Sherpa Equipment Company Rack Systems
- Thread starter Flemster
- Start date
tx_shooter
New member
Anyone else having issues with the rubber pads not staying put? One week in the Texas heat and they are not sticking anymore.
Flemster
Member
Anyone else having issues with the rubber pads not staying put? One week in the Texas heat and they are not sticking anymore.
Shoot us an email, we would like to chat. The high heat areas are having issues with this and we are working hard on a solution.
[email protected]
tx_shooter
New member
Email sent. Hopefully I can get some dry weather this week to get that rust cleaned up and repainted before it becomes a bigger problem.
I have had the same problem. The problem is not with the adhesive of the rubber pad on the bottom of the foot but more so with the fact that the front of the rack will shake side to side which then eventually wiggles the rubber pad off of the foot bottom. I ran a piece of 3/4 in. x 36 in. aluminum angle at 1/8 in. thick. Here is a crude diagram with some explanation. Design flaw maybe but oversight for sure.
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tx_shooter
New member
I was thinking really close along the same lines. I did not have the problems until I did some off roading this last weekend. I got into some good flex areas with some weight transfers. The rack only had some Tred Pro boards on the front but apparently that was not enough to hold the rack down.
IMO the sides are on the thin side. I can flex the sides by pulling on them. Either they need a brace ran the length of them - thinking a 1/8" thick piece of 3/4" aluminum angle ran from front to rear or thicker material. Weight savings is great but if it damages my rig it isn't worth it. If the sides are reinforced where they do not deflect up/down and side/side then an additional cross brace should not be necessary. But as it is right now the sides are a significant weak point.
*just priced 3/4"x 3/4" angle 1/8" thick and it is a little over a dollar a foot. Looks like I will be doing this sometime before Thanksgiving when I go to Big Bend with my RTT. As much as I have into this rack already a couple pieces of angle and some rivets are not much more. Will check with an engineer friend of mine before moving forward though. I suspect 1/2" angle will do more than I am looking for and is $13 for a 16' stick.
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tx_shooter
New member
Did I miss the memo in this thread about high heat areas ending up with paint/body damage from this issue? Currently on the pissed off side with the rack and its issues considering how much it cost. The cost is comparable to a Prinsu rack and the delivered product is not comparable. I appreciate you are a small business but this is an issue that needs to be addressed if you intend to be a long term business.
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Flemster
Member
I want to address this issue as best I can. I have had 3 complaints about losing front feet pads out of over 200 customers. All in high heat areas (from what I can tell). The mention of the rack wiggling worries me about the install and maybe that we need to make our instructions more clear. With proper pressure on the front feet, the rack is and should be solid. This will hopefully be addressed in an installation video down the road. To mention the side thickness, we use 1/4" 5000 series aluminum, we are switching to a 6000 series for more strength. 1/4" is overkill in this application but we like overkill. My rack has been on my roof 3 years (except for short exceptions for testing the Antero, and currently for powder coat) Never had this issue except under extreme scenarios for testing purposes. I'm to believe that the heat is helping to cause this issue, as well as improper pressure, or a combination of both. We are working hard on a solution and are happy to send our solution to those that are having issues.
Ill will update shortly once I am free from school
Ill will update shortly once I am free from school
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derpiful
New member
To add- my front feet are still holding up really strong. With how they're setup, the rack honestly feels pretty close to being bolted down in the front. When I push side-to-side at the front handle, it shakes the whole car and has minimal deflection. Additionally, the rubber on mine is still perfect. Like Alex said, we're looking into a solution to figure out why those 3 feet have been having issues.
tx_shooter
New member
Texas does get warm with summers going over 100 degrees pretty easy. But as for improper install of the sides; pretty simple to bolt sides to crossbars. It is a really simple design.
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Flemster
Member
We are referring to an improper pressure of the front feet. Possibly due to too little pressure resulting in access movement "rattle" you were hearing prior to the metal on metal contact. My rack makes zero noise on even extreme washboard unless I have the tent attached in which cause some may be present but it is not from the front of the rack moving. This could be due to lack of explanation on our instructions which we are going to look into. This is not something we are going to brush aside either. We are working on a solution and are happy to provide all that have had problems with this our solution. We are going to make a short video to post here as well as use in an installation video in regards to the front feet to clear up any and all confusion.
To add, our original test set with these feet on Will's 4runner are not even glued and have yet to fall off. Is this possibly a rare case.. sure. Just shedding light on where we are coming from and how we are looking at this issue.
On the note about our side plates, 1/4" aluminum is about as thick as possible within reason. Prinsu uses 3/16" side plates, so in comparison, we are going overkill. We don't see the need for any support along the front like you have mentioned. This isn't to say that it wont make your rack more sturdy, it will, and it may help resolve your issue. With proper pressure on the front feet, you should have no issue without having to add the aluminum angle iron.
As mentioned above we are working on switching from a 5052 Aluminum on our side plates to a 6061. This is due to us receiving unusable rack side plates from our waterjet supplier that arrive warped beyond acceptable use. This is due to the manufacturing process of the metal. Yes, 6000 series is stronger, especially when not used for bending etc, but it is not the cause of your deflection up front, nor would it fix the aluminum from being prone to deflection side to side.
