Below is the installation and review of my roof rack from PrinSu Design Studios. I initially saw this rack on BoxRocket's build thread and liked it because it was light, had a full "foot" design for even weight distribution, was flat on top and was (relatively) affordable. I got into a group buy with Qball back in May and finally received my rack early last week. I'm not too annoyed at the time it took to ship as I know that this is a new product and these things take time.
A few notes on the installation and one major complaint:
1. There are no instructions included with the rack. This is no big deal for most of us but if you happen to be one of those folks that needs the FSM to change your floor mats, you're going to need therapy when you see all the hardware that comes with this rack.
2. When installing the wind deflector to the front crossbar, the easiest way is to place all the screws in the wind deflector and start a T-nut on each one NO MORE THAN TWO TURNS (they are short little buggers. Once you have all 10 screws and T-nuts started in the wind deflector, begin sliding the deflector in place while feeding the T-nuts into the slot in the end of the cross bar. If you try to install the T-nuts into the crossbar first and then line up all the holes on the wind deflector, you will quite simply drive yourself insane. Beer to celebrate a job easily done or shock treatments and a Thorazine drip when the neighbors find you curled in a ball in your driveway incoherently crying over a piece of aluminum and some little screws...the choice is yours. Hey, maybe you need the vacation. I'm not here to judge.
3. When setting the rack into place, make sure that it is in the right place on the roof for the "feet" to follow the contour of the drip rail for maximum contact.
The rack is very well engineered and feels strong and solid. However, there is one problem with the design that you might want to consider attending to in your own installation...which brings me to my...
MAJOR COMPLAINT - The brackets that go from the gutter to the rack are not up to the standard of the rest of the assembly. They are, to put it bluntly, garbage. When they were installed, they deformed long before they ever tightened. I never used more than one finger's force on a standard 1/2 box wrench, so don't blame my gorilla hands.
The bracket as delivered
The same bracket after minor snugging
As I said above, the rack is awesome. I'll just make some new gutter brackets out of real metal and it'll be good to go. All in all, I would not hesitate to recommend this rack to anyone.
A few more pics:
A few notes on the installation and one major complaint:
1. There are no instructions included with the rack. This is no big deal for most of us but if you happen to be one of those folks that needs the FSM to change your floor mats, you're going to need therapy when you see all the hardware that comes with this rack.
2. When installing the wind deflector to the front crossbar, the easiest way is to place all the screws in the wind deflector and start a T-nut on each one NO MORE THAN TWO TURNS (they are short little buggers. Once you have all 10 screws and T-nuts started in the wind deflector, begin sliding the deflector in place while feeding the T-nuts into the slot in the end of the cross bar. If you try to install the T-nuts into the crossbar first and then line up all the holes on the wind deflector, you will quite simply drive yourself insane. Beer to celebrate a job easily done or shock treatments and a Thorazine drip when the neighbors find you curled in a ball in your driveway incoherently crying over a piece of aluminum and some little screws...the choice is yours. Hey, maybe you need the vacation. I'm not here to judge.
3. When setting the rack into place, make sure that it is in the right place on the roof for the "feet" to follow the contour of the drip rail for maximum contact.
The rack is very well engineered and feels strong and solid. However, there is one problem with the design that you might want to consider attending to in your own installation...which brings me to my...
MAJOR COMPLAINT - The brackets that go from the gutter to the rack are not up to the standard of the rest of the assembly. They are, to put it bluntly, garbage. When they were installed, they deformed long before they ever tightened. I never used more than one finger's force on a standard 1/2 box wrench, so don't blame my gorilla hands.
The bracket as delivered
The same bracket after minor snugging
As I said above, the rack is awesome. I'll just make some new gutter brackets out of real metal and it'll be good to go. All in all, I would not hesitate to recommend this rack to anyone.
A few more pics:
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