Im about to buy a roofrack for my 90 prior to overlanding.
Short List of Racks so far: Patriot - Aluminium, bolted construction Hannibal - Aluminium, welded construction G4 Style - Steel, welded construction
Question is which are best? As I see it the aluminium racks are lighter and therefore allow more "luggage weight". BUT aluminium welds don't flex and will fatigue / crack before a steel one will. Also aluminum wont rust. That sort of leaves the Patriot out in front, but do bolts work / vibrate loose?
Perhaps theyre all as good as each other??? Or perhaps a bottle of loctite and an allen key inside the vehicle makes the Patriot "best"??
If a welded one does 'go' then you need it welding to fix it. If a bolt shears you just need a new bolt. IMHO roofracks need a certain amount of 'give', they withstand pretty strange forces and loads sometimes.
I'd agree with that ... plus a supply of extra bolts and nyloc nuts.
I've seen a short Patriot on a friends Discovery and they look and feel the business, sturdy, well-constructed and seemingly able to withstand beig forced through bushes and trees/shrubberies with no apparent ill-effects. ;) Mind, I've also seen some pretty stringly constructed welded racks too ...
I think the Hanibal is a South african Affiar, and I am sure that they are well loaded up here and usually used on very rough roads.
I have not heard of any of these packing up here and I doubt you will use them harder than they are used here. I would avoid steel ones like the plague as they are overweight and prone to rust.
They will take about twenty years to have a serios rust problem though, mine is well rusted through in parts but there is still enough of it to hold together.
I have a patriot rack on my 90. I was looking for an adaptable rack which I could initially use as a completely flat load bed. So the patriot was the only option really. That and the useful option of the rear loading roller persuaded me to order one last year.
However following my experience with the company, I would most strongly recommend AGAINST having the rack assembled and fitted by the company - like I did :o(
Much better to buy it flat packed and assemble and fit it yourself.
I would also strongly suggest that if you have any specific suitability queries to put to the staff regarding their racks, DO IT IN WRITING and make sure that anything they tell you is confirmed in writing.
Why?
Because although the product is of basically good quality and well designed, mine was sloppily assembled and unknown to me was fitted and left with many extremely sharp edges at the front which inflicted some quite significant damage to a canoe which was the first thing I happened to carry on the rack.
I was not a happy bunny! So I phoned the company to complain only to be told the boss wasn't in and they would phone back after speaking to him.
No return call!
So I wrote to them asking what they were prepared to do by way of rectifying the fault.
Letter ignored!
So I emailed with pictures of the offending areas attached.
Ignored!
So I wrote again saying the product was unfit for purpose and I would be pursuing the possibility of rejecting the rack for a full refund on those grounds, as they hadn't offered to make any attempt to rectify the fault.
Their reply to this was a very acid and stroppy letter basically denying any knowledge of the lengthy conversation I had had with them prior to my order in which I made it very clear that the canoe would be the main cargo on the rack. Obviously being only verbal, I cannot prove that I had the conversation if they chose to lie about it. Hence my recommendation to get anything specific in writing.
In the end, the company refused to respond any further, and I was left with two possibilities:-
1 Take them to court, and if successful, get a refund and lose the rack(except that in all other respects the rack is exactly the design that I wanted).
2 Forget about getting any satisfaction from Patriot racks, and disassemble and rebuild the rack PROPERLY.
I chose the latter as I really could not be without a rack, but it's left a bitter taste regarding Hogarth engineering, and I would not deal with them again!
With hind-sight, I'd have assembled the rack myself from the start and avoided this - BE WARNED!
Hmmm.....Interesting to learn that about no longer offering the racks assembled and fitted! That's almost an admission of their inability to assemble their own product in a quality controlled manner. However I'm sure they would never admit that. :o)
That result has to be to the benefit of the customer though. I would still maintain that it is the best rack on the market in terms of versatility.
MotorsForum website is not affiliated with any of the manufacturers or service providers discussed here.
All logos and trade names are the property of their respective owners.