Thread: Any thoughts about this roof rack.

For that money it looks very good. even if the welds are crap, you could get it rewelded for a couple of hundred.
It is very heavy at 48Kg but because of that should be strong. Doesn't leave much for load though.
The quality of powder coat could be suss , but then even baja racks were not particularly well powder coated at times.
Also check the warranty against rust as well as damage

Regards Philip A

I picked up one of these in late December last year. A 1/2 rack, full cage for my D2. For the money its ok, but yeah, it's not the greatest build quality. In hindsight I should have spent a bit more and got something better. Saying that, we were away for two weeks with a large space case and a couple of swags on it and it held up fine.

Specifically, the welds were pretty poor, to the extend that one point simply wasn't welded at all. Luckily it seemed in a non critical position. The powder coating was pretty smooth only a couple of patchy bits. The gutter mounting hardware is pretty slapped together. All the bends are more folds, than nice smooth corners like on a better rack. I filed down some areas so it didn't cut into the gutter plastic. Though, the way the mounts are designed allowed me to cut them down 4cm in height to get a much lower profile. No sunroof means i don't need much clearance.

If you're handy, and potentially have a welder the price is hard to beat. Also, there are two types of sticker they put on the rack. You'll end up with one of the two. Both say Kaiser Engineering, but one has a photo of an angry tiger running through the snow. The other just has their contact details. I got the boring one, so I removed it.

Thanks for the feedback guys.. Maybe I should just go with the ARB racks. They are just over a thousand fitted, but at least they should last the distance.

Can def re ommend the ARB steel racks, had mine on for 4 years, heavy loads, lots of long distance touring and hard 4wding..worth the extra money.

Looks very similar in build to mine which I originally bought to go onto a D1/2. Cut it down to go onto the Defender dual cab. It was then I found out why it weighed so much. Very well made, but I paid about $800 for mine about 3-4 years ago.

I paid $1300 for the Land Rover roof cage. Great design but powder coat was crap, the thing is rusting inside and out and leaching rust all over my roof and staining it. I am taking it off and getting it powder coated properly. Its not even 6 months old.

That looks ok for the money.

I paid $1300 for the Land Rover roof cage. Great design but powder coat was
crap, the thing is rusting inside and out and leaching rust all over my roof and
staining it. I am taking it off and getting it powder coated properly. Its not
even 6 months old.

You should go for warranty and have the supplier pay for re powder coating.

Rusting after 6 months is unacceptable and they won't improve unless you go them ,particularly on a $1300 roof rack.
Regards Philip A

But how much was the freight on top of that? The original price looks good enough. Wonder if they do them for RRC. I was in the market for one but hopefully now guying one from a fellow forum member. Much better idea