Roof racks

I've had both and recently got rid of my Prinsu. The FrontRunner rack is easily 10x the quality. The only "plus" that the Prinsu takes is that cross-bar adjustability is more versatile. Everything else goes to FrontRunner, by a wide margin.

 

What awbing is that?

 

Don’t forget the rack that @Dissent86 offers. Looks like a high quality option as well.

OA

 

front runner

 

10X? That's a pretty huge margin, implies one brews a great espresso and the other is crap. Perhaps the 10X is simply suggestive that you really liked one vs. the other? Or do you truly mean that the construction quality is an order of magnitude better for the Frontrunner? Both of these are on my 'maybe' list, so it's an honest question.

 

Order of magnitude difference.

You can take one of the sides of the Prinsu rack in your hand, and wobble the other end of it like a pool noodle; it is that soft/flexible. All of the rack's weight bearing is on the horizontal bolts that connect the rack sides to the cross bars. All hardware leaves marks on the powdercoat when you adjust/relocate the cross bars (without over-tightening the hardware).

And it still makes a ton of noise, even with the rubber strip and properly adjusted windscreen. The windscreen is too short and needs to be 2-3" taller to properly push air over the closest crossbars, as opposed to right into them.

With the FR rack, the crossbars sit in the side piece's C-channel, so the weight load is distributed across that wide piece of aluminum, instead of perpendicularly, on two tiny bolts. Each piece is solid, rigid, and confidence inspiring. You can slide hardware into the cross-bars without disconnecting said cross bars.

You can use regular M8 hex bolts that can be found at any hardware store, without having to buy specific 80/20 t-slot nuts (Prinsu's cross bars are off the shelf 80/20 Inc. products), or looking for 1/4" carriage bolts that (sorta) work in the Prinsu's channels. I say sorta, because it's incredibly easy to damage the aluminum channel when tightening that 1/4" carriage bolt, and I've damaged several channels (which results in that carriage bolt free-spinning in place) even while being careful.

What Prinsu has going for it is it's low profile and flexibility in cross-bar adjustments. That's it. I'd buy FrontRunner (or a comparable rack from Rhino Racks, K9, etc.) 10 times out of 10.

 

What lights are you running on the side?

 

Baja Sport S2's

 

The prinsu rack sides are def flimsy, I can vouch for that

 

Thank you for the detailed information; this is the kind of content that is valuable and informative.

Are they flimsy once installed, or is that a determination during installation? The load bearing axis on those side rails should be quite robust, but I agree that the lateral stability would suffer unless well secured by the anchor feet.

 

I went with Warrior Products cab rack and couldn't be happier. I considered the frontrunner, but had heard and read that wind noise was an issue. Wind noise is not really noticeable with the WP rack, and it's beefy as all get out. The only downside is that there are not a lot of options from WP for mounting accessories (compared to Prinsu and FR). Prinsu is hard to beat for the price, and it looks amazing.

 

It seems there's really no reason to rip off the roof rail mount protective tape/film.. I've watched 5+ vids of dudes just poking a hole where the female threads are located, squeezing a pea/dime sized dollop of silicone on the thread hole and mounting the bracket and bolt on top. Seems to be the best weather resistant/rust proof method and with much less work. I know everyone on here (for the most part) are perfectionists but removing everything seems like overkill, really not necessary and probably doing more harm than good.

'Dem strong bolted on brackets don' care if there's a 1/64" piece of insulating, moisture barrier film between them and the roof panel sills.. Leave 'em there to help keep that truck purty