New vendor "Bowfin Cruisers" and new 80 series roof rack option

[Proven]

Oh...forgot to mention that I really like this design and the mounts are sweet. I like this design where the "sled" rests in the gutters. That makes me feel like it is spreading the load more evenly.

I would love to know cost for one. One day the wife will let me spend money on more than maintenance.

 

[dogfishlake]

Low profile is awesome, but I wonder if just changing the sides to be a little taller and putting a "Plus sign opening" where the cross members attache would allow users to swap between the thin edge and the flat edge of the cross member. It might also open up flipping them to add thin little dividers. Another option would be a taller side with a second cut out.

This would give a lip on the outside edge if the users chose to mount the bars in the lower position. I wish I could cad, haha.

The question of whether the extrusion is stiff enough has come up a lot. It is something that I am working on. The rack fits with the factory roof rack off and the strips down the center still attached. I am thinking about making a provision for turning the extrusion on edge if the 80 has the strips removed. It really wont change the side profile much, there would just be extra holes beneath the slots down the sides.

 

[retrofive]

I'm somewhat interested. Not sure it was covered already, but I would assume it accommodates a RTT just fine?

 

[dogfishlake]

Hope to have pricing together this week, and I am very nearly ready for a first run. Other than minor changes, the rack is pretty much done. I have run several different concepts so far.

Also, since I have not seen it asked yet, I rolled down the highway at 75 mph and it is nice and quiet.

 

[dogfishlake]

I'm somewhat interested. Not sure it was covered already, but I would assume it accommodates a RTT just fine?

It does work with a RTT. I had to make some adapters for my CVT to work that basically bolt to the T-slot and hang out with a hole in them for the bolt from the extrusion on the tent to drop through. I will be producing these too, and they should be pretty inexpensive. Otherwise, you can run the tent extrusion and the T-slot perpendicular and clamp around my rack extrusion in kind of a U-bolt set up.

 

[retrofive]

It does work with a RTT. I had to make some adapters for my CVT to work that basically bolt to the T-slot and hang out with a hole in them for the bolt from the extrusion on the tent to drop through. I will be producing these too, and they should be pretty inexpensive. Otherwise, you can run the tent extrusion and the T-slot perpendicular and clamp around my rack extrusion in kind of a U-bolt set up.

Good to know. Mine is a CVT as well, currently sitting on a couple yakima bars. If this all comes to be and I can swing it I would probably just run down to Jason's new shop once he is set up.

 

[Sambosuda]

There’s a lot to sort through.

What will these cost?

 

[REKCUT]

Hope to have pricing together this week, and I am very nearly ready for a first run.

 

[dubyahard]

It does work with a RTT. I had to make some adapters for my CVT to work that basically bolt to the T-slot and hang out with a hole in them for the bolt from the extrusion on the tent to drop through. I will be producing these too, and they should be pretty inexpensive. Otherwise, you can run the tent extrusion and the T-slot perpendicular and clamp around my rack extrusion in kind of a U-bolt set up.

This makes me very excited! Having the Prinsu already, I'm not going to swap racks. But having an easier way to attach/detach my CVT RTT drastically improves my quality of life. Maybe not that serious but it won't make me dread it as much. My arms aren't skinny enough to get to the u-bolt style nuts/bolts.

 

[dogfishlake]

There’s a lot to sort through.

What will these cost?

I will have pricing this week, thanks.

 

[duggy]

In for pricing.

 

[Jkny]

Great rack man, love the latches!

Also on another note this reminds me of a very similar situation that occurred on Toyota4Runner.org a couple of years ago. There was a guy who was making really great racks (Whiteson metalworks) that happen to look similar to the Gobi racks but for half the price. The racks were top notch, great quality and I and many others actually preferred them over Gobi, to the point that they where back ordered because the guy just couldn't keep up with the amount of orders he was getting being a one man show I believe. Anyways Gobi decided he was hurting there business I guess and decided to take him to court and tie him up with Patent infringement. So because all of the legal fee's and all this other BS basically forcing him shut down or making him settle because he wasn't able to fight against such a larger company or companies with unlimited funds. Sad really that the bigger company had to go after the little guy for making a great product and actually offering fare prices!God forbid he make some good racks for a few Toyota 4runners. Where I've heard about many cases of Gobi's lack of quality, customer service etc for a overpriced rack IMO. It left a bad tastes in a lot of peoples mouths!

