Another Rhino Rack Disaster Class, And How I Think You Can Avoid Being Like Me

[No Known Boundaries]

Add another one to the "that sucked" column for Rhino Rack. Using load bars in place of a full replacement rack solution is appealing for a litany of reasons...but it's hardly a perfect solution. I discuss what went wrong, and how I'm approaching these systems moving forward.

 

[WOODY2]

Perhaps using fasteners with a fine thread would help mitigate the loosening issue.

 

[pcstockton]

Whatever. The Ronny vid you mention is one of how HE overloaded things. Rhino rack makes sweet racks. At least the platform with the backbone that is.

 

[pcstockton]

Perhaps using fasteners with a fine thread would help mitigate the loosening issue.

Nylocks

 

[jchasse]

I have no dog in this fight - never owned a Rhino rack product in my life. But people post ******** on forums with no solid backing.

More pics of the rack vs a lot of uncomfortably close-up video of you talking would help here.

What are you suggesting as the failure mode? Perhaps pics of the failed parts that caused your tent to fall off your truck *without you even noticing* would be cool? What actually broke? Tiny plastic "locator" tabs aren't what was holding your tent on your roof.

 

[crazysccrmd]

I didn't watch the video. How often, if ever, did you inspect your mounting hardware? Hard to fault something for loosening up or eventually failing if it's subjected to rough road vibration and no maintenance.

 

[jchasse]

I didn't watch the video. How often, if ever, did you inspect your mounting hardware? Hard to fault something for loosening up or eventually failing if it's subjected to rough road vibration and no maintenance.

this. if the hardware is properly tightened, there'd be zero load on the little plastic nubs the guy is blaming this on.

 

[No Known Boundaries]

I have no dog in this fight - never owned a Rhino rack product in my life. But people post ******** on forums with no solid backing.

More pics of the rack vs a lot of uncomfortably close-up video of you talking would help here.

What are you suggesting as the failure mode? Perhaps pics of the failed parts that caused your tent to fall off your truck *without you even noticing* would be cool? What actually broke? Tiny plastic "locator" tabs aren't what was holding your tent on your roof.

I regularly check my fasteners after each trip (bumping down rock chop, washboards, potholes, etc). Pics of the failed parts are in the video. Chicken and the egg; hard to say whether the nuts that were stripped went first, or whether the tabs ate it and let the nuts shift and strip.

Perhaps using fasteners with a fine thread would help mitigate the loosening issue.

That's certainly something we noticed on the trail. There were all of like four laps of thread. Needless to say, that's not ideal. And part of what got me thinking about deeper, custom nut plates that would have more thread engagement.

 

[No Known Boundaries]

Whatever. The Ronny vid you mention is one of how HE overloaded things. Rhino rack makes sweet racks. At least the platform with the backbone that is.

Correct. I didn't wanna link all three of his videos on the topic. I figured that his origin video was the best jumping off point for inquiring minds. And for the record, I ran a Backbone system on my JKUR successfully for a spell.

this. if the hardware is properly tightened, there'd be zero load on the little plastic nubs the guy is blaming this on.

Afraid that's simply not the case here. Everything was tight and tucked in. Alas.

 

[Inyo_man]

I ran Rhino rack's HD bars (three) on my Montero for over 250k miles of travel/off-highway use and never once had any issues. With a family of four, dog, and camping gear we had the rails under some weight for sure.
When installing the hardware, I used lock-tight.

Cheers

 

[Lemsteraak]

Years ago, Zifer in Italy developed the "universal" mount system that most all roof tents use today. It is a system and we would bring the sport bar manufacturers into the mix. It was developed with Thule in Europe. Here in the states we would work with Yakima, who didn't like the idea of roof tents at all and didn't test their bars with our tents. That left us on our own when we recommended Yakima, so there were certain applications like on Subarus where we would go with Yakima as their system was superior. We didn't recommend Yakima gutter mounts, because the plastic wouldn't take impacts well. Hummer tested them and we did have some that broke. I don't remember it being a safety issue, just a product issue.

