Gobi racks?

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Boppa's Travels

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Looking at racks for my JKU. I really don't like the ideal of drilling holes in my hardtop. What is the consensus from the Overland Bound community?
 

J.W.

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Gobi makes some good gear. If you can handle the wait and the price tag, go for it.

I ordered a ladder for my Jeep last June. Still waiting for it.
 
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Boppa's Travels

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Gobi makes some good gear. If you can handle the wait and the price tag, go for it.

I ordered a ladder for my Jeep last June. Still waiting for it.
I see that have a deal where you get the passenger side ladder and backpack.
 

USStrongman

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Gobi and Garvin racks are pretty similar, but Gobi racks are slightly more expensive and have a LONG lead time. Depending on the bumper oyu ahve, you will ahve to drill holes in the tub to mount the back legs. My AEV bumper for instance requires the Gobi and Garvin to be drilled about 4" above the bumper into the tub as there is no way to pass through the bumper to mount ot the frame.

I like the Front Runner system, but again, serious bank.

Drilling through the roof has not been an issue with many of the racks that utilize tha mounting method. Pretty fool proof.

Depending on what you use the rack for... you can always use a rear window hinge/gutter mount rack. Many people say its not strong enough to hold a rack. BS. In the 4 years I ahve had one, I ahve never, ever seen a picture of a failed gutter.
 
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Boppa's Travels

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Explorer I

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Corsicana, TX, USA
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Rich
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Gobi and Garvin racks are pretty similar, but Gobi racks are slightly more expensive and have a LONG lead time. Depending on the bumper oyu ahve, you will ahve to drill holes in the tub to mount the back legs. My AEV bumper for instance requires the Gobi and Garvin to be drilled about 4" above the bumper into the tub as there is no way to pass through the bumper to mount ot the frame.

I like the Front Runner system, but again, serious bank.

Drilling through the roof has not been an issue with many of the racks that utilize tha mounting method. Pretty fool proof.

Depending on what you use the rack for... you can always use a rear window hinge/gutter mount rack. Many people say its not strong enough to hold a rack. BS. In the 4 years I ahve had one, I ahve never, ever seen a picture of a failed gutter.
By what I have seen in person and on video, I understand the drilling part be fool proof but dang it hard to get my mental block of drilling into the rood or body for that manner. I would either close my eyes and drill or give to someone so I don't have to watch.
 
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GKSJeep

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Gobi and Garvin racks are pretty similar, but Gobi racks are slightly more expensive and have a LONG lead time. Depending on the bumper oyu ahve, you will ahve to drill holes in the tub to mount the back legs. My AEV bumper for instance requires the Gobi and Garvin to be drilled about 4" above the bumper into the tub as there is no way to pass through the bumper to mount ot the frame.

I like the Front Runner system, but again, serious bank.

Drilling through the roof has not been an issue with many of the racks that utilize tha mounting method. Pretty fool proof.

Depending on what you use the rack for... you can always use a rear window hinge/gutter mount rack. Many people say its not strong enough to hold a rack. BS. In the 4 years I ahve had one, I ahve never, ever seen a picture of a failed gutter.
Are you using the Garvin Adventure half rack? If so are you using it for a RTT?

I have been researching racks and for a while I have been eyeing the Garvin Adventure Half Rack and they do have a nice weight rating. Same as their full Adventure rack. However when I contacted Garvin regarding the half rack and mounting points on the gutters...he neglected to answer the question in regards to the gutters and a holding an RTT(He did answer my other questions however). Also a few resellers recommended going with their full rack or the Gobi for a RTT over the Garvin Half Rack.
 

GKSJeep

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I have a stealth Gobi with a Smittybuilt Overlander XL on it. It spans the roof. It's great.
Ah cool. I have not found a single person hate on their Gobi rack. The only downside is the lead time to get one. I posted a thread on another forum in regards to Gobi, Garvin and Rhino, only the Gobi people responded...

How noticeable is the drive with the Gobi rack vs without the rack?
 

J3anvil

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I hear it takes some time to “tune” the wind adjustment. I scoured Craigslist and found mine. Once tuned, the noise isn’t that bad. With the RTT, I didn’t notice any more. You may find a rack nearby that is assembled and tuned like I did. Its usually folks moving up to an over landing trailer.
 

