[mteolus]

Originally Posted by uh0h50

Looks good. What did you use to secure the boards down?

5" long 3/8 bolts, 4 of them. Others use two but when I did mine the boards were a little warped so I used 4. Held the bolts to the cross bar with a washer, a lock washer, and a nut. I think I used a 7/16 (or whatever the next size up was) flat washer since it is a little wider than a 3/8.

Now to hold the XBulls down, you can use a 1" od (outer diameter), 1/2 id (inner diameter), and 2" long steel bushing to go on top of the XBulls after you slide it on the 4 bolts. But they were expensive. Steel Bushing on EBay. Notice at $7 not too bad but they want $8 for shipping. I also found them at an Ace Hardware store (no shipping because it's in person) but they were $12 a piece. Since they are steel they will rust.

So I chose to go cheaper and go with a 1/2" PVC 2" connector pipe. It's threaded on each side but it's already pre-cut so much easier than buying a pipe and cutting it yourself. 70 cents a piece at Ace Hardware. Here is what it looks like although this isn't exact and is more expensive.

Then I screwed them down with 4 of these.

Pic. And thanks to Brick Sprickly for the help.

[jafrush]

Small update post:

We're not exhibiting at Expo East this year because I'm recovering from a small surgery earlier this week, and none of the other guys could make their schedules work. Was really a bummer how the timing just sucked this year all around.

We were talking though this week, and are actively planning on making the trip out to Expo West this coming year! Really excited about that already. I've been out west several times, love it out there, but never with my own 4x4.

Lead times: Over the past several weeks we've really worked on increasing stock levels on a lot of items, and our shipping team has also done a phenomenal job getting orders out ahead of schedule. Right now we're actually sitting at less than one week lead time on most of our roof rack products. That's still going to fluctuate depending on order levels, but we're going to try to keep that lead time down for roof racks.

Also last week we had one of our good customers, Ed, stop by on his way out to Utah. He's got one of our rear bumpers (and roof rack and full skid set), and was actually in a wreck on the interstate about two weeks ago. The bumper took the impact and saved his 4Runner, he drove away with only some damaged powder coating and a bent left rear wheel. You can see the mark on the left rear corner of the bumper. Hated to hear about the accident, but was really awesome seeing how well the bumper held up. Its the second time now that we've had one of our rear bumpers get hit, and both times had the same result. They're freaking stout Really looking forward to getting one back on my own 4Runner.



We'll be set up next Saturday in Uwharrie for the Uwharrie Outdoor Summit, come by and say hi if you're around!

[gdvan01]

Originally Posted by jafrush

Small update post:

We're not exhibiting at Expo East this year because I'm recovering from a small surgery earlier this week,...

Get well soon!

[jafrush]

Question for people who have our racks (and if you don't as well I guess)

One of the complaints we hear often is that the carriage bolts are ugly. Unfortunately we still havent found any other solution for the carriage bolt that is both black AND corrosion resistant AND the appropriate grade.

I just got some bolts in that are black with an even higher corrosion resistance rating than the current yellow zinc carriage bolts, BUT they're standard bolts. So that means install would require two wrenches. The second negative is they're extremely pricey - it was $110 our cost for a full rack's work of them. We're trying to see if we can find them cheaper from another vendor.

So, the question - Is the negative of needing two wrenches for installation, and a probable higher cost, worth it to people to get black hardware instead of the yellow zinc bolts? It would probably start as an option instead of making it a standard.

I'll probably install these on the rack sometime this week or next week to see what it looks like.

[007Tacoma]

Originally Posted by jafrush

So, the question - Is the negative of needing two wrenches for installation, and a probable higher cost, worth it to people to get black hardware instead of the yellow zinc bolts? It would probably start as an option instead of making it a standard.

I'll probably install these on the rack sometime this week or next week to see what it looks like.

What follows is 100% my opinion...

If I didn't like the look of the zinc carriage bolts, I would have no problem painting them. I may actually do this with plasti-dip as that would be a great way to do it. The higher cost of the black bolts really is not worth it to me, but I understand why other people are wanting that option.

For me - I chose the LFD Roof Rack for its unique design, the single wrench needed to adjust, the overall strength, and its relatively low cost. Also, I LOVE the smooth look of the carriage bolts and being able to use a single wrench to move my crossbars around.

I may do a trial run of plasti-dipping the the carriage bolts to see how it looks...

[jhguth]

I used self etching primer and black automotive spray paint

I'd prefer the carriage boots for single tool installation vs black bolts, it only cost about $8 to paint them

Sent from my SM-G960U using Tapatalk

[007Tacoma]

Originally Posted by jhguth

I used self etching primer and black automotive spray paint

I'd prefer the carriage boots for single tool installation vs black bolts, it only cost about $8 to paint them

That does look good.

[mteolus]

$110 too much for me even if I just had to have them black.

[jafrush]

Originally Posted by mteolus

$110 too much for me even if I just had to have them black.

I didn't think about it when originally posting, but the standard hardware costs around $50 a rack I think, so it'd be about a $60 up-charge since you're not sending double hardware. Still too much?

[sactown]

Stainless still unavailable?

[gdvan01]

I don't mind the yellow/gold bolts myself...it's kinda like having gold crowns on my 2 front teefs.

[jafrush]

Originally Posted by sactown

Stainless still unavailable?

We only found one supplier who said they could get them in stainless and in the right grade, and they never got back to us with the quote. :/

[gdvan01]

Originally Posted by jafrush

We only found one supplier who said they could get them in stainless and in the right grade, and they never got back to us with the quote. :/

Fargin' Iceholes!

[jafrush]

Another Dual Swing High Clearance rear bumper coming off the laser this morning. It is the first one in this latest batch, which are all already sold. Probably running another batch late next month.

[sactown]

Originally Posted by jafrush

We only found one supplier who said they could get them in stainless and in the right grade, and they never got back to us with the quote. :/

That’s sad. Maybe try the search again sometime.