Black Oxide Hardware

Just as a little update for everyone on this. From what we can tell this seems to be an isolated issue as far as vehicle paint discoloration. It is common for there to be some residue left behind on the rack side plate when water drips down the coated bolts. It is unfortunately something that is unavoidable to some extent, but we have never had anything permanent come from this. If you use stainless bolts you get the residue and if you use steel/zinc you will end up with rust.

We have switched suppliers a couple of times. The new socket head bolts do seem to have a better coating but it takes years to know how they hold up to the elements. We can always make a plan to add a stainless hardware package to the website if that is something the community wants.


Mounts and Rubber Spacers

I figured it would be best to post some more photos and videos for everyone looking at the proper way to tighten our mounts, both in the front and the rear-- see below. It is important to get this right because if you keep tightening the bolts the rubber will just push out and wrap around the mount as seen in the photos above. If you over tighten these mounts you will get cracking and you will bring your rack sides too close to the paint. We have always stated in the instructions to not go past flat on bonded washers, but now there is a lot more detail in the instructions about this. We can’t thank you all enough for the open dialog on how to improve things like this.

Once we are all settled in with the new shop, we will be working on a line of install videos for all of the rack systems. We believe this is the best way to demonstrate proper install techniques and pass along some of the tricks we use here in house.

It is also a good time to mention that all mounts and components across our entire line up of racks will be labeled for easier install.

As always, please reach out if you have any questions!