Overall, what I'm trying to say is that I think the feet may have been too loose on the racks that have had issues, and I think an easy solution until we find an adhesive that holds much stronger is to be sure that the pressure on the front feet is adequate to stop access movement at the front of the rack.
We also would like to apologize to anyone that has had this issue due to lack of clarity on our end, and if anyone else has experienced this we would love to hear about it here, or over email. Again we love feedback from our customers and its the only way to grow and develop our product.
Thank you for all your support as we work hard to create the best roof rack for our beloved 3rd Gen 4Runners.
Bijan
New member
Id love to be a guinea pig
Flemster
Member
You gotta come up and check out the shop! Maybe wheel west of Foco.
Flemster
Member
Here is an example of what it should be like and how it is designed to be. The only reason the feet is coming up off the roof is due to pushing up on the rack, under normal use it doesn't budge.
Courtesy of [MENTION=107971]derpiful[/MENTION]
<a data-flickr-embed="true" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/140899154@N02/43609794735/in/dateposted/" title="Untitled"><img src="https://farm2.staticflickr.com/1847/43609794735_0926e58d71_b.jpg" width="1024" height="576" alt="Untitled"></a><script async src="//embedr.flickr.com/assets/client-code.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
Courtesy of [MENTION=107971]derpiful[/MENTION]
<a data-flickr-embed="true" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/140899154@N02/43609794735/in/dateposted/" title="Untitled"><img src="https://farm2.staticflickr.com/1847/43609794735_0926e58d71_b.jpg" width="1024" height="576" alt="Untitled"></a><script async src="//embedr.flickr.com/assets/client-code.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
tx_shooter
New member
When I set the feet I lifted up on the front of the rack and adjusted the legs as far down as I could by hand and then used a wrench for another full twist. But yes - better directions would be nice.
Tyler James Inc
Senior Member
Wait, so the video of the rack coming off the body, then back onto the body- and deflecting the skin- is showing proper adjustment? It appears the foot isn't positioned on a very supported part of the roof.
If this is an adjustment issue, do you believe the failed pads were from having even less pressure than the foot in the video?? Judging by the marred paint, I have a hard time believing there was a lack of pressure on the foot.
If this is an adjustment issue, do you believe the failed pads were from having even less pressure than the foot in the video?? Judging by the marred paint, I have a hard time believing there was a lack of pressure on the foot.
MarkamisPrime
New member
Rocky MTN Full Length Roofrack
Instructions? There’s instructions???
I have put my full weight in the very front of the rack. I and others have lifted ourselves up onto my sliders using the front of the rack. I’ve even pulled myself up through my sunroof using the rack. I am 6’2 220lbs.
My front feet are only hand tight no extra turns just hand tight so the rubber is barley squished.
It does get hot here where I am at also. Maybe not as hot as Texas but 100 degree range for sure.
I’ve never had any rattling of movement issues with the updated feet.
Sounds to me like it could be operator error/bad install, especially since it’s only 3 of 200 but i mean nothing is perfect.
Instructions? There’s instructions???
I have put my full weight in the very front of the rack. I and others have lifted ourselves up onto my sliders using the front of the rack. I’ve even pulled myself up through my sunroof using the rack. I am 6’2 220lbs.
My front feet are only hand tight no extra turns just hand tight so the rubber is barley squished.
It does get hot here where I am at also. Maybe not as hot as Texas but 100 degree range for sure.
I’ve never had any rattling of movement issues with the updated feet.
Sounds to me like it could be operator error/bad install, especially since it’s only 3 of 200 but i mean nothing is perfect.
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derpiful
New member
Yes. I can stand on just the front crossbar, and the roof will bow a little bit. In the video I'm pulling down and pushing up on the rack, which is why it bows. To get it to do that less would mean drilling into the roof, which we want to avoid. However, the back will do the same if you put weight on it and watch closely. The 3rd gen roofs are just suuuper weak.
Still not sure about the front feet- again, it could either be the install or the heat, or both. Or even something else. We're doing extra testing to try and figure out what happened!
There are, haha! Glad to hear yours are working out.
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Atomic6
New member
This is one big reason I extended my factory rails all the way to the front. I now have a much better contact area with no deflection for when I either build a rack or buy an RMRacks rack.
Flemster
Member
Here is a clip that shows just how weak the 4runner roof is. This is why we plan to make some kind of roof reinforcement kit when time permits. They just are not made to support lots of weight. Thinking of doing some kind of skeleton above the headliner as well as bypass stock rooftracks.
<a data-flickr-embed="true" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/140899154@N02/44538623591/in/dateposted/" title="Untitled"><img src="https://farm2.staticflickr.com/1875/44538623591_4a5acc5de5_b.jpg" width="1024" height="576" alt="Untitled"></a><script async src="//embedr.flickr.com/assets/client-code.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
<a data-flickr-embed="true" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/140899154@N02/44538623591/in/dateposted/" title="Untitled"><img src="https://farm2.staticflickr.com/1875/44538623591_4a5acc5de5_b.jpg" width="1024" height="576" alt="Untitled"></a><script async src="//embedr.flickr.com/assets/client-code.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
