Any opinions on these two roof racks, would love to hear from someone who has had both. I like the options for the frontrunner but I think the prinsu looks better also can't really find any great frontrunner pictures and the one on there sight makes the rack look really short?
I did quite a bit of research on both of these before ordering my Prinsu. You can see some of the results
here. I went with Prinsu because of the lower profile -- being about half the added height to the ride compared to Front Runner -- and a particular aspect of the cross bars connecting to the rails that favored my needs I will explain below. The Prinsu rack also looks more like it was built specifically for the 4runner than the Frontrunner, following the lines of the roof. Price was barely a factor because ultimately I didn't get into this hobby because I was trying to save a couple hundred bucks.
My wait wasn't as long as some -- was promised 4, received in 6 (this was in March or so). But man, I must have emailed, texted, called and messaged Zach on Facebook a few dozen times during those weeks. His responses were generally actually pretty timely -- usually within 48 hours. And thankfully, it came with all the right parts.
Having spent much of the last few years trying to muster the patience to deal with the discrepancy between promised and actual lead times for all the various accouterment for my ride -- I have come to believe that there is a premium I will gladly pay for immediacy and good communication. I have read enough reviews about Zach/Prinsu to know that my experience was a bit of a unicorn. To be clear, I'm glad I have mine, but if I were to buy another rack today, I'd probably just go right to the Front Runner store and leave a few hours later with the rack on top of the ride. I really am so exhausted by the promised and actual lead time gap of fabricators in this industry. At the time of writing this review, Prinsu's website says "6-8 week lead time on all new orders"; Front Runner Slim Line II is in stock right now. And given my own experience of ordering a Prinsu rack with promised lead time of 4 weeks, but not receiving for about 6; as well as, others on this site who are waiting upwards of 12 weeks -- to be skeptical of "6-8 weeks" would be an understatement. Frankly, I wish fabricators would promise 12-15 weeks, overshooting what they expect, and then surprise me by delivering in less time. There would be so much less anxiety and animosity on both ends.
As to details about the racks: Front Runner has a wide array of neat accessories, many of which won't work without some tweaking with the Prinsu, and some that won't work at all. Frontrunner is readily available, no wait time. Extensive support for the Front Runner -- despite a lot of messages, I never actually got Zach on the phone, whereas Front Runner answered the phone EVERY TIME and were eager to answer questions. The Frontrunner is only about 6.5" shorter in length than Prinsu. Both require drilling to secure front mounts. The top bars of the Front Runner are flush with the side rails, whereas the Prinsu has perhaps a 1/16-1/8" drop from rails to cross bars. Depending on what you're planning to mount to the rack, this might make a difference. I had a Gobi before and for loading building supplies, e.g. boards, plywood, I liked the drop -- same with the Prinsu. But I sold the Gobi because my Alu-Cab RTT calls for square bars and flush connection between rails and bars. A simple enough fix with a couple washers, but another thing to consider in making your choice.
The Prinsu is a thing of beauty. It's a very smartly designed rack. It's solid and efficient. That the Prinsu is a bit lower profile though won't make much of a difference for most people, especially if getting a giant RTT, since they'll be leaving the thing on most of the time anyway. However, I should point out that something that is pretty cool and unique about the Prinsu regarding cross bars. I bought a couple extra cross bars, which I permanently mounted to the Alu-Cab, and a gantry crane for my shop. I'm in the process of set up a hoist system so I can drive my ride into the shop, under the crane, connect the RTT, open up 8 directly accessible bolts, and lift the RTT and awning off the ride, no problem. This is not something that would be as easy with the Front Runner. But again, this whole set-up requires a lot of contingencies that are specific to my circumstances. And in truth, I spend so much of the year using my ride in the wild, I'm not sure when I'll actually even foresee a time to take the RTT off. I like having the option though. Again, another consideration to deliberate.
Both are good racks and have a lot of shared qualities. The disparities ultimately lie in how immediately you need the rack, customer support from manufacturers, accessories, and minor adjustments for application.
Happy to answer any specific questions you have, hopefully this rather long post has been helpful.
