Feb 09, 2024

I hesitated writing this for a year now, but with so many people getting excited about this product, I'm compelled to tell my particular not-so-happy tale.

Purchased the full length TrailRax for my Badlands Sasquatch back in Nov 22. Did a lot of research and they had the highest advertised load capacity (250lbs dynamic, 850lbs static) of any manufacturer. This was important to me as I was planning on installing a rooftop tent and other camping gear. Their design with the Pak Rax attachment at the fender seemed about as secure and well supported as possible. Then purchased and installed a 170lb CVT tent. After just a couple weeks of city/highway travel I noticed a distinct sway/bow in the side rails. I immediately contacted TrailRax with pics and said 'how can this be??' considering their advertised load ratings. Sales Director Heston was very polite and explained that the load rating is based on 'even distribution' across the entire rack and because mine is more compact, it concentrated more weight in specific area of the rack vs across the entire surface. Sounds reasonable ... until you consider that no matter where you put any tent, or no matter how wide it is, it still sits on/attaches to only two (2) load bars of the rack. I'm no engineer, but their explanation just didn't make sense to me. Heston also suggested that because I mounted the tent directly to the load bars (with spacers vs tent risers) and my four tent latches were also sitting on the side rails, that too contributed to the sway. Again, I'm no engineer but if we're talking about the basics of weight distribution, my tent had eight (8) points of distribution instead of the standard four (four points at the load bars and four points at the latches). Wouldn't that aid the distribution vs concentrate it? Still, Heston suggested I try ordering some of their tent mount risers and move the tent back 5 1/2" to the very rear.

Anyone who has tried to install or even reposition a rooftop tent themselves can attest to the PIA involved, but I ordered the mounts and moved the tent 5 1/2" as suggested. The pic above is after the install: Zero change to the sway/bow. I thought about all those bitchin' videos TrailRax has on their website with the full length racks loaded up with several boxes and tents and gear, Baja racing through the desert with jumps and all. How could that be possible if my rack is bending/swaying with 170lbs up top and on flat city streets and highways. It was NOT confidence inspiring and I could only assume that once I started going off-road over time it could get worse and/or unsafe (not too mention that the sway has reduced the already small clearance to remove the hardtop panels). I sent Heston the pics showing no improvement and expressed my concern. Here was his response:

"The tent mounted like that is 100% safe. Each cross bar can take over 200 pounds in a concentrated point before it will break anything including bolts. They will flex, but not break. As for the bow, the only suggestion if you want it to not be bowed, would be to order a new side rail. A side rail would be $250 plus shipping. The bow will not cause the rack to be compromised or weaker in any way. It is purely cosmetic."

I'm no Princess, but yeah...I don't like the cosmetics. And offering nothing more than the opportunity to rebuy the side rails at full price ($500), then completely remove the tent and dismantle this erector set in order to reassemble the whole thing to see if/maybe it won't bend again ... well, I'll pass. Also if each individual cross bar (which is aluminum and lighter/less strong the the steel side rails) can handle 200lbs, why is my 170lb tent causing the entire rack to bow? I went one step further. I ordered a second set of tent mounts from TrailRax, and (testing that law of weight distribution) now have eight (8) total tent mounts for my compact tent cross four (4) total load bars. Take that. But did it make a difference? Nope. It's just going to be twice as hard to remove now...

Word to the wise.

Dan

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