Senor Mule

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Fred
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Schepp
I have a Gobi Stealth rack with 2 ladders and front inserts, 50" light kit , 40" light kit, My vehicle is a 2018 Jeep Rubicon Recon JKU.
I tried to order it for 3 months when I first got my jeep in 2018, they never responded back in that time. I found one new in box in Texas from a family that had ordered it almost a year prior for their Jeep JKU , Their issue was it took too long (7 months) to arrive and at that point they sold the jeep 2 months prior to it arriving, the company would never respond on when it would arrive. My Background is Metallurgy, Welding (from an engineering perspective, and process design, as well as being a hyperbaric and underwater welder over 20 years, AWS certified Welding Inspector) and a Level 3 NACE (National Association of Corrosion Engineers) coating inspector. So what I have have to say is sound, and not just a "this sucks" opinion , but from a knowledgeable standpoint of working with material, welding and coatings for over 35 years experience . I will rate 1 - 10 (10 being highest)

Welding - on the Gobi Rack, I found 5 lack of fusions, 6 pinholes and about 12 excessive reinforcement on fillet welds. 20 undercuts, no cleanup (spatter, cold laps). NO consistency in weld size! Welding on a scale of 1 - 10 in quality, I would rate a 3 . I work in a very large ASME Pressure Vessel Manufacturer, and if my welders did this type type of work, they would be fired.

Surface Preparation - only a sweep blast present (NACE 4 / SSPC SP7 Brush Off Blast) - Inadequate or missing blast profile , only 1 mil surface prep by what appears to be garnet. Very Shoddy Labor - 2 of 10 (they did actually blast the front compartment covers)

Coating - standard powder coating - really hard to screw up , basically spray it with a gun and bake it. They did a a pretty good job on it , not great but decent. BUT if there is no surface roughness from prep and nothing to hold it the metal, it falls off. So Coating job is 7/10, but actual coating system I would rate a 4/10.

Materials, I haven't thickness gauged the material on the 1 1/4 (it think) tubing that makes up the rack, but for the price they could have built it with 1" x 1/4" thickness , but the thickness I estimate to be somewhere near .035 inch - essentially electrical conduit. If there are any questions, I can guage the material with NIST calibrated equipment, except it's 2am and my neighbors tire from me doing these odd sort of things like this on a constant basis.
The grate is expanded metal, nothing more, same as you get at Home Depot.

Fixtures - on the 50" light bar - you cannot mount a curved 50" , you can't mount a lot of the 50" straight bars. plus the bracket vibrates against the front guard bar when driving - bad design.
the 40 " brackets can be mounted on the back and will allow a rear 30" light bar to be mounted (with a few washers) for a rear light vs. taking space on a garage shelf, plus is great for tailgaters (both the fun kind and driving kind)

Rack Supports - rack supports (adjustable) on rear of cab are essentially useless, although I have adjusted them 1000s of times, the vehicle torques on terrain and it is out of adjustment in a few minutes, the adjusters are cheap quality
Would I trust it as built to support 800 lbs static load - no, it flexes which my 190 lbs on top. Design rating to actual product capacity is always completely different - ask any engineer.

Insulator at a pillar Riser, Insulators for Adjusters on cab - All these gummi type insulators have washed out and were ineffective after 1 year, My advice to gobi would be using a closed cell pre compressed neoprene with a good 3M adhesive non solvent based backing (paint safe).

Wind noise = not too bad, queiter than a straight 50" bar, the deflector they give you is cheap thin metal that flexes when installed, You can get a thicker material and use the deflector as a template to make one that actually works. Rating 5/10

Unanswered questions from Gobi - Like bumper compatibility - I want to add a smittytbilt Atlas with rear tire carrier on , will it fit? I been waiting on an answer since Oct 2018.
Customer service - Rate 1/10 - I don't see how they stay in business.
Actual Value for Money = 4/10 , aesthetically looks nice, just low end materials

If a Gobi Rep would care to dispute this, I will be more than happy to drive the 600 miles one way and dispute this face to face, providing they correct all the issues on site , plus they can answer the the simple bumper questions I asked over 3 years ago. :)

Would I buy another rack or recommend one - NO. My sons both have Jeeps and naturally think all of Dad's rig decisions must be right, but I had to discourage them by showing them the issues.

There are many racks out there, and there are some small shops with a lot of talent as well, Main thing is to read the reviews on product and most importantly customer service. If it has good reviews but excellent customer service, that would be the one I settle for.

Later this year I am going to buy the Smittybilt atlas rear bumper (which is kind of shoddy due to lack of stiffeners and only skip welded ) - I will make the corrections, and see if it bolts up with the Gobi Rack, otherwise I will must likely just scrap the rack and get something else or design my own and fabricate it.

I would like to add, for Aesthetic purposes - the Gobi Rack is one of the nicer looking racks , I would rate the looks a solid 9/10

Thank you for taking the time to read my review, I tried to rate this rack as honestly as possible from a technical standpoint

Senor Mule
 
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Rids93

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Gobi sucks at customer service! Good luck getting any response when making a complaint.