My point is because it does look very similar to Prinsu's rack, I would get it patented ASAP if you haven't already! Because unfortunately that's what the bigger companies like to do if they feel somehow threatened. I'm not saying that CBI would do that but I'm sure no one ever thought that in the above situation was ever on Gobi's radar either. Greed sucks.

You can probably google and pull up the thread on TR4.org somewhere but it got pretty ugly and turned into a sh!t show as I'm sure you can imagine.Such a joke the whole thing, really pissed me off, I won't every own a Gobi product after that! I think I remember another instance years ago with Domello off road with some sliders he made. The 4x4 accessory market is a small one (even smaller for us Yota's I think) but seems to be growing in a good fashion but like always the big dogs would love to take it all and leave the scraps for everyone else to fight over.

Anyways I think your rack looks great man and it's great to have another option for our rigs! Also look forward to the accessories cause god knows we can never have enough accessories haha

Also didn't mean to bring any negativity to your thread I would just hate to see that happen all over again it sounds like you've really put a lot of time and effort into a great product and can't wait to see them on everybody's 80's

 

[dogfishlake]

Great rack man, love the latches!

Also on another note this reminds me of a very similar situation that occurred on Toyota4Runner.org a couple of years ago. There was a guy who was making really great racks (Whiteson metalworks) that happen to look similar to the Gobi racks but for half the price. The racks were top notch, great quality and I and many others actually preferred them over Gobi, to the point that they where back ordered because the guy just couldn't keep up with the amount of orders he was getting being a one man show I believe. Anyways Gobi decided he was hurting there business I guess and decided to take him to court and tie him up with Patent infringement. So because all of the legal fee's and all this other BS basically forcing him shut down or making him settle because he wasn't able to fight against such a larger company or companies with unlimited funds. Sad really that the bigger company had to go after the little guy for making a great product and actually offering fare prices!God forbid he make some good racks for a few Toyota 4runners. Where I've heard about many cases of Gobi's lack of quality, customer service etc for a overpriced rack IMO. It left a bad tastes in a lot of peoples mouths!

My point is because it does look very similar to Prinsu's rack, I would get it patented ASAP if you haven't already! Because unfortunately that's what the bigger companies like to do if they feel somehow threatened. I'm not saying that CBI would do that but I'm sure no one ever thought that in the above situation was ever on Gobi's radar either. Greed sucks.

You can probably google and pull up the thread on TR4.org somewhere but it got pretty ugly and turned into a sh!t show as I'm sure you can imagine.Such a joke the whole thing, really pissed me off, I won't every own a Gobi product after that! I think I remember another instance years ago with Domello off road with some sliders he made. The 4x4 accessory market is a small one (even smaller for us Yota's I think) but seems to be growing in a good fashion but like always the big dogs would love to take it all and leave the scraps for everyone else to fight over.

Anyways I think your rack looks great man and it's great to have another option for our rigs! Also look forward to the accessories cause god knows we can never have enough accessories haha

Also didn't mean to bring any negativity to your thread I would just hate to see that happen all over again it sounds like you've really put a lot of time and effort into a great product and can't wait to see them on everybody's 80's

Thanks for the insight, and the kind words. I am very very close to ready. My laser cutter is really liking the project too which helps. It's 10:00 here and we are still texting back and forth on the final pieces (to add awesomeness to the rack) that he is cutting in the a.m.

 

[dogfishlake]

I did weigh the assembled rack today. I stood on my UPS scale while holding the rack. 307lb minus my 250lb (gimme a break, I had my work boots on) equals-

57 pounds.

 

[TRAIL TAILOR]

The Whitson rack, although a better product from a quality, customer service and price standpoint, was almost a mirror image of the Gobi. IIRC, the suit was based on pieces of the rack (connectors, channel brackets and mounts) not the rack being a copy. No one can patent a bend in metal. If that were the case the poor guy that got fired for dropping the first piece of steel off the truck and bending it would own the fabrication world.

