First off I do not want to turn this into a bashing thread or "baja sucks" thread. I merely wan't others on here to be educated when researching rack options for their own vehicles.
This rack has been installed for a year and the only thing mounted to it was a James Baroud tent that weigh's 130lbs, a Fiamma awning that is mounted with the Baja brackets that weigh's 19lbs. The combined weight of the two people sleeping in the tent is 270lbs.
I recently removed the tent and rack from the vehicle to re-position the tent on the rack. This is when I discovered issue 2 below.
Issue 1:
Driving down the paved highway, one of the awning brackets broke. Luckily the window was down and we were only traveling 35mph and the passenger was able to grab it when we heard the snap and no further damage to the vehicle occurred. After a couple weeks of me chasing them and correspondence, they sent me new brackets that were redesigned and much stronger for free. I cannot say the process was good but the end result was acceptable customer service.
http://i.imgur.com/tRifYqA.jpg
Issue 2:
The Baja Utility rack has dented the top of my 4Runner in 6 places. On all four corners the outside of the feet have dented the roof. On the two rear rear ones it has also dented the roof from the inside edge of the feet. This was not noticeable when the rack was mounted to the vehicle.
With that said, I am curious how many other people have removed their rack and have or have not found dents? I am curious if this is just a manufacturing problem with my rack or a design/jig issue that would result in more people experiencing the issue. My guess is that most people do not remove their rack once installed so there's potentially many others that might not know. This is really the intent of this thread, awareness and education.
http://i.imgur.com/5wfbSCJ.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/YmZmF2d.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/v6R8NhG.jpg
What I think the problem is, and unfortunately I didn't take a picture of the bottom of the racks feet where the touch the car, is either the angles of the feet do not match the angle of the sheet metal OR the small steel tubes that come down into the channel are not long enough. These tubes are welded to the bottom of the feet and allow the rack to stand off the car the correct amount. This tube is where the rack bolts into the stock mounting holes. The solution below is what I came up with and appears to put the rack into the proper position. This is a 1/4" piece of aluminum, so quite the distance to correct the manufacturing/design issue. The rack has always been installed using the Toyota recommended torque. Baja did not specify a torque nor did they have one when I called upon original installation.
http://i.imgur.com/qoTTKae.jpg
I have several very professional emails to Baja with their Sales, Engineering and Support email addresses along with Sergio Murillo's business email without ANY response to the issue. Over the course of the last 3 weeks all 4 email address were cc'd on all correspondence. ZERO response. They were sent the same pictures you see here. One voice mail was also left. My time spent reaching out has been exhausted. From my perspective this is horrible customer service.
I hope the people here find this of some value and education. Even more I hope I am the only person with a brand new 4Runner that has significant dents on its roof from using this product.
