roof racks

111 views and no replies would seem to indicate no one has experience with these roof racks. But as one who has wasted enough money on cheap stuff that was no good and had to be spent again plus some to buy what I should have bought in the first place, rather than saving money on cheap new stuff, buying quality second hand is a much safer strategy.

The classified section of this website is a great place to start.

Ironman racks are chinese made. Have heard of rust problems, google ironman roof racks.

I myself like and use ARB products, never had an issue yet.

I have ARB stuff and it has all come back in the condition it left home.

If your roof rack fails while you are in the bush where are you going to hide the stuff that was on it?

One of the 4x4unsealed mags, current or recent, had a run-down on Chinese knock-offs:

http://www.unsealed4x4.com.au/

Recycled steel, welds that haven't penetrated, fasteners made of cheese, coatings that fail within 6 months, bolts that are missing, bolt holes that don't line up etc.

Also bear in mind that whatever the rack is rated at, the roof is what sets the load limits, and then when you're going offroad you'd reduce that by a third or a half.

In general some Aussie suppliers are selling Chinese stuff and there's no reason why it can't be well-made with the backing of a reputable name. Outside that it becomes a lottery IMO.

I bought a tigerz 11 cheap set at Christmas 2013. I live on the Great Central Rd 230km west of Uluru so every time my car is on the road it is getting punished.

I installed the Roof racks and got it a little long and in a massive down pour on the way back home after christmas they caused a leak through to the roof. I adjusted and they have been all good!

There now 16 months old and they are still doing the job well. I didnt think they would get past the first 6 months. I think they are pretty good to be honest and just put my Grand farther onto a set.

They may fail in the next 6 months but that is the gamble I took. If you want assured quality I believe you need to pay the $$.

As for taking them on and off. I question how practical this will be. I had to take the roof rails off my Prado to put the Tigerz 11 one on. Im not sure everything would go back together that well after the 2nd or 3rd time. The time involved is pretty massive to.

I did use a roof pod out here for a while. This may be a better option if you are looking to take it on and off, also depends on how much weight and the size of item you want to carry. The pod did crack after 6 months and is now a swimming pool for my daughter.

Good luck and let me know where you ended up.

Anyhow, a roof load of 500 kg is absurd, shurly a typo. Our Rhino roof rack is specified for a static load of 100 kg, which is about what the roof of the car can carry. The dynamic load depends on the roughness of the road. We carry no more than 30 kilo including the roof rack that weighs 10 kilos.

Cheers

An ARB steel rack weighs in excess of 50kg. Most vehicles have a 100kg limit on roof weights.
As said it all comes out of payload and when we went travelling, after weighing up when fully kitted out we had to leave the rack and some other stuff behind

We've had a Tigerz11 flat roof rack on constantly for 2.5 years. It has got a fair amount of rust underneath the powder coating (it's mostly where we load our surfboards so it gets sand and salt on it quite a bit).

We have a roof top tent on it and it copes fine. The advantage of the tigerz11 is it weighs almost nothing, so it's easy to lift on and off. Also the mounting design is a lot easier than the previous Ironman roof rack we had.

As i said it's a bit rusty now, so you don't get the life out of it as you would say an ARB. But, it was only 400 bucks

Em