That being said, we did our own crash testing independent of AutoHome in Italy. We had a firm in Livonia MI contracted to see how the universal mount system handled impacts. On two 45 mph simulated crashes, the mounts would slide 2 inches, which was a "pass" and the system was certified as OEM by one of the Detroit manufacturers.

Turns out, the controlled slide is very important as it seems to take up a lot of the energy. One of my best friends was rear ended while coming back from a Mexico expedition. He was doing 55 as he was towing a trailer and rear ended by a vehicle doing an estimated 100 mph. Again, the tent and mounts slid 2 inches back and the tent was the only thing that wasn't totaled by the insurance company.

I would bring the roof tent representative into the mix and see how their experience has been with your roof bar system. If you are having trouble with your mounting system on the trail, that doesn't bode well if you are in an accident. Then again, take what I say with a grain of salt as I am going back to the development day of roof tents, things are different and the manufacturer you are upset with didn't exist so I have absolutely no information there.

 

[No Known Boundaries]

Years ago, Zifer in Italy developed the "universal" mount system that most all roof tents use today. It is a system and we would bring the sport bar manufacturers into the mix. It was developed with Thule in Europe. Here in the states we would work with Yakima, who didn't like the idea of roof tents at all and didn't test their bars with our tents. That left us on our own when we recommended Yakima, so there were certain applications like on Subarus where we would go with Yakima as their system was superior. We didn't recommend Yakima gutter mounts, because the plastic wouldn't take impacts well. Hummer tested them and we did have some that broke. I don't remember it being a safety issue, just a product issue.

That being said, we did our own crash testing independent of AutoHome in Italy. We had a firm in Livonia MI contracted to see how the universal mount system handled impacts. On two 45 mph simulated crashes, the mounts would slide 2 inches, which was a "pass" and the system was certified as OEM by one of the Detroit manufacturers.

Turns out, the controlled slide is very important as it seems to take up a lot of the energy. One of my best friends was rear ended while coming back from a Mexico expedition. He was doing 55 as he was towing a trailer and rear ended by a vehicle doing an estimated 100 mph. Again, the tent and mounts slid 2 inches back and the tent was the only thing that wasn't totaled by the insurance company.

I would bring the roof tent representative into the mix and see how their experience has been with your roof bar system. If you are having trouble with your mounting system on the trail, that doesn't bode well if you are in an accident. Then again, take what I say with a grain of salt as I am going back to the development day of roof tents, things are different and the manufacturer you are upset with didn't exist so I have absolutely no information there.

This is fascinating insight. Thank you. And it raises an excellent point with regards to crash danger.

 

[ChasingOurTrunks]

Add another one to the "that sucked" column for Rhino Rack. Using load bars in place of a full replacement rack solution is appealing for a litany of reasons...but it's hardly a perfect solution. I discuss what went wrong, and how I'm approaching these systems moving forward.

Grateful for you sharing your experience. When we buy equipment from any vendor, it comes with some expectations, and when those aren't met it takes someone posting up their experience to teach others with that same equipment what to look out for on their own kit.

I like the "one is none and two is one" approach to critical fasteners. If the Rhino design had two bolts instead of one, you may have had a different outcome, but the single bolt with locating tabs is mitigatable design risk. I can see an argument being that "it's better that bolt fail than transfer energy into the vehicle" in some cases, but I think folks tend to underestimate the force that goes into this equipment especially when off-road at speed.

Thanks for sharing your experience NKB.

 

[TwinStick]

Sometimes, you just need to wait until the 2.0 version or even a 3.0 version. Sad but true.

Blue loctite maybe would help.

 

[shoredreamer]

It looks like it may be a parts choice and install error. From what I see you had RCL legs onto a truck cap track system. RCL legs are the incorrect leg to use with a track system. Whoever sold and installed those did it wrong. You need RLT600 or RLTP legs which use 2 bolts per leg. Also, the hardware is missing a spring washer and loctite to prevent loosening.