I had planned to order with the factory roof rack, but after seeing that frontrunner has announced a rack, I'm considering that one instead. Is there any benefit to getting the factory one? I assume that the myriad of accessories that frontrunner has wouldn't be directly compatible with the one from LR, but i'm not sure if there is a standard or not. Thanks for any insight.
2020 Defender factory vs frontrunner roof rack
- Thread starter jaydoc14
- Start date
soflorovers
Well-known member
Benefit to getting the factory one is that it comes with the vehicle already and it can probably be residualized in your lease (if applicable) or included in your monthly finance payment. Otherwise, I'm not sure. I'm assuming LR accessories aren't compatible with Frontrunner and vice versa. I'd pick the one you prefer, but the LR one will likely be more popular due to the ease of availability. No need to find an FR vendor and then ship it and install it. The LR one will already come on the vehicle is my guess.
JackW
Explorer
The factory rack doesn't mask the satellite radio antenna, it looks like frontrunner one doesn't have the notch at the trailing edge to keep the antenna exposed.
A friend of mine has a frontrunner rack on his LR3, there are a couple of small details about the rack that he doesn't like. The tables that slide in under the rack get stuck easily and aren't the greatest quality. I'd go for the factory rack or see what Hannibal comes up with.
A friend of mine has a frontrunner rack on his LR3, there are a couple of small details about the rack that he doesn't like. The tables that slide in under the rack get stuck easily and aren't the greatest quality. I'd go for the factory rack or see what Hannibal comes up with.
krick3tt
Adventurer
don't really know much about the stock already on the LR much but a friend that has one constantly complained about the fasteners that hold it together (some sort of pop rivet things) loosened up and made the thing rattle all the time. I have the FR full length rack and have not noticed any interference with the shark fin. I have purchased FR accessories to hold things but discovered I could fabricate better things to go on the rack and buy bolts and the eyebolts at my local metric nut and bolt store for far less than from FR.
I had used some petrol can holders from Baja Rack that did require drilling holes to better align with the FR tracks.
My only issue with the FR rack is that the slots in the bars are perpendicular to the wind and created noise above 35 mph that was quite annoying till I made a wind faring to force the wind over them. FR now sells a similar faring that mounts on the front to alleviate this issue.
The FR cross pieces can be mounted closer together to form a more solid platform as the stock LR rack is not able do. To create a more substantial surface one must add some type of additional surface to accomplish this.
Do not have a slide away table as I believe it may interfere with the shark fin (as friends that have one have told me) and the latch mechanism is a bit unreliable, both inserting and removing the table. I already had collapsable tables from a previous camping gear stash.
I had used some petrol can holders from Baja Rack that did require drilling holes to better align with the FR tracks.
My only issue with the FR rack is that the slots in the bars are perpendicular to the wind and created noise above 35 mph that was quite annoying till I made a wind faring to force the wind over them. FR now sells a similar faring that mounts on the front to alleviate this issue.
The FR cross pieces can be mounted closer together to form a more solid platform as the stock LR rack is not able do. To create a more substantial surface one must add some type of additional surface to accomplish this.
Do not have a slide away table as I believe it may interfere with the shark fin (as friends that have one have told me) and the latch mechanism is a bit unreliable, both inserting and removing the table. I already had collapsable tables from a previous camping gear stash.