Alright, who's gonna be the first one with a CaliRaised roof rack?

Pass

 

Thanks for making a somewhat unique product. It does share similarities with the prinsu, but at least you made substantial changes and didn’t just copy the design.

 

Making your own may be cheaper, but you have to factor in your regular wage rate at work and then count the hours measuring, sourcing parts, assembly , finishing, etc. $15 per hour (low) at probably 20 hours is $300. Plus materials, plus the material you screwed up cutting, reshipping, freight. So maybe not...

Also, for everyone else, EVERY company has to make money or NONE of us would have jobs! You could buy a cheap Chinese product and save money, or buy an American made product for more. But remember that the FUTA on your check, and SUTA - federal and state unemployment pays for your neighbor who is unemployed since his company closed due to people buying Chinese knockoffs. Either way you pay for it! So buy local!

Everything has a cost, and it all has to be paid.

Just something to think about.

 

Well said, so basically buy an uptop overland or Prinsu.

 

I appreciate the kind words for sure, at the end of the day, they all use extruded aluminum bars, aluminum and powder coat...I get that. It's tried and true, prinsu created this market, we are here because of zach.

We took a different design, got it lower, made it wider, made it longer, got it quieter and added plenty of extra features. Handles, yep. Integrated, flush side lighting, the scenePOD, yeah I'll claim that one. A replacement antenna to cleanly run rooftop wires, the thinFIN, yeah I'll take that too.

 

It’s tough in a saturated market, but you did a great job.

 

Furthermore, we also created products such as the AAP to strengthen and improve the already very capable Prinsu racks while adding features that has made upTOP what we are. The AAP will also work with most other racks that look eerily similar to the prinsu. Again, hats off to prinsu, we would not be here if it was not for them first.

 

I agree, you guys made something original. No mistaking your racks. Most others are just a copy of the prinsu

 

It’s not that dramatic, I did all that in a couple hours, I just need to rent a CNC.

The biggest cost is powder coat because of the minimum cost. The more racks I do, the more cost savings I have.

 

The problem comes from them peddling Chinese products almost exclusively on their site. First impressions are a real thing. All these startups have the same hurdles.

 

I do CAD for a living, you have no idea how tempted I am to whip something together in solidworks.

 

Let’s start a roof rack business. You could probably make some dough just selling the CAD file.

 

Sell the data needed to get one laser cut, I like it.

 

There's a collective thread floating around where people were building one. At least I think.

 

If I were to "OpenSource" a roof rack, which design path would have the most interest? The "prinsu" style or the "uptop" style? Uptop seems the most egregiously overpriced to me.

Obviously would not be a direct copy because that isn't cool, but heavily influenced by.

 

Our bravo is cost competitive and feature rich! The Alpha includes so much more than the roof racks before it thus the price. If you are wanting to compare an upTOP to a Prinsu or whatever else, then it needs to be our Bravo lineup. Our Alphas are in a league of their own

 

Sorry, late to this thread but super interested in the thin black line of grammar policing! Was it a dependent sentence? The author seems to be using a form of ellipsis and expecting you to rely on contextual clues. Either way, we've got bigger fishes to fry. Moses has to be taken to task for all those Bible verses that start with "and" and "but"!

 

Any pics on how the bars sit over the sunroof?

Also, I like the light bar cover design simply for the bug protection.

 

You should create a new thread about this. It would be pretty neat to have something like that available for DIYers.

I was looking forward to this rack after first hearing about it, but the end design (bulky) and price (being only a few bucks cheaper than prinsu) has turned me away.