Questions on FrontRunner from rack owners (1 Viewer)

[catastrofe]

Put on rails, assemble


It can be a 1 person job. The rack is not that heavy to lift onto the rails. 1 other person to help would be great, but please stop telling this guy he may need 2 other people to get his rack installed.

Have you installed a full length FR rack by yourself? If so, please explain how you did so.

 

[1world1love]

Put on rails, assemble


It can be a 1 person job. The rack is not that heavy to lift onto the rails. 1 other person to help would be great, but please stop telling this guy he may need 2 other people to get his rack installed.

While I respect your opinion, mine is that lifting and aligning is best done with 2 people. I can see how you may be able to do it with one person but I didn’t feel like this was best. You did. That’s what’s great here. He may be more like me than you or may have an old shoulder injury.

I see nothing wrong with providing my perspective and you providing yours. He can hopefully judge based on all the input.

I’m not sure that it’s actually helpful to anyone to tell them not to express observations about their experiences.

And I say that with all due respect because again, I appreciate and enjoy your posts.

 

[catastrofe]

While I respect your opinion, mine is that lifting and aligning is best done with 2 people. I can see how you may be able to do it with one person but I didn’t feel like this was best. You did. That’s what’s great here. He may be more like me than you or may have an old shoulder injury.

I see nothing wrong with providing my perspective and you providing yours. He can hopefully judge based on all the input.

I’m not sure that it’s actually helpful to anyone to tell them not to express observations about their experiences.

And I say that with all due respect because again, I appreciate and enjoy your posts.

Exactly...if you follow the FR instructions, one person on each side of the vehicle moving the rack forward from the rear. With a single person, you’re required to rest the completed rack on the side rails in one spot, and somehow jockey it into position. While it may be “possible”, it’s certainly not easy, and opens the door for all types of damage to both the rack and vehicle.

 

[razzyrazz]

Have you installed a full length FR rack by yourself? If so, please explain how you did so.

Yes, not much to explain really. Install the rails, assemble the rack with slats on the ground, lift rack onto the rails, line it up, bolt it to the rails. Like I said 2 people is great, but many people can do it alone. Once you get the rack up there it is very easy to adjust side to side.

 

[razzyrazz]

While I respect your opinion, mine is that lifting and aligning is best done with 2 people. I can see how you may be able to do it with one person but I didn’t feel like this was best. You did. That’s what’s great here. He may be more like me than you or may have an old shoulder injury.

I see nothing wrong with providing my perspective and you providing yours. He can hopefully judge based on all the input.

I’m not sure that it’s actually helpful to anyone to tell them not to express observations about their experiences.

And I say that with all due respect because again, I appreciate and enjoy your posts.

No worries, without a doubt two people is best. But when people say it IS a 2 or 3 person job that's wrong. Somebody who is perfectly able to do it alone, but cant get help for a while, may come on here and decide to wait or not get the rack at all because of this.

 

[catastrofe]

Yes, not much to explain really. Install the rails, assemble the rack with slats on the ground, lift rack onto the rails, line it up, bolt it to the rails. Like I said 2 people is great, but many people can do it alone. Once you get the rack up there it is very easy to adjust side to side.

Thanks, but I stand by my statement that positioning the rack is a two person job.

 

[OregonLC]

Have you installed a full length FR rack by yourself? If so, please explain how you did so.

Step one, cut a hole in the box. J/K.

Step one, remove OEM rack and attach FR mounts.
Step two, attach the slats loosely to the mounts.
Step three, attach the side rails loosely.
Step four, add the missing slats.
Step five, add the front and rear pieces and corners.
Step six measure diagonally to ensure square and tighten down.

You could build on the ground and lift it up by yourself, sliding across the roof from the side. If doing this, put a moving blanket on the roof to prevent damage. I think it’s easier to build in place.

 

[HSTexan]

Bumping this to see if anyone can provide input. For those who have a Front Runner rack on their 200 could you measure the outside edge to outside edge width? It shows it's a 1255mm width rack and the recommended wind fairing for it is only 1091mm wide which would leave about a 3.5" gap on each side of the fairing. However, on this video Eric did for Ed Martin the fairing looks like it almost goes edge to edge. The fairing for the 1345mm/1425mm racks is 1267mm in width which may be what they put on this build. Just trying to get it ironed out before I put an order in

 

[catastrofe]

Bumping this to see if anyone can provide input. For those who have a Front Runner rack on their 200 could you measure the outside edge to outside edge width? It shows it's a 1255mm width rack and the recommended wind fairing for it is only 1091mm wide which would leave about a 3.5" gap on each side of the fairing. However, on this video Eric did for Ed Martin the fairing looks like it almost goes edge to edge. The fairing for the 1345mm/1425mm racks is 1267mm in width which may be what they put on this build. Just trying to get it ironed out before I put an order in

I’m camping and don’t have a tape measure handy, but the fairing is quite a bit narrower than the rack:

 

[1world1love]

I don’t know if this helps. I will run out and grab some measurements after lunch.

 

[1world1love]

Now that I see Eric's video, it’s clear that he got one of the wider ones rather than the one that FR recommends. I think you could do either and I cant comment on using the wider one, but the one I have seems fine. It dramatically reduced wind noise and now is not much worse than stock.


*Edited because I had a senior moment - It is Eric's video, not Ed's (although I am sure Ed can claim some intellectually property rights on Eric's video )

 

[HSTexan]

Now that I see Ed’s video, it’s clear that he got one of the wider ones rather than the one that FR recommends. I think you could do either and I cant comment on using the wider one, but the one I have seems fine. It dramatically reduced wind noise and now is not much worse than stock.

Thank you! I was actually reading your build thread and noticed it looked narrow compared to the one I saw in Eric's video which then made me too curious to not ask

 

[sdnative]

How is the wind noise with the updated fairing? Especially with the sunroof open. The original design was good at collecting bug guts, not so much at reducing noise.

 

[1world1love]

How is the wind noise with the updated fairing? Especially with the sunroof open. The original design was good at collecting bug guts, not so much at reducing noise.

Yeah, the previous version seemed to direct the airstream right into the sunroof. This fairing does a good job IMO. Definitely cuts down quite a bit. To be honest though, I don't really open the sunroof much at high speeds.