Our family lawyer put a few of my pieces into the "system" quite a while back and it's still in review status. We were told it could take up to 5 years to finalize all the paperwork and if it was approved the best we might get is a patent pending status on 1 of the 4 parts. The other three parts I had a certified letter from the engineer of record with his stamped seal on the drawings with a release for me to reproduce a similar version. Those three will end up being "patent" items in the next 6-9 months we are told by the patents office. Just for the record this is not a cheap process.

A few pieces that make a product look similar are usually the main focal point of products. These are the ones that are usually not what anyone can patent. Its the little pieces like what Gobi had that made the deal stick. Court, filing, lawyer, research fees etc.. are what kills the little guy and they usually back out just like Whitson did. If Whitson would have been someone like Front Runner, ARB, Brownstone, Voyager, etc... I doubt it would have ever went past the original letter if that.

So, when you look at Bowfin vs. Prinsu/CBI... The logo, and the latching system is the only thing that really stand out. Neither of which are the same between the two. The main plates have a different design/cut pattern. The "80/20" is where I'd be careful advertising... They are going after people as they have that branded and trademarked. Once again they look for the little guy to go after. There are at least 50 extruders making a similar extrusion and "80/20.net" will make sure an inferior product is not using their name.

Refer to the extrusions as "dual T-slot", "single slot", custom extrusion, etc...

J

 

[dogfishlake]

The Whitson rack, although a better product from a quality, customer service and price standpoint, was almost a mirror image of the Gobi. IIRC, the suit was based on pieces of the rack (connectors, channel brackets and mounts) not the rack being a copy. No one can patent a bend in metal. If that were the case the poor guy that got fired for dropping the first piece of steel off the truck and bending it would own the fabrication world.

Our family lawyer put a few of my pieces into the "system" quite a while back and it's still in review status. We were told it could take up to 5 years to finalize all the paperwork and if it was approved the best we might get is a patent pending status on 1 of the 4 parts. The other three parts I had a certified letter from the engineer of record with his stamped seal on the drawings with a release for me to reproduce a similar version. Those three will end up being "patent" items in the next 6-9 months we are told by the patents office. Just for the record this is not a cheap process.

A few pieces that make a product look similar are usually the main focal point of products. These are the ones that are usually not what anyone can patent. Its the little pieces like what Gobi had that made the deal stick. Court, filing, lawyer, research fees etc.. are what kills the little guy and they usually back out just like Whitson did. If Whitson would have been someone like Front Runner, ARB, Brownstone, Voyager, etc... I doubt it would have ever went past the original letter if that.

So, when you look at Bowfin vs. Prinsu/CBI... The logo, and the latching system is the only thing that really stand out. Neither of which are the same between the two. The main plates have a different design/cut pattern. The "80/20" is where I'd be careful advertising... They are going after people as they have that branded and trademarked. Once again they look for the little guy to go after. There are at least 50 extruders making a similar extrusion and "80/20.net" will make sure an inferior product is not using their name.

Refer to the extrusions as "dual T-slot", "single slot", custom extrusion, etc...

J

I agree on the extrusion name. Most definitely going to refer to it by it's proper name, which would be a T slotted extrusion. No calling a cotton swab a Q-Tip here!

 

[BRob2756]

interested as well. Subbed!

 

[ThomasMore66]

So I have the existing luggage rack/cross bars on my truck. What needs to happen with those mounts in order to use this rack? I know some people remove them, weld up the holes, repaint, etc. I might want to go back to the original or sell the rig with the original. Can I just take the original equipment off and leave a bolt in the hole?

Also, can I mount my ski racks to those cross-bars?

 

[Landseer]

Simplest way to "fix" those bolt holes is use a ball peen hammer to make an small indentation around the hole, use epoxy putty to fill the indentation then sand and paint.

 

[LS1FJ40]

So I have the existing luggage rack/cross bars on my truck. What needs to happen with those mounts in order to use this rack? I know some people remove them, weld up the holes, repaint, etc. I might want to go back to the original or sell the rig with the original. Can I just take the original equipment off and leave a bolt in the hole?

Also, can I mount my ski racks to those cross-bars?

Simple answer: Yes. Assuming your rig has never seen salt. Then there shouldn't be rust. You can use a rubber washer and a button head stainless steel machine screw in to the captive nut. @cruiserdan did this.

I'm not sure why you would though. But yes, it can be done.