Prinsu 200 Series Rack INSTALLED

[mreedbmwm3]

I was able to get mine on yesterday without any issues. I'm pretty impressed with the rack, once everything is together it's very solid. I took it for a short drive only up to about 60 MPH and the wind noise is very minimal even with the sunroof open. I am running the fairing at the lowest setting. I plan to put the RTT and awning on later this week for an upcoming trip. I followed the cabrack instructions and used a huge glob of RTV to seal it to the roof - hopefully it's water tight because it would be a pain to redo!





Ignore the anti-seize on the fairing, I used it on the fasteners and made a mess. The fairing is nicely powder coated.

What's the height from ground to top of rack?

 

[619TOY]

What's the height from ground to top of rack?

Since the height from the ground could be a bit of a moving target depending on tires or lift, I can tell you that the top surface of mine is almost exactly 1" above the tip of the fin antenna.

 

[hedd]

Also, to add to the above, the rack is about 4.5" above the roof in the center of the LC. Stock height LC, top of the rack is about 76". I didn't measure before but I don't think the rack is any higher than the stock rack, it's lower than a stock rack with Yakima cross bars.

 

[FDMD]

Just installed my Prinsu today on my 2017 and noticed that I could not mount the rear-most cross-member in its correct location because of the shark fin. Anyone else have that problem? Could the '17 shark fin location be different from the pre-'16 MY 200s?

 

[619TOY]

If I understand what you're describing correctly, that's right. Mine is mounted in the rearmost round hole and the center of the oval hole just forward of that.

 

[Yossarian]

Installed the Prinsu roof rack over the weekend. I really like the design of the rack, it's approximately 3/4" taller at the side rail than the OEM rack. I borrowed an idea from the TW forums for assembly hardware, I think it turned out well.

What I'm not a fan of is the interface with the vehicle, I'm not convinced it won't be source for water intrusion. I sourced rubber washers to go between the aluminum spacers and the roof, they fit like a gasket around the yellow plastic bits that protrude from inside the roof.

That worked well enough, but where the feet of the rack's side rails sit on the spacers were relying on filling the void with RTV sealant. I found another thread on mud in the FJ section where a member had the same observation. Prinsu Roof Rack for FJC

I think a machined block at the appropriate dimensions would work better, with gaskets on the top and bottom. I did look into how other vendors (front runner, gobi, etc.) attach their racks when installation instructions were available. What Prinsu is doing isn't that different, I just think it's an area with room for improvement.

 

[TonyP]

I'd find some clear sealant to blast in there. A leaky, moldy, roof is bad news. I had a similar issue on my 4Runner.

 

[wardharris]

Nice rack.....and install.

 

[Rigger]

Looks great! I like that one better than I like my FrontRunner!

 

[Markuson]

I'm curious how you secure items when the sides are covered like that. Is it difficult to reach under, etc.?

 

[RS6tofj80]

I loe my Prinsu but there are still some areas for improvement as noted - to Mark's question - tents, awnings etc will take a lot of extra time over some of the other options.... and a side- under table isn't an option at all as it is with most others....

That said it's super quiet and extra stout.... I did the same with the rubber gaskets and RTV and have had it in several heavy rains with no issue so far...

Lead time on these is long but short tof that and the above noted it's a really clean solution.

E

 

[TexAZ]

@Yossarian , that hardware looks great! nice addition.
don't know if it is entirely necessary, but I wanted to eliminate as much wind noise as possible, so I added weather stripping to the bottom of the wind dam.
Vertical Bulb Trim Seal Bulb Diameter: 0.5" Grip range: 0.039" to 0.14" | Trunk, boot, lid, hood, hatch rubber (10 Feet) - - Amazon.com
I was concerned about the weather strip rubbing on the paint, so I also got a small strip of 3M clear protectant film:
Amazon.com: 3M Clear Bra Paint Protection Bulk Film Roll 2"-by-60"-inches: Automotive
I haven't seen any issues with the weather strip yet, still need to get off my butt and add the 3M.

 

[TonyP]

Good point. I do like the design but I don't see how an awning can be attached safely.

 

[hedd]

Prinsu now has an awning attachment - it looks very secure but I don't think it would work at the same time with a RTT. I built some brackets for my awning. They are very simple, the brackets are attached to the awning all the time. Then I just use some t-slot nuts that drop in to the channels and screw the awning brackets to the t-slot nuts. I can have the awning on and off in about 10 min at most. It's very solid. The only issue I have is that it's hard to get the awning far enough away from the rack so that it doesn't cause an interface issue with the RTT. The awning will interfere with the metal bow springs - they can't fit into the hole at the floor of the tent. I will probably play with some new brackets to see if I can improve it in the future.

Another member came up with this idea: For a RTT leave two of the t-slot extrusions permanently attached to the RTT. That way all you have to do it drop the whole assembly (RTT and t-slot extrusions) in to the rack and screw the in 4 screws per side in to the rack (from outside of the rack into the extrusions). Once the assembly is dropped in from the top of the rack it takes less than a min to attach. So much better than trying to bolt the RTT to the rack from the front/back/side.

I have found that there are tons of options for this rack. Lots of ways to attach things and lots of options including using other manufactures accessories. Plus, you can add/remove/replace cross bars as desired.

 

[619TOY]

I'm curious how you secure items when the sides are covered like that. Is it difficult to reach under, etc.?

The rails are slotted to accept eyelets, a few of which are supplied with the rack, but I did my own thing...

 

[619TOY]

And they're introducing a plate mounting system to mount just about anything

 

[Yossarian]

View attachment 1430044

The rails are slotted to accept eyelets, a few of which are supplied with the rack, but I did my own thing...

@619TOY I plan on ordering some of those, didn't you mount some on the side rails in another thread?

 

[619TOY]

Nope, just on the top 1" x 2" rails. I'm sure you could do it quite easily utilizing any of the slots though.

 

[Taco2Cruiser]

For what it's worth, when I worked at a Toyota, we were required to use a no. 2 non-hardening sealant for roof rack brackets. There's a good reason for it as it works much better long term than a RTV and seals better as the interface between the brackets and roof are not the same precise pieces as drivetrain components.

Permatex® Form-A-Gasket® No. 2 Sealant - Permatex

 

[Yossarian]

For what it's worth, when I worked at a Toyota, we were required to use a no. 2 non-hardening sealant for roof rack brackets. There's a good reason for it as it works much better long term than a RTV and seals better as the interface between the brackets and roof are not the same precise pieces as drivetrain components.

Permatex® Form-A-Gasket® No. 2 Sealant - Permatex

Awesome! Thanks for that little bit of info, very useful. I plan on removing the rack to redo a few of the spacers, and the RTV still leaves me doubtful as the only form of defense against moisture.

On another note, and this is for all aftermarket racks, the OEM torque specs are 29 ft/lbs if I recall correctly. Using the supplied hardware I stopped at around 20 ft/lbs, I just wasn't feeling that it needed more torque than that. Of course that is purely a seat of the pants shade tree mechanic "feeling", no data behind it. Part of my concern was the bolts, not the same as OEM, and that the little spacer was concentrating a lot of pressure to a small area of the roof.

Thoughts?