zero wind noise, even when loaded up. I had four Seahorse SE-720 cases, a Wolfman medium duffle and a Keeper roof bag. I also mounted up an axe on quick fists. Very happy with the way it performs. Can't wait to see what new goodies Ben comes up with for it.
@BEG, any plans to lower the rack at the rear?
Yes, I was just short on time. The side skirts are a three-piece design, so it's not as easy to level it, front to back, since there's no single member that runs the entire length of the rack. I'll probably lower it when I replace the hardware with black.
Hardware is zinc coated 5/16" x 3/4 throughout the whole rack except the mounting hardware, which is stainless metric.
Two boxes of these? https://www.amazon.com/Button-Socket-Threaded-Machine-Quantity/dp/B01I28YC28?tag=ihco-20 with matching black washers.
Here are some stainless bolts.
5/16-18 Button Socket Head Screws Black Oxide 18-8 Stainless Steel
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- Thread starter
- #93
I'm glad it got to you in time.
I'm hoping I can get a decent install write up ASAP to make install a bit more smooth!
The easiest way for you to get the rack ajusted now would be to loosen all the 1/4" nuts on the roof brackets and let the entire rack drop until the fairing is on firmly touching the roof and the second from the back load bar is about 3/8" -1/2" away from the center of the roof.
Should look about like this.
- Thread starter
- #94
Should be about $150-$200 for the set of quick mount bars.
Thanks, Ben. Now I see where I made my initial mistake. When you said to allow for 3/8" to 1/2" clearance, I thought you meant at the bottom of the channel bracket, not the load bar. I just pivoted the whole rack down from the middle, keeping that 1/2" at the bottom of the middle brackets. Now I know I can lower the whole thing down.
- Thread starter
- #97
Here are some pics of the tent bars with high rise/outboard accessory mounts.
The awning mounts can install to the tent bars or the rack without the tent bars.
This will allow the tent and awning to be removed quickly as a unit if desired.
Flip over the awning mounts and you have an outboard accessory mount that works great for kayaks, bikes, skis, snowboard, ect without taking up valuable rack space! Also makes loading and unloading of the accessory much easier.
Rack looks amazing, and the rig in general!
Ready to buy. Shot you an email.