Coot83's bro inspired "Baller Maller" Build

He’s coming up this weekend so I’ll hold the intervention

 

True I need to give that feature another hit.

 

We’ll crank those bypasses to full stiff and let you send it.

 

I do wonder how they will perform on other stuff when cranked.

 

Good if you drive fast enough lol. Actually probably not the best. But it should allow you to hot that jump hard.

 

Send it bro!

 

I know I dont post on here much anymore, but after dealing with the shit design of the prinsu I figured I might as well share my experience so others can benefit when it comes to selecting a suitable roof rack.

Unfortunately I only have photos of the most recent failure, but I will get to these trail photos soon enough...

1. Wind Cowling - This thing has been stupid noisy from the get go so I never attached it on the rack. One will probably state "mine doesnt make any noise"? That might be the case, but if this rack were to be designed and "tested" I wonder if Prinsu might have concluded a similar design. Uptop Overland is what many of my AZ peers are throwing on their third gens and honestly as an engineer (I know I dont throw out my profession much) it makes sense. It has alot of universal options, but the BIG item is the slit in the middle of the wind cowling. It is DESIGNED with the intent of the air to flow through the rack instead of just beat on it. Probably was tested before going to manufacturing. See photo for example:



2. Bolt quality - Nearly all of my bolts have sheared themselves due to being weak in material. What happens you say? Well I install the rack (initially with holes through my drip molding and sandwich the molding for a cleaner channel look. Bolts become loose, start to bend, tighten, and then eventually start to fail. I am suggested that the molding is limiting the strength of the tension of the bolt because it is flexible. I agree OK F me, lets try this again. I bolt it down with nothing in between the channel and the rack. Same thing happens...what I have found is the rack is simply too flimsy without perpendicular supports and "sways" back and fourth. The cheap ass bolts supplied will flex, lose tension on the rack, and then snap pretty quick. Keep in mind I was tightening this rack all the time, which eventually my buddy Ryan @snowsk8air2 suggested making the holes in the roof bigger for thicker bolts. This turned into a genious idea as the bolts suppled with the rack are very skinny to the holes the rack is designed to bolt with to where one would think that maybe the hardware was a size smaller than intended. After buying quality hardware, this issue did not exist anymore. Also to note, the Uptop rack previously referenced is supplied with NASA grade hardware. I dont know how that compares to the prinsu hardware, but I would bet money that it is significantly better.

3. Material selection - The prinsu's weakest link besides the china hardware is the sides of the proprietary side pieces of the rack. Simply put you can bend these pieces right out of the box and with no reinforcement given how long that strip is, Im not surprised they failed. Given the sides are pretty flimsy, there really is not much real estate to suffice for the prinsu sign on the end as this proved to be a snapping point for my rack. The individual middle slot aluminum rows are a common aluminum extrusion that anyone can buy off of Amazon given you know the dimensions you want, the bolts are found similarly as they are just a standard star bolt. As I am writing this review, I am detailing the issues as they have presented themselves. So with the new bolts and the rack not being able to flex to its advantage, the force had to go somewhere when doing stuff off-road...this is where the back two pieces of the rack cracked. I know that I do have an ARB awning, but besides that and a 4 gallon rotopax gas can on the roof...it was loaded pretty light to me. Again, not hard to tell that the rack was just not strong enough to handle the load and with the inconsistent use of being on a trail it was only a certain amount of time before it failed. I truly was surprised at first, but remembering the shitshow this rack has consistently proven I should have expected this. So I had a nice floppy bullshit duct taped rack for 3 hours of trail driving this weekend. Check out the photos for yourself. If needed, I can supply photos of the completely sheared pieces, but I think you get the point.





4. Mounting point bending - This rack has only been loaded about three times to where I had a good amount of stuff on it. The mounting location "L" points were significantly bending due to lack of a vertical gusset or anything keeping the mount from just crunching in on itself. I dont know if other competitors make a vertical support/gusset for their mounting points, but this thing clearly could use one.

5. Price - I know I got this rack right when Prinsu was acquired which there was a small grace period before it got commercially more expensive. The last of my knowledge the prinsu was around 750-800 for it and to lack the ability to function...I think many would be glad to consider UPtop or another PROVEN competitor over this. I know I have been plugging UPtop and yet I dont own any of their products or have any association...as an engineer I like what I have noticed so far in their design and versatility.

Lets just get this out there...yes I have a long travel taco with a DMZ SUA (17 inches strapped) and TC 3.5 race (14 inches up front strapped) with the primo RCV elongated axles to get my reliability AND that extra angle for a little more strap. Now that you have the picture, I do drive "trail appropriate" which is faster than slower typically. THAT SAID, this rack is only loaded down when I am doing overlanding/camping trips which require the extra shit to begin with. When Im flying through whoops, jumps, etc its naked except for the arb awning and even before then the rack had trouble keeping the bolts in as previously described. It was surprising to me that having the rack loaded with some fuel tanks, water, boards, it could barely handle itself. I honestly think the stock roof rack would be more flimsy, but not fail like this thing does.

So...why the review? Despite my experience and not knowing if others have seen similar with their racks I wanted to get the word out if anything for MY friends on here. The price tag of the prinsu is so much more compared to what it used to be and IMO for a guy who doesnt wheel that often this thing died quick. I gave it about 8 trips worth of decent testing and I would not bet anything on this. I dont plan to get anything fixed with the rack as to me it was substandard designed and as such I got no problem working with Ryan in designing something that will work for real world loads. The power of knowing someone with a welder when problems like these arise def changes the game so stay tuned for what it turns into. Long story short I will be recreating the perimeter of the rack, but the tried and true components like the extruded aluminum pieces and its associated hardware will be reutilized on the beefier design.

@TacoFMS this was really inspired solely for you brother. You know I never go full engineer on things, but I had to critique this thing and with the info above. My friends are still trying out their UPtop racks, but compared to my prinsu I would argue you might be in good hands with their product and dont end up with dings along your roof like I have now thanks to this shit product. When I kept addressing these failures I kept asking my buddies "am I the only one who experiences this?" I have been told not many "wheel" with their racks so take that for what you will.

 

Great mall crawling rack, but like we have discussed, definitely has some weak points. We’ll get something your happy with designed up that can handle much more “abuse”

 

Yea man looking forward to seeing what we come up with. Man your sig pic is gangster...that flex!

 

@Coot83 where are you?

 

He only communicates via DM or his onlyfans channel now... gots bills ta pay!

 

Yeah he doesn’t log on here anymore really

 

Yeah. I've noticed. He must have BRO'ed out for Instagram mall shots....

Ol' Coot was crazy.

 

He isn’t on IG as far as I know. And rarely on fakebook either. Think he just doesn’t get on social media or the forums much anymore.

 

He doesn't get on much but I know for a fact he's not on the gram getting mall shots lol

 

I told him he is dearly missed on here we will see if he makes a triumphant comeback.

 

Does he still have his same number?

I text him and and he didn’t reply.

 

He snagged a Phoenix number like a year ago

 

The last text I have with him was in April 2020.

Some poor guy got a texts today with me calling him coot. Hahaha!

 

Everyone loves a friendly cooter