Happy Friday t4r peeps. Just wanted to share some photos of my Crestone rack and my experience with it over the summer. The boys over at Sherpa Equipment Co. got my rack installed at the end of May and I've been (literally) beating the hell out of it all summer. Things I like about the Sherpa compared to the competition:

Style - Of all of the modular racks available for the 5th gen, I personally think this one looks the best. It fits the curvature of the roof perfectly and is visually appealing.

Function - This thing is incredibly versatile. From the hand holds to the cross bar adjustability, you can mount just about anything you can imagine on this rack and access said accessories with ease. In the past I've ran a Gobi and a Rhino Rack platform and this rack blows them out of the water as far as mounting options go.

Wind noise - This rack is virtually silent. Granted I am running 35"+ MTs and an exhaust but even over 100mph I don't hear any howls or whistles which I had with my previous racks. I know this was a major component of the R&D process for this rack and the boys over at Sherpa really killed it in this department.

Durability - The Crestone is stout to say the least. It feels solid on the truck and doesn't have any rattles or shakes that some other extrusion racks can have. Additionally, this rack is made entirely out of aluminum (besides the hardware). This means it WILL NOT rust! Incredible.

Load - For the first two months that I had this rack, I didn't run anything on the rack. In July, I installed a Simple Outdoors hardshell RTT. The tent is no joke at 145lbs and if you ask any of my friends they'll tell you I drive my truck like I'm racing the Baja 500 (because Kings!!!) I kid, I kid. But seriously, if anyone is going to break something on this rack I can confidently say I would have already done it. I've had 3 people and a dog piled into the tent and there was no flex in the side plates which is impressive.

Overall, I love this rack and I can confidently say that this will be my permanent roof rack solution.

Now for pics!!

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[QUOTE=iRide4Runner;3355169]

Wind noise - This rack is virtually silent. Granted I am running 35"+ MTs and an exhaust but even over 100mph I don't hear any howls or whistles which I had with my previous racks. I know this was a major component of the R&D process for this rack and the boys over at Sherpa really killed it in this department.



Nice rig and the rack looks good to.

You go over 100 mph?

We installed a Crestone yesterday here locally and I wanted to post some photos of the front feet as well as some other detail shots for those who have asked.









For those that are also wondering why the feet do not tie into the crossbars as they do will all of our other racks, it is to allow our rack to sit low without having to modify your shark fin antenna. The rear mounts are directly in line with the fin and we found this to be the best method. The front feet, however, do mount to the crossbar so you have lots of adjustability on where you want them to sit, etc.

Wait wait wait back up. What color code is that? Respray or wrap?

Very nice work on contouring the rack's runners to match the roofline's shape. Nice looking rack system.

[QUOTE=comtn4x4;3355180] Thanks man!

Only in Mexico

But seriously, in some parts of the country the speed limit is 80-85 so it's realistic to think people might being going pretty quick and we wanted to make sure this thing was silent.

I repainted the truck myself. It's Toyota Spruce Mica 6V4

Looks great, very impressive

We finally found black hardware that is up to our spec. These sat in a cup of water for 2 weeks and no rust so we are happy to get them added to our site. Chasing down black hardware that withstands our strength and quality needs wasn't easy but we are happy to sell this black hardware upgrade on our website.

Black Hardware Upgrade — Sherpa Equipment Company

This hardware is Black Oxide Stainless. Strong, rust-free, and good looking.

Is this new black stainless hardware now standard with the purchase of a new rack system?

It's not, it's an extra $45.

@Pendoggo4R is correct, for the full-length racks it is $45 and for the shorter racks it is $40.

Doin a bit of roof prep. I’ll install tomorrow after the USPS guy delivers my black hardware.






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Got mine today. Some quick thoughts:

- Install was fairly straightforward; if you've wrenched before, you can figure this out. But the instruction sheet.. I thought it could have been done better cause I couldn't really make any sense of it. Credit to Sherpa though, got the rack on just fine without the instructions.

- Sherpa gets an A+ for communication. They're responsive, esp over the phone.

- Hardware upgrade to black hardware is a little pricey, and it only includes exterior facing hardware. The nuts on the insides of the rails, the front leveling mounts, and some of the smaller bolts inside the assembly were silver. Minor gripe, but still a gripe for a $45 upgrade. Also, for some reason I was short two black washers so two of the washers on the outside are silver. In the end I had about 6 silver washers left over. I plan to contact Sherpa for a couple extra.

- Finish is excellent. The powder coat is very even and well applied. I bumped a few crossbars and had a few scuffs, but the finish didn't compromise.

- Main install gripe: the front leveling mount portion of the install was a giant pain in the ass. I'm no engineer, but I didn't understand why there weren't fixed points in the front crossbar that the leveling mounts attached to. The amount of finagling and loosening and tightening (huge pain with the nylon centered nuts) just to get the rubber mounts to sit centered in the gutter, then to have it shift when working on the other side. Do the exterior dimensions of the 4Runner vary slightly from the '10 to '19 productions? I guess that would make sense. Otherwise it seemed to me that getting the mounts dead center with fixed bolting points would have been a very feasible thing to do.

- Front fairing is gapped a few millimeters so it's not touching the roof. Hit 70mph on the way home today, no whistling. Fantastic.

- One of the rails came with a pretty decent sized chunk on the edge. Sherpa wrapped the ever loving hell out of the components, so I don't know.. FedEx must have really done a number on this in transit cause it's very noticeable. Annoying, but not Sherpa'a fault.

I'll post pictures and possibly more thoughts tomorrow. It was pretty damned dark when I finished.

Overall, highly recommend Sherpa. It looks fantastic, good dudes to deal with, and seems like it's gonna be up on the car for a long time to come.

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Looking forward to the pics and seeing how it looks—take a lot!


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