SmittybiltSRC ROOF RACK - SB76713

Delivered in a day! For the lowest price rack out there I didn't have my hopes up. I was very happily surprised when I tried to move the box. It has to weigh over 100 Lbs. The box was not damaged in any way. The packing was over the top. Every piece was bubble wrapped and the ends had extra padding too. The wrinkle paint/powder coating was great and looks very thick. The instructions are very helpful and the note about elongating the lower rear bracket holes was just right. Total time was about 4 hours. If you don't have to go to store for drill bit and let dogs out 3 times, total wrench time is about 2 hours! I did piece all parts together before tightening to check for fit.Note: I installed the entire rack myself and used the supplied allen wrench to hold the lower door backing plate in place to start the screw by pushing it through the top hole and bracing the angle to put pressure on the plate.PS: Never could figure out which sticky padding went where, but I made it work.

Bought this for my 2002 Jeep Wrangler X. It's a bit time consuming to install, but once on it looks great. I still have the factory bumber and just cut the end caps so that I could reinstall them after the rack was on. Major downside, which was to be expected, was the additional road noise it causes. Installed my kayak rack to it and amazingly enough the road noise went away. Can't beat the price and quality.

I needed a quality Jeep rack to transport an 11.5 foot kayak cross-country, from Los Angeles, CA to Northern Virginia (3000 miles along Interstate 40). Please note this review is only for hardtop-only travel. I have not tried it with my soft top, bikini top, or toplesss....yet. I will update my review when the time comes to cover crossbar removal for hard top removal for summer. NOTE: I did add 60" width pool noodles for crossbar padding, they do NOT come with the Smitty kit.PROS: Quality, heavy piping on the upright supports...and stays put if you maintain it (check your bolts and tighten if necessary). Despite the cons, did what I needed it to do: transported my Kayak across the country through heavy winds, rain, and snow at speeds up to 70MPH on a 21-year old Jeep Wrangler TJ with the aerodynamics of a brick. The bars sound like a choir of meditating monks at speed, but I don't drive a Jeep for a quiet cabin experience anyway. The rack did not make any rattling noises when the bolts were properly tightened. It was pretty solid.CONS:INSTALLATION: Reading reviews here prior to purchase, I paid for the Amazon "professional installation" and got it installed in around four hours. I have custom front and rear bumpers on my TJ, so I didn't have to worry about the cutting necessary with the stock rear bumper. Still, the installer had to drill new holes in the main tubes to get this to fit my jeep.FIT AND FINISH: Absolutely horrible for a Smittybilt product. Check out my third photo, the detail where the cross-bar connects to the main tubes. Horrible. If someone wants to chime in and tell me this was installed incorrectly I will update the review. The powder coat is pretty thin as well. I don't mind tightening bolts along the way (I did it only twice across 3000 miles during high winds).CROSSBAR THICKNESS: I would NOT trust these crossbars to hold a couple of hundred pounds. They are just too thin compared to the rest of the rack.OVERALL: A good purchase, but given the quality of the fit, custom installation requirements and questionable load capacity, this thing should cost $150 less.A NOTE ON FUEL ECONOMY: As someone that meticulously tracks fuel economy, this rack costs me 1MPG at the MOST. Shifting at 2K RPM (shift-light) I still manage 14MPG (woo-hoo!) with a hardtop, 4" lift and 33" BFG tires.

So.. what they don't tell you is that you will likely need to grind about a 1/4 inch on each side of you rear bumper if you are using the stock TJ bumper to get the bumper bolts to line up. Also, they do tell you that if you are using the stock bumper you will have to widen the drilled holes for the pipes connecting to the rear bumper. Not sure who's idea it was to make the hole too small so that it doesn't fit the stock rear bumper out of the box. Frankly if the company made the holes the right size for the stock bumper, they would also fit after-market bumpers. Poor planning on their part and worth deducting one star. Also, if you have a stock bumper you cannot reinstall the bumper caps. They tell you this in the instructions which buy the way are also pretty poor with poor photos and ambiguous instructions. So with the above issues (needing to grind both sides of the bumper and ream out the holes on the rear pipes that connect to the bumper and poor instructions it took two very handy people about 3 hours to install. The rack supports and rack rails are sturdy and painted well. They are really very heavy duty and will last. Now part 2. After installing the roof rack, the wind noise created by the front top rails (one of 3 rails that go side to side on top) was unbearable. As soon as I hit 35mph I could hear it. At 70mph it is so loud that you can't even hear your passenger if they are yelling at you let alone the radio at full blast. I mean to tell you with a soft top on the Jeep, it is extremely loud and I can't imagine that anyone would put up with it for long. The solution was to buy a roof rack spoiler for about $70 that straps to the front rail with provided hose clamps. The roof rack spoiler tilted at about 45 degrees worked like magic. No extra noise at all until I reached 70mph. The I could hear some noise but well worth the investment. They sell them here on Amazon.In short. 1. Not easy to install unless maybe you have an after-market rear bumper and the fit is better. Deduct one star because the Manufacturer doesn't make it work out of the box. Shame on them...2. Get a spoiler for the front rail. It will keep you from going insane from the noise. Expect to spend at least $70 additional to be happy.3. Minus the above, these are good quality racks that look good, function well, and have good paint on them. I am happy overall.