So now that it’s done and over with, here’s the story of my Prinsu rack.
I was looking to get a flat platform lightweight but strong roof rack to run a roof top tent on. I was planning on picking up the tent in person during a road trip we already had planned to for family wedding, I figured kill 2 birds with 1 stone and avoid paying shipping for the tent. But that meant I had a date that I needed everything in my hands by - August 30th, August 31th at the absolute latest because we were leaving that afternoon. I was deciding between Prinsu or Southern Style Offroad, I called them both up and Prinsu said their next batch of racks would be ready to ship out next week and they could guarantee delivery by my deadline. SSO said I’d would be looking at about 8 weeks before a rack would be ready to ship. Simple, Prinsu it is. So that same day, August 16th, I placed the order for the full-length rack and an 1x1 bar. The website says you need a 1x1 bar for behind the antenna but it wasn’t clear as to if it came with one or not. I figured just get the order in, buy it and if I didn’t need it I’d return it, no big deal.
The following day I get an order confirmation email stating “Your sales order is attached. Please review the list of items on order to make sure everything looks correct. Please also note the ESTIMATED SHIP DATE. If you have any questions or concerns regarding your order or when it is estimated that it will be fulfilled please contact us.” and the attached invoice showed September 6th as the ship date, a full week after the deadline we had just discussed. I responded back asking what was up with that, I said I’m actually paying MORE money to buy the rack directly from you guys vs some of your authorized retailers that are offering free shipping ($105 savings) because you fit my timeframe. I said if you can’t meet the timeline you agreed to yesterday just cancel the order, if I’m going to miss having it for my trip either way I’d rather buy the SSO rack, and at the very least I’d save some money buying indirectly from a 3rd party retailer. They said not to worry it, it’s an automatically generated generic message and it will still be ok.
August 24th it ships and August 28th it got delivered. I knew it was out for delivery so I start pulling the stock roof rack off and cleaning under the rubber strips prepping for installation. The box is here, I open it up… 2 side rails, a bunch of cross bars, wind deflector, and not a single piece of hardware to assemble or install any of it. I call them up and talk to them about the missing hardware and to ask about the 1x1 bar. They said it comes with one 1x1 bar already so a second one is not needed since they forgot to ship it anyway they were just going to refund the cost of the added bar and they would send the hardware out priority mail. I reminded them about the situation and why I went with them, they agreed to overnight the missing hardware. That money for the bar they end up just flat out stealing from me, over time they just kept saying they would refund it then it turned into claiming they already refunded it, my paypal account showed clear as day they were lying.
The next morning August 29th, about 9:30am UPS is at my front door with a package of bolts. I open it up and start taking inventory of what I have. The rack doesn’t come with a parts list or instructions of any kind. The website has a PDF of install instructions but as a customer you never get a list of what you’re supposed to receive to make sure you have it all. There is a big plastic bag labeled “T4R4 ROOFRAC MOUNTING KIT” and inside it is multiple other smaller bags of sorted hardware. That’s when I see the smaller bags.... “T4R4-RR / T4R5 3/4 & 7/8 (RR)- MOUNTING HDW” and sure enough it’s the wrong hardware! There’s no rivnuts, it’s missing the spacers and hardware for the front mounting point and there’s not enough crossbar hardware. It wasn’t the hardware kit for the full length rack. I call them back again and the dude said he didn’t know how it could be wrong because he personally grabbed it yesterday and put it on the mail. The big bag was the correct one but the contents were miss packaged. So again they send out hardware next day air early delivery.
The next morning, August 30th another overnighted package of hardware showed up and would you believe it… it’s the wrong hardware, another set of hardware for the wrong rack. Luckily with 2 bags of incorrect stuff I had enough parts to assemble and install the rack. That’s where things got really bad. It was a total pile of junk and the fitment was a joke.
It’s like they got things kinda close and then just called it good enough. The width of the roof varies by a couple inches front to back. In order to make 1 length of crossbar the rack is straight and square, it overhangs the sides a bit on the back and sits above the black roof channel rubber trim in the front. That’s perfectly understandable and acceptable. My issue is the mounting tabs are all roughly 3” long and they have slots that’s are 1.75” long. It’s such a generic solution and it’s an eye sore. The middle tabs for example, the bolts sit damn near all the way out to widest points and there’s a bunch of tab that sticks out for no reason with long unused slot that serves no purpose other than allowing an opening for water to get into the bolts via the gap. I’d like to see the entire rack about 1/2” wider than it is but with smaller mounting tabs that are drilled like they are actually meant to fit the vehicle vs huge generic tabs with slots for more adjustment then you could ever possibly use. In one of the spots the mounting slot is so out of place the bolt it actually bottomed out against outside of the slot, it’s so far over the washer can’t sit flat without being bent up against the side rail. The front were your supposed to drill into the roofs drip rail, the mounting tab isn’t even over that section of roof, if you centered the rivnut in that Chanel you would not be able to bolt the front of the rack down straight. One cross bar mounting hole on the drivers side rail was so poorly cut it didn’t go all the way through so there was still metal that blocked the bolt from being used. The last thing I wanted to do (or should have to do) was take a dremel to a brand new powder coated product because they didn’t build it right. Aluminum doesn’t rust or anything but I don’t want to give the powder coating an open edge to start chipping from. How did this make it past quality control? The metal for the mounting feet on the side rails were inconsistently bent. The passenger side had sharp angular creased bends where as the drivers side was a more gradual bend, that meant the installed heights were about 1/2” different and rack was crooked, the different in height from left to right was so drastic that the little right side spike things on the front edges by the wind deflector actually hit the roof. I think this is where the recommendation about using fender washers as spacers comes in... of course none of those are included. To get it resemble anything close to level I had to stack washers under the spacers so high that bolts were too short to actually thread in. Plus the “flat” rack is concave from front to back to which defeats the whole purpose of why I bought it.
Disaster of a product, it a bad design with even worse execution. I reached out to them with pictures and info and got no response, I was leaving the next day and I needed a response on what they want me to do. I followed up the next morning and still no response. So, I said screw it I’ll rig it up enough to function for the trip to pick up my tent and I’ll make my own solution for front feet because there wasn’t a chance in hell I was drilling into my roof to permanently mount that piece of shit to my 4Runner.
Eventually they responded back and assured me some new side rails would fix all my problems. They sent them out and I will admit it was better in the sense that the both rails were symmetrical in their bends so some of the problems were addressed but most were not. Plus when I looked them over I found spots of powder coating missing. I complained about it not having full coverage of the powder coating (I explained previously why I was not willing to accept an open spot in the coating previously when I said I wasn’t going to dremel the mounting hole open). Their response was that its normal and its unreasonable to expect their powder coated items to be fully powder coated.
4 shipments in, still a crap product doesn’t meet their product description or my expectations, and they still kept my money from the extra crossbar they didn’t send so I opened a paypal dispute. Prinsu/CBI offered $50 back based on the fact that their cost on the powder coating is only $8 per rack, which is probably why they missed spots, they said it’s was a more than generous offer. Obviously, after calling around I could not find any reputable shop that would repowdercoat two separate 6-7 foot long pieces of metal for $50. Or they offered to let me return it but I’d be on the hook for all the related shipping expenses for this order…. being out hundreds of dollars in total sending scrap metal back and forth just to be back at square one? Oh boy, lucky me!
They sold me a piece of shit at a premium and then flat out STOLE my money for extra parts yet PayPal said I don’t have a claim because they did in fact deliver a product to me....
I ended up opening a claim with the Better Business Bureau about theft and a product that did not meet their websites description or my expectations. Finally after months and involvement from the BBB they sent a prepaid return shipping label so I could mail all their shit back to them for a 100% full refund. The stipulation Prinsu wanted to add is they asked that I not “slander” their company and any negative reviews had to be removed before they would issue the refund. I ended up buying a Southern Style Off-Road full length rack to replace the Prinsu during Black Friday while hoping they would actually go through with the refund. I meticulously documented every item and how it was all packaged and sent that to them as the item shipped. I wanted to cover my ass because I was worried that if I didn’t they would try to pull some shit to weasel their way out of giving a full refund.
I did eventually receive my refund and while I won’t “slander” the company I have no qualms informing others of my experience doing business with them and buying their product. Joke of a product, joke of a company. I have nothing positive to say about either and would not recommend them.
The roof changes width and the rack is a fixed width because of the cross bar length. Instead of making the mounting feet relevant to the width of the vehicle they are all huge with a long slot. There is no reason for this tab to stick out so far and have that much room for adjustment that couldn’t possibly be used, ever.
Why are the middle mounting tabs stick all the way out when the bolts align at the outer most area on both side.
Which leaves a nice open slot for water to get down into the spacer with an inner diameter to big for the bolts. I guess they assume enough sealant can make up for the design flaw.
This is top notch quality control right here.
Drivers side bend
Passenger side crease
Which makes the pointy piece not even close to clearing (sitting on the middle and rear spacers, no front spacer in pace to bent the rack up and make it even more concave)
I couldn’t fit enough washer to even it out left to right, with this many I could get 2 threads on the bolts.
Height difference left to right
As flat and straight as a Home Depot 2x4.
