The rack arrived on Saturday, far earlier than expected! I could hardly wait, so I enlisted a good friend to help me assemble it on Sunday. My dog made sure to help by sticking his giant head in for some ear scratching whenever it looked like we were working too hard. I took a few pictures of the build, but not enough to give you an idea of the entire build process. The build took all day and we stayed busy.
All the materials were securely packed and there was no damage. The kit included printed instructions, which I found fairly easy to follow. The construction itself I found to be minimally complicated, but fairly labor intensive. This was most particular when it came time to attach the cross bars, with the numerous nuts and bolts securing each one. The parts kit is primarily comprised of 1/4" bolts and 5/16" bolts with lock-nuts. I torqued all the 1/4" bolts to 100 in/lbs and the 5/16 to 150 in/lbs. I was particularly grateful to have my friend's help as all the nuts/bolts add up to a lot of labor. Typically, one of us would hand tighten bolts in place and the other would follow up with a torque wrench.
Mounting the rack itself on the vehicle gave us a pretty good headache due to the relationship between the roof attachment feet, the threaded clips which accommodate the rack mounting bolts and the rack itself. The clips attach to the feet and provide the threaded opening to run a bolt through thus securing the rack to the feet. The clips float a bit and have to align with openings in the feet and rack itself. That part was practically a nightmare. I'll be curious to see other's more definitive posts and how they got the clips to work in a smoother way. We struggled with it and still have some adjustments to make.
The kit itself appears to be well made. The powder coating appears to be very thick and the overall weight of the rack is not bad, maybe 60 pounds. It came with a nice rubberized gasket which mounts underneath the front fairing to cut wind noise. The assembled rack appears solid and I find stunning to look at. I drove on the freeway after work and noticed some marginal increase in wind noise at 65 mph, but the wind was also blowing quite hard. There was no whistling or vibrations at all that I noticed.
It would have been far easier to mount another type of rack with simpler construction and fewer parts, but I think this one is perfect for what I was looking for...a balance between form and function. This summer I will be looking into ways I can mount some flood lights to the sides and in back.
Regards,
Desmo
All the materials were securely packed and there was no damage. The kit included printed instructions, which I found fairly easy to follow. The construction itself I found to be minimally complicated, but fairly labor intensive. This was most particular when it came time to attach the cross bars, with the numerous nuts and bolts securing each one. The parts kit is primarily comprised of 1/4" bolts and 5/16" bolts with lock-nuts. I torqued all the 1/4" bolts to 100 in/lbs and the 5/16 to 150 in/lbs. I was particularly grateful to have my friend's help as all the nuts/bolts add up to a lot of labor. Typically, one of us would hand tighten bolts in place and the other would follow up with a torque wrench.
Mounting the rack itself on the vehicle gave us a pretty good headache due to the relationship between the roof attachment feet, the threaded clips which accommodate the rack mounting bolts and the rack itself. The clips attach to the feet and provide the threaded opening to run a bolt through thus securing the rack to the feet. The clips float a bit and have to align with openings in the feet and rack itself. That part was practically a nightmare. I'll be curious to see other's more definitive posts and how they got the clips to work in a smoother way. We struggled with it and still have some adjustments to make.
The kit itself appears to be well made. The powder coating appears to be very thick and the overall weight of the rack is not bad, maybe 60 pounds. It came with a nice rubberized gasket which mounts underneath the front fairing to cut wind noise. The assembled rack appears solid and I find stunning to look at. I drove on the freeway after work and noticed some marginal increase in wind noise at 65 mph, but the wind was also blowing quite hard. There was no whistling or vibrations at all that I noticed.
It would have been far easier to mount another type of rack with simpler construction and fewer parts, but I think this one is perfect for what I was looking for...a balance between form and function. This summer I will be looking into ways I can mount some flood lights to the sides and in back.
Regards,
Desmo