Liz P

I recently purchased a Rhino Roof Rack Backbone Base Rack System ($850+ and installation fee $400). After, I had a Roofnest Falcon tent mounted (140lbs, far below the 220lbs every Rhino Rack description states the rack can handle).
I was only driving 15-20 mph on a gravel road the second day of my trip when the rack broke and my tent went over my windshield. Rhino rack cut corners: only 1 tiny screw with minimal threading and no locking mechanism holds each crossbar base. One of those screws popped out and catapulted my tent over the front of my Jeep. I was left stranded in the desert with no signal. Five men had to spend the day helping with repairs.
Do you trust one tiny screw to keep you safe? In the case of Rhino Rack cutting hardware and design corners, it could’ve killed me or someone else on the road. To earn the name Rhino Rack you should have a tough rack and strong hardware, not cheap plastic and baby screws.










I’ve tried working with Rhino Rack for over a month and suddenly they say this rack can only handle 138lbs while moving, the two extra pounds of my tent (140 lbs) was too much for it, despite every distributer’s description of this rack (Backcountry, Autoanything, even their own Rhino site) lists the racks can handle 220lbs. And I was also told by Rhino Rack’s customer service that I shouldn’t have driven it off road, even though I was going 15-20mph and every description they have on many sites say this rack is for “four-wheel driving” and is a “desert- assault rack” and that their racks are great for rooftop tents. Apparently Rhino Rack expects us to camp on pavement, maybe just pop your tent up in your driveway because it’s not safe to drive with a Rhino Rack.
The moral of this story: your life, your family’s lives, and other people’s lives deserve better than cheap material. There are better options than Rhino Rack, and a lot more companies are more deserving of your business.

akpostal

From the picture it looks like you have the center of the tent forward of the front bar. Thats a fair amount of leverage put on the rear set up.

Ive have the same rack, bars and quick connect feet for 5 years now. My rafts are 100-120 lbs depending on where Im fishing. No issues on or off road but I center the weight between the bars.

saxilo4273

In my set, the bars are totally fine even after so many years.

OffRdnVet

I have had the same Rhino rack backbone system with 3 Bars on my JK for a year now carrying 2 pedal fishing kayaks (about 170lbs combined) to the lakes and rivers around me with zero issues to date. I bought the system specifically for the ability to carry the added weight of the heavier kayaks but also to get a rooftop tent in the future, so to see this kind of failure makes me a bit nervous to say the least. I am going to look over my whole rack system this weekend and see if there is noticeable wear and tear that jumps out at me. Thank